An ethnographic study was made of a student-led speech event in an ethnically mixed combined first- and second-grade classroom. In an activity called "Sharing Time," general rules governed appropriate ways of behaving, but no teacher rules governed ways of speaking, topic, or amount of time at talk. Collected over a 5-month period, data were gathered through audiotape recordings supplemented by field notes and interviews. Efforts focused on obtaining an emic, or "insider's view," of success in sharing. It was found that the content of turns in the sharing activity could be described as being object-oriented, event-centered, animal-related, character-oriented (from television or movies), or person-oriented. Two distinct styles of sharing were detected: the performed narrative and the lecture demonstration. Both the typical content of each style and the techniques students used to support their presentations differed. It was additionally found that children developed new sharing styles but could not give reasons for their nominations of best sharers. Best sharers appeared to give more attention to the immediate reactions of their audience. Documented registers of language included humor, seriousness, persuasiveness, or authoritativeness. (Examples of the two typical sharing styles are discussed, and associated sociolinguistic features are pointed out.) (RH)