This report presents the findings of a 17-month project whose aim was to analyze the complexity of language use in the classroom through the examination of one classroom event or key episode type: the "service-like event." This term covers those situations during periods of individualized instruction in which a child who is not working with the teacher solicits the attention of the teacher in order to get help with a task, confirmation, or other need. Traditionally, much of the social interaction of the classroom has been "whole group," with the teacher as the focus of the lesson or activity. However, many classrooms have recently been restructured so as to provide individualized instruction to the students for at least part of the day. Deviation from whole group structure places new communicative demands on both teacher and students. A study was done to determine how effective teachers structure their actions and their responses to children's actions in these situations. Results indicate that teachers develop norms for making communicative responses to children's initiatives and that they apply these norms with some degree of consistency across participation structures. Transcriptions of classroom communication are included. (Author/PJM)