Scholastic
Narrative Writing
If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing narratives...
Curated OER
Developing Dialogue
Why do people argue? Use the article "A Holiday Medley, Off Key" to discuss the struggles that interfaith couples face when choosing to celebrate certain holidays. Then, in small groups, encourage learners to write dialogues that...
Curated OER
Scriptwriting Skill Module: Dialogue
What is dialogue? What must it contain? Use this plan to discuss dialogue with your emerging writers. They write a dialogue in script form to dramatize a conversation. Dialogue examples are included.
EngageNY
Planning for When to Include Dialogue: Showing Characters’ Thoughts and Feelings
Young writers examine dialogue conventions, including indentation, quotation marks, and expressing thoughts and feelings through a fictional text. By noticing where and when authors use dialogue, they decide how to incorporate dialogue...
EngageNY
Writing Dialogue: Revising Historical Narrative Drafts to Add Dialogue
Young writers have written, revised, and peer-edited their historical fiction narratives by the 10th lesson plan in a language arts unit. Fourth graders finally combine their revision notes to create a second draft. The double-spaced...
EngageNY
Writing the Children’s Book: Day Two
Following a brief mini-lesson on using dialogue in fiction, young writers continue day two of their writing workshop. They work on the second half of their Children's Book Storyboards, and then they turn and talk with partners to reflect...
EngageNY
Writing to Show, Not Tell: Dialogue, Sensory Words, and Strong Action Verbs
Consume, gobble, devour ... serving up strong verbs! Writers focus on using dialogue, strong action verbs, and sensory details in their writing. After analyzing a model narrative, they apply their learning to their own hero's journey...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...
Curated OER
Julian Secret Agent: Commas
Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...
Calloway County Schools
Dialogue Rules, Worksheet, and Writing Assignment
Punctuating dialogue properly can be tricky, but your pupils can become punctuation masters with practice. This resource includes an explanatory page that describes the rules of writing dialogue and provides examples. On the second page,...
Curated OER
Making Magical Creatures Talk
Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.
Curriculum Corner
Comic Strip Writing Templates
Spark interest in young writers with a three-box comic strip template including speech bubbles. Learners draw and write a sequential comic with boxes that are stacked on top of each other. Using this format or the other templates...
Bright Hub Education
Writing Effective Dialogue
Wait, there is an effective way to practice writing dialogue with your high school class? Great! High schoolers will have a blast writing dialogue using a list of potentially silly situations and an image of people talking. Employ the...
Curated OER
Passages of Dialogue
Help your learners use dialogue in their stories. This presentation explores the use of dialogue in narratives. It is a comprehensive and thoughtful look at this topic.
Curated OER
Dialogue Tags
Use a presentation on dialogue tags in a narrative writing unit or a literature instructional activity. The first two pages of the resource detail the information and examples in the following slide show, making it a good reference page...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
“Tell Me a Story”: Moving from Reading to Writing
Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...
Scholastic
Super Sentences & Perfect Paragraphs
An extensive collection of lessons and activities includes many writing, grammar, and proofreading exercises. With templates and worksheets that cover several steps in the writing process, from sentence to paragraph to essay, this...
Thoughtful Learning
Adjusting Your Writing Voice
"Yo, what's up?" "Nuttin!" While such a dialogue might be appropriate between friends, it would be ill-advised in more formal situations. A mini-lesson asks young writers to consider how to adjust the voice they use to bring their...
Curated OER
Writing a Screenplay
It's time to make a movie! Kids follow 15 steps to take their movie ideas from concept to script, following clear examples. The resource includes creative ways to guide learners into developing a few words and concepts into fully...
Curated OER
How to Write Really Good Dialogue
How do you create (and punctuate) really good dialogue so that it moves your story forward and provides strong characterization? Use this literary worksheet loaded with examples, clearly stated directions, and fun exercises. Fifth in a...
Curated OER
The Stuff of Stories: Using Museums to Inspire Student Writing
Middle schoolers write descriptions, narratives, and dialogues based on objects of art and time periods in a museum. They base several writing assignments on art objects and paintings, including a literal description and an emotional...
Curated OER
Writing About Talking
The story of King Arthur is a fascinating one, and this retold excerpt offers an excellent example of narrative word choice in a dialogue. Learners read the text and examine the way the author uses synonyms for said. They write down all...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing -- Commercial Style
Learners create persuasive TV commercials for common products. They develop a list of products, write the script for a commercial, and act-out and videotape the commercial to present to the class.
K12 Reader
Interjections in Dialogue: Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain is a master of using interjections in his dialogue. A grammar worksheet focused on interjections features the passage from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in which Tom tricks Ben into taking on the job of whitewashing Aunt...