Writing Dynamic Dialogue Lesson Plan: Vocabulary, Punctuation, and Practice

Lesson Procedure:

1. Divide students up into groups of 4-5.
2. Before starting, each group will brainstorm and create a list of different words that they can use for the word "said."
3. Each student in each group will come up with one synonym that they would like to share with the group.
4. The class will then do a "Stand and Share", where everyone will then stand and one at a time, the teacher will call on students to share their synonym.
5. Students will share their word and then be seated. If someone else has the same word then they will also sit down.
6. When all words have been shared and the class is sitting, they will work in groups to create a dialogue.
7. Each student will come up with one sentence of the dialogue and will include their own name in the speech tag.
8. Each group can only use the word 'said' one time, so they must vary their word choice. Each group must also have at least one speech tag featured at the beginning of a sentence, at least sentence in which the speech tag is in the middle of the sentence, and at least one where it's at the end of the sentence.
9. After each group has created their dialogue and has edited everyone's work, they may then 'publish' to sentence strips.
10. Each student will need a sentence strip and some macaroni. Have them copy their sentence on a sentence strip and glue the macaroni noodles on where the quotation marks should go, then display their group's sentence strips together on a bulletin board or in the hallway.
11. At the end of class, the students will watch dialogue movie again. If time allows, the class can explore the Related Reading page.