Essential Question: How is dialogue correctly expressed in writing?
Learning Objectives:
- Students will be able to use and recognize quotation marks
- Students will be able to use a range narrative strategies such as dialogue
- Students will be able to use commas and end marks correctly
- Students will be able to use correct capitalization
- Students will be able to use correct indention
CCGPS
or GPS Standards: ELACC6W3. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue,
pacing,
and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
Introduction: (10 min) The lesson is introduced by asking the students what is
dialogue. Many should give answers that are in the ball park but not quite
there. Students will be given the full definition along with examples.
The “Hook” of the lesson is included in the book Heads or
Tails: Stories From the Sixth Grade by Jack Gantos. Students will be asked if they have ever had a fight with
their brother, sister, or close friend. An excerpt from pp.5-6 will be read
aloud. Students will be asked what they notice. They should respond that it
sounds like they do when they argue with a brother, sister, or best friend.
Students will share some of the things they argue over. Students will introduced to the words “sibling rivalry”
Body: (30 min) Using
the projector the excerpt will be on board. Students will be asked how they can
tell this passage has dialogue in it. Students will be led with questions if
needed to illicit the answer that there are quotation marks in the
passage. Once they have given the
answer, all of the quotation marks will be circled in the passage. Students
will be asked for another way they can tell a person is speaking in the
passage. They should respond that the
“saids” tell you when a person is talking. They will be introduced to the term
attribution and explain that this is another way to identify the speaker.
Circle the attributions. Ask anyone if they have a theory about the indention of the paragraphs. Students should notice that every time a new person speaks a
new paragraph is indented. Mark each new paragraph with the paragraph
symbol. Ask students if they notice
anything else. They should respond that the first word in each quotation is
capitalized. After the students recognize this, circle the capital letters. Ask
students what they notice about punctuation. After the discussion, they should
notice that punctuation marks are inside the quotation marks. Inform students
that if the quote is before the attribution, it has a comma and not a period.
The passage will be reread to show students how the rules look in motion.
Students will then be asked to glue a copy of the Dialogue Rules into their
journals. Students will be put into groups and complete a dialogue activity.
Closure: (15 min) Students will free write about a time that they may have had
some sibling rivalry with their sister, brother, or best friend. They are to
make sure they are using a lot of dialogue and using it correctly. Allow ten
minutes to write and allow students to share their writing.
Learning Supports: Differentiation, Modification(s)and Accommodation(s)
• Co-taught- Give
multiple examples, shortened assignments
• Leave model
posted for students to refer to while writing
Formal and Informal Assessment: I plan to assess students’ learning by putting them into groups
and having them create dialogue sentences. Each student in each group will have
their own piece of a sentence. It is their job to organize themselves (their
piece of the sentence) in the correct order and then present themselves to the
class. The class will be asked if they feel their peers formed their sentence
correctly. This will serve as their summative assessment.
I also plan to assess student’s learning by having them write freely
in their journals about their own sibling rivalry experience. They are required to do so while demonstrating correct dialogue usage. This will serve as their summative assessment.
