Teaching Dialogue

When teaching dialogue, I like to use Noticings. I give students excerpts with dialogue and ask them what they notice about the quotation marks, punctuation, and capitalization. They they help to create the rules for writing dialogue.

The Plato Author's Techniques lesson continues with a brief discussion of dialogue. For my adaptation, students used noticings to develop the rules for writing dialogue. We then used printable comics at Make Beliefs Comix to practice writing dialogue that fits a certain mood in the text. While comics aren't typically punctuated like dialogue, we practiced using the dialogue rules in our comics.

Students were encouraged to create their own comics on the Make Beliefs Comix website using the same rules and their own moods after completion of the class lesson.

Students created dialogue with printable comic strips.

Films in the Classroom

As a former film student, I love finding ways to incorporate films into my classroom. I have used films to demonstrate tone and mood (Tim Burton's short "Vincent") as well as plot and story elements (Tim Burton's original "Frankenweenie"... I love Tim Burton!). I have also used film versions of texts studied in class like A Raisin in the Sun, Hercules, Romeo and Juliet, and Where the Wild Things Are. I like to make the film an assignment as well. One way I've found to do this is to have students study the film review genre and write their own film reviews. Like the personal essays and persuasive essays, I start with a stack of film reviews and ask students to create a Noticings list to figure out the structure of a film review. Students have done well writing film reviews because it mixes something they see as pure entertainment (watching a movie) with the academic writing and reading of film reviews. Below is a bulletin board I created filled with movie reviews.

Personal Essay Stack

I shared my persuasive essay stack last month. Now here are the personal essays! This unit usually comes earlier in the year than persuasive writing. It tends to be the first time I use the "stack" technique with students and requires more time and planning. It also involves using "noticings" and a model essay. I've used these materials in grades 6-8. I usually incorporate reading skills into the unit for different essays as well. The unit ends with students writing their own personal essays. Those instructions are included in the stack. Happy reading!

Personal Essay Stack

Noticings

When you teach students about "Noticings" you are asking them to teach themselves. Students look at examples of different works and tell you what they notice. For example, when I teach dialogue, I often ask students to look at a page that includes lots dialogue and tell me what they notice about the punctuation and use of capital letters. Students will basically write the rules for you, but they find them themselves as opposed to you just telling them.

I've used "Noticings" in writing units as well. Looking at our persuasive writing stack, I ask students what they notice that all of the persuasive essays have. Then I ask them what some have. You come up with a list "All" and "Some." When students write their own essays, all of them will include things like titles, paragraphs, and examples. Some of them will include subheadings and pictures and quotes. It is student-led learning.

Noticings ask students to find the information themselves. I like teaching with Noticings because students are often surprised at how much they already know. When students feel like experts, they develop a stronger connection to the material and their learning.