A cross-curricular comparison focused on learner interpretations of beginning reading and writing instruction in skills-based and whole language inner-city classrooms across kindergarten and first grade. Subjects, 48 low socioeconomic-status students in four classrooms in two midwestern cities, were observed during literacy instruction twice weekly for two years. Data included field notes, transcripts of reading and writing episodes, student papers, and pre/post written language measures. Qualitative findings indicated similarity in learner concern about accuracy. Cross-curricular differences centered on applications of phonics knowledge, responses to literature, coping strategies of learners experiencing difficulty, and learner perceptions of themselves as readers and writers. Quantitative analyses indicated a significant difference in written narrative register favoring whole language learners. (Contains 84 references and seven tables of data. A sample grid of learner patterns is attached.) (Author/RS)