|
Creative, Interesting Dialogue by Dave Marks
This exercise is for students in third to sixth grade and is designed to teach them in four days to:
1. Punctuate dialogue
2. Describe characters’ actions
3. Have their characters move as they talk together
DAY ONE
It will make their writing more fun to read if you encourage them to have their characters move as they talk to each other. They’ll have to watch how the members of our family move when they talk. They’ll find they move their eyes, hands, feet, and their shoulders when they have conversations.
When they write dialogue, they should include body movement descriptions. It can read like the example below. Just to show you how this works, I’ve put the descriptions inside parentheses ( ). they should not do this in their descriptions:
John was getting mad. His voice rose and (he waved his hands in the air) He shouted, “I get the catcher’s mitt!”
Bill said, (as he looked John in the eyes), “I get it today, I asked the coach yesterday.”
“You did not. I was there and you didn’t say nothin’ about today.”
John (now pointing his finger at Bill’s chest) said, “I got the mitt and I’m gonna keep it!” (He put it behind his back.)
Bill (reaching behind John and trying to grab the mitt) said, “Give it to me!”
John said, (as he lifted his lip), “Try and take it!”
To show them how important it can be to let their readers see their characters move when they talk, I’ve written this short conversation again and taken out the movements. They’ll recognize that it’s harder to ‘see’ the characters when they don’t have bodies to go with their voices. John was getting mad. His voice rose as he shouted, “I get the catcher’s mitt!”
Bill said right back at him, “I asked the coach yesterday.”
“You did not. I was there and you didn’t say nothin’ about today. I got the mitt and I’m gonna keep it.”
Bill said, “Give it to me!”
John said, “Try and take it!”
Today your student will decide on:
1. The two characters for their dialogue
2. What they’ll talk about
3. What kinds of people they’ll be
If they use the following notes it should help them:
Number 1: Give your two characters names:
Character A.
Character B.
Number 2: What they’ll talk about:
Number 3: Decide the kinds of people they are:
Character A. Age: Sex:
List three words that describe this person:
Character B. Age: Sex:
List three words that describe this person:
DAY TWO:
Today they’ll decide on the setting for their dialogues. They’ll want to describe:
1. The place
2. The time of day
3. The weather
4. The activity at the time of the conversation
Number 1. The Place:
Number 2. The Time of Day:
Number 3. The Weather:
Number 4. The Activity at the time of the conversation:
DAYS THREE AND FOUR:
Today and tomorrow they’ll write the conversations. It won’t be necessary for them to include any of the above information in their dialogues.
They may want to look at my dialogue to see how to punctuate theirs. Encourage them to ask you each day to look at what they’ve written.
Important Notes: The lessons included in this Let’s Write section are similar to those found in Dave’s Writing Strands series of textbooks. Which, in my opinion, are some of the best books I have found to teach a child to organize their thoughts, follow a pre-writing process and then move on to completing a satisfying finished product. The texts include abundant examples and are extremely child/teen/parent-friendly.
For the student who is really interested in writing fiction, I highly recommend Dave’s exciting trilogy of books, the Dragonslaying Trilogy, which includes:
Dragonslaying Is For Dreamers (Includes a manual for parents)
Axel Meets the Blue Men, Axel's Challenge. These works of fiction help the student understand how to use all of the important lessons they have learned in Writing Strands to create their own longer work of fiction. The books stand alone as exciting high adventure and would be perfect for any reluctant reader (especially boys ages 10 - 16).
Dave and Lea Marks founded National Writing Institute, publishers of an entire language arts program for all ages and needs.
For more information about the work of Dave Marks please visit: http://www.writingstrands.com
|
