Teacher’s Guide- Lesson Plans-Dialogue

Lesson Three: Essential Element -- Dialogue

Preparation: Audio Clips - Student Page - Dialogue

Materials: Student Writer's notebooks.

Procedure: Have students listen to audio clips from the Dialogue Student page and identify the dialogue part of the story. Play the clip once, and then play the clip a second time and have students give a "thumbs-up" when they hear dialogue.

Discuss how the dialogue reveals the emotions of the characters. Discuss how the dialogue "carries" the story along. Talk about how the story would be different without dialogue. Read the transcript without the dialogue to show how it adds to the story.

Students continue to write stories. Each student will be at a different step in the writing process. Some will be thinking, sharing, and or writing. Specifically request students to add dialogue to their stories.

Closure: End each writing session with a sharing session. Highlight student pieces that have included dialogue.

Follow-up: Continue with the element of dialogue for several days. Use other materials from the Resources Page to provide examples of dialogue during mini-lessons prior to writing.