MAKING "SHOW AND TELL TIME"

INTERACTIVE AND LEARNER-CENTRED

An Action Research Report
Jennifer Taylor, 1997
Published here by permission of the author

Introduction
My central concern in my practice is to make all learning opportunities for
students as interactive and learner-centered as possible. Show and Tell
Time in my Kindergarten classroom was definitely an area where my
concern was not being addressed. Initially, when I started doing Show and
Tell with the students, I conducted it in the manner that my associate had
always practiced. The student presenting something would stand by my
chair while the rest of the class sat in a large circle in front of us. The
presenter was prompted to introduce his or her subject for Show and Tell,
and then I would ask some him or her some questions on the subject. This
was interactive for the one student presenting, but for the rest of the class it
was, well, "YAWN!" During Show and Tell Time, the students were
supposed to be learning how to talk to a group of peers and to be attentive
members of an audience. I felt that neither of these outcomes was being
effectively achieved: the presenting child was really talking only to the
teacher, and the audience very quickly lost interest because they could
only participate as passive observers. I wanted to change the way I led
Show and Tell so that I hardly led it at all--I wanted to simply facilitate it
instead.
The Process
I presented my concern to my Associate, explaining that during Show and
Tell Time I wanted to try having the students who were in the audience ask
the questions of the child presenting the Show and Tell subject. She was
enthusiastic about the idea and helped me to come up with a plan to
gradually ease the children into becoming comfortable with their new roles.
The first step was to introduce the idea of "What is a question?" At this
point, many students felt that an example of a question was "I have one of
those, too....". I explained the difference between telling something and
asking something, then during the Show and Tell presentations I frequently
gave the audience a number of examples of each, and asked them to

identify which examples were questions. I did this for two days of Show and
Tell Time.
For the second step, my associate and the educational assistant
participated as members of the audience. During each Show and Tell turn,
the student presenting would introduce the subject and was given a chance
to tell the audience somewhat about what they were sharing that day. Then
I would prompt my associate or the educational assistant to ask a question
of the presenter. If one of them "told" something instead of "asking," I would
ask a member of the audience what a question was again. Then I would
select one child from the audience to ask a question of the presenter. Only
students who were sitting with their legs crossed and who raised their
hands quietly were picked to ask the question. This step continued for
approximately a week. After the first day, I selected only my associate or
the educational assistant to ask a question, and chose two students instead
of one. When students asked a question for which the answer had already
been given, the audience was reminded that each person had to listen
carefully to the information given by the presenter so that they would be
able to ask new and interesting questions.
For the third step, I encouraged the presenter to select the students from
the audience to ask a question about the Show and Tell topic. If the
presenter was not comfortable with this, I made a suggestion or picked a
student for them. This was not necessary for long, however; I did not
mandate that the student had to select boys and girls alternately, but if I
noticed unequal opportunities being given to either gender, I made a
suggestion to the presenter which was usually followed without concern.
The Results
I noticed a change in the students attentiveness during Show and Tell
Time almost immediately. The children now had a reason to listen carefully
to the presentation because they wanted to have a turn to ask a question of
the presenter. Most importantly, I observed them learning a number of
things.
1. The children had a much better understanding of the concept of
a question. Originally, they repeated questions that the teachers had
asked previously, but as time went on they began to make up new
questions of their own.
2. The children were learning presentation skills. They faced their
audience, spoke out more clearly, and interacted with the audience
by selecting students to ask questions.
3. The children were learning how to be attentive as an audience,
and listened quietly and closely to the presenter so they would know

what questions to ask. They put up their hands and waited patiently
to be chosen.
To prove that it was the new, interactive format for Show and Tell Time that
had generated students interest and learning, I went back to the old
method for a few days. By the second day, the students in the audience
were inattentive and restless, and the presenter was speaking quietly to the
teacher. When we switched back to allowing the audience to participate,
once again the students became interested in the activity.
As another way of interpreting the results of my "experiment," I asked the
students individually what they liked about Show and Tell Time (When you
ask Kindergarten students a question in groups, they all tend to give the
same answer!). Their responses were mostly "getting to choose students to
ask a question" and "asking questions." When I asked them if they liked the
"new way" or the "old way" better, all chose the new way.
Conclusions
Trying a more learner-centered approach to Show and Tell Time definitely
addressed my central concern about my teaching. Without a doubt, it
improved my teaching in this area. This project benefited both my students
and me and illustrated the importance for all teachers of continually
evaluating all areas of our teaching. Hooray for life-long learners!