Sharing Time Goes Awry … Or Does It?

Abstract

Sharing time, a classroom event when individual children are invited to take turns sharing something with the class, traditionally has been implemented with regularized routines and structures. This study documents, in a 1st-grade classroom, a sharing-time episode in which these routines and structures are abandoned in favor of a more fluid, natural conversation. Conditions resulting in this suspension of conventions included the introduction of a topic of which most of the class, including the teacher, had no knowledge, and the presence of a teacher willing to demonstrate her lack of knowledge by seeking clarification from students. Among the characteristics of this nontraditional sharing time are a lower participation rate by the teacher, more turns for a particular episode, children sharing the role of storyteller, and more complex stories. The contrast between the two types of sharing-time episodes is used as an argument that teachers need to examine the taken-for-granted rituals of their classrooms, evaluating their underlying pedagogical value and adjusting classroom programming to best serve the pedagogical purpose.