This article discusses the narrative architecture and interactional uptake of a school child's story about independence in Barbados during sharing time. It is found that an institutional focus on standard resources impacts both teachers' and children's sociolinguistic behavior. Ethnopoetic analysis brings out the child's patterned use of narrative resources and shows how voice is established collaboratively in the classroom here, with a both empowering and policing role for the teacher in steering the storytelling.