Lesson Plan: Writing Dialogue: Teach Students How to Write Dialogue Effectively
read their next assignment and realized they didn’t know how to write dialogue. Plagued with inane conversations and useless filler, my students’ writing made me want to scour my tongue with a Brillo pad. Seconds before scouring my taste buds, I thought of a great way of teaching dialogue. I removed the pad, scrubbed some pots and pans in the teachers’ lounge, called my wife, and told her I’d be home late.
I had work to do. I had to find a better way of teaching dialogue. Here’s what I came up with:
Procedures
Discuss the following points on how to write good dialogue:
- Dialogue is a conversation between two or more people.
- Dialogue is essential to fiction writing.
- Dialogue brings characters to life and adds interest.
- Dialogue must do more than just duplicate real speech.
- Writing dialogue consists of the most exciting, most interesting, most emotional, and most dramatic words.
Brainstorm people that might have a conversation and write them on the board and what they might talk about. Some examples:
- Parent - Teacher: How much money might it take for little Billy to get a ‘C’?
- Friend - Friend: Who’s dating whom?
- Teacher Upholding the Integrity of School Rules - Student Cheating on a Test: How much a zero is going to hurt?
- Someone Celebrating Unusual Independence Day Customs - Loyalist to the British Crown: Why it’s OK/Not OK to burn flags?
- Girlfriend Catching Boyfriend With Another Girl - Boyfriend Claiming It Was His Sister: Why boy was making out with his alleged sister?
- Teenager - Parent: What possibly Jose could have been doing out until 3:00 A.M.?
Application
