แShow-and-Tell How To
By Rebecca McMahon Giles and Karyn Wellhousen Tunks
Shiki, a first year Kindergarten teacher, was excited about introducing many of the teaching activities she recalled from her own early school experiences. After several weeks of traditional show-and-tell in which children chose items to bring from home to share with the class, Shiki questioned whether or not to continue with this activity. The children became restless from sitting and listening for such a long period of time while each child in the class took a turn. Some of the children wouldn’t even talk but stood silently while holding their object, missing out on the purpose of promoting oral language development. As the weeks continued, the children became more competitive in the items being shared as they brought bigger and more expensive toys and electronic equipment. Shiki did not want to give up on her belief that show-and-tell was a valuable teaching activity, but she did want to eliminate the problems she was experiencing.
From a young age, children are encouraged to show a friend their new toy or tell a parent about their day at preschool. These informal interactions foster oral language by building vocabulary as well as self-expression. For years, early childhood teachers have implemented show-and-tell as a natural extension of these early language experiences. It is an activity that can be socially rewarding and academically advantageous for young children while also solidifying the home-school connection.
In order to capitalize on the many benefits of show-and-tell, teachers should take into account the age and developmental level of the children in their class. This includes considering alternatives to traditional show-and-tell in order to plan for children’s limited attention span, build speaking skills, increase children’s confidence in speaking, and minimize competition and commercialization.
Planning for Limited Attention Span
Rather than requiring a whole group of young children to sit quietly and listen for long periods of time as each of their classmates takes a turn at show-and-tell, teachers can design the experience so that it is well-matched to attention spans. Assigning each child a specific day of the week for show and tell offers numerous advantages. If 3-4 children share each day, then show-and-tell is completed in 10-15 minutes, which is a length of time developmentally suited to most young children’s attention. Another option would be to have one child a day share for each day of the month. Assigning each child a specific day to share teaches children responsibility, provides greater opportunity for each child to fully tell about an item, and eliminates the redundancy and lack of audience participation that occurs when 15-20 children share consecutively. Another benefit to organizing show-and-tell in this way is providing an atmosphere that is unhurried. Feeling rushed, along with being interrupted, increases children’s disfluencies (lags in communication) when speaking.
Teachers can increase the audience’s interest (and concentration) by specifying a category for sharing. This offers variety, provides a focus for the activity, and introduces the concept of classification. Category possibilities are endless, ranging from something homemade or a kitchen gadget to something found in nature or a favorite book. Categories also allow show-and tell to be coordinated with current themes of study.
Building Children’s Confidence
Show-and-tell was originally designed to provide children with a forum for speaking publicly. Therefore, every effort should be made to help them feel successful as they present in front of classmates. Children can be encouraged to practice describing their object with family before presenting at school. This informal rehearsal relieves stress associated with speaking to peers and allows opportunity to reinforce good speaking habits, such as looking at the audience while you talk and speaking loud enough to be heard by all who are listening.
Guidelines regarding presentation format are also important. For example, children might state their first and last name before beginning and end with “thank you for listening.” The audience may follow the routine of welcoming the speaker with a group “hello” and applauding afterward. If the audience is allowed to ask questions, the number should also be clarified in advance for consistency. Guidelines such as these foster a sense of confidence and decrease anxiety because children and families know exactly what is expected.
Minimizing Competition and Commercialization
Show-and-tell is most beneficial when teachers take steps to diminish the competitive atmosphere it can create. The spirited rivalry that sometimes occurs is adeptly described in Abby Klein’s The King of Show and Tell (Blue Sky Press, 2004) as Freddy Thresher strives to outdo his best friend Robbie by finding something very unusual and exciting to bring to school for his w