Debate regarding appropriate instructional practices for linguistically and culturally diverse students led to a study of a bilingual Latina teacher's third-grade writing workshop. Qualitative research methods were used to provide a rich description of context, instruction, and participation. This was combined with the teacher's personal narrative of her own experience becoming a bilingual writer and its influence upon her teaching. Her instructional approach was embedded in social practice. Dramatizations, visual representations, computer-based research, and traditional texts afforded exposure to ways of speaking, being, and understanding the world. Students were provided with many opportunities to write within a community of practice, focusing on persuasive essay and other genres such as personal narrative and informational reports. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)