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| Overview |
 "Paul," asked Kelli, "do you have my shirt?" "The band shirt or the Virginia Tech one?"
The excerpt above is a typical example of how student writers often write dialogue in their stories—they forget to indent paragraphs to indicate a change of speaker, which sometimes creates problems in understanding. This mini-lesson asks students to look closely at their writing, marking speaking parts, and then to return to the beginning to find any places where the "characters clash."
When writers include dialogue in their stories, one of the questions that frequently comes up is how to structure texts that have changing speakers or thinkers. This lesson helps students identify the structures that will clarify their text by using colored markers or online resources.
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| From Theory to Practice |
By teaching students how to identify the conventions used in their own writing,
self-editing activities such as this paragraphing lesson help students become
more responsible writers. The power is shifted from the "correcting"
teacher to the writers, who are able to make their own corrections.
Constance Weaver argues in Grammar for Teachers (1979), "There seems
to be little value in marking students' papers with 'corrections,' little value
in teaching the conventions of mechanics apart from actual writing, and even less
value in teaching grammar in order to instill these conventions" (64). Instead,
learning about grammar, conventions, and text structures (such as paragraphing)
is most effective when when student writers "learn through language"
(see the information on Literacy
Engagements for more details). Contextualized in the students' own writing
and their need to communicate with their readers, self-editing activities allow
students not only to learn through language but to learn through their own
language.
Jeff Wilhelm concurs in his brief "Undoing the Great Grammatical Scam!"
(2001). Wilhelm explains, "If we want students to use language more correctly
in their own writing and speaking, then we must teach them to do so in that
meaning-producing situation that will co-produce and support that learning.
What we need is the contextualized learning of correct language use" (62).
This lesson plan accomplishes that goal.
Read More
Weaver, Constance. 1979. Grammar for Teachers: Perspectives and Definitions.
Urbana: NCTE.
Weaver, Constance, Carol McNally, and Sharon Moerman. 2001. "To Grammar or Not
to Grammar: That is Not the Question!" Voices from the Middle
8.3 (March): 17-33.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. 2001. "Undoing the Great Grammatical Scam!" Voices from the Middle 8.3 (March): 62.
Adapted from O'Keefe, Alice M. 1996. Motivating Writing in Middle School. Urbana: NCTE, 111-12.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- explore paragraphing conventions for dialogue.
- examine their own writing closely using a self-editing activity.
- work toward their own empowerment as writers by correcting their own writing.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
- Colorful highlighters and/or markers—each student will need several
different colors to choose among
- Student-selected pieces of writing
- Copies of the Character Clash Instruction sheet
- Overhead or computer-projected example of narrative for class demonstration
- Word processing program or HTML editor and computers—optionally, students
can use computers and the various colors available in one of these programs
- Dialogue Tags Guide (optional)
Preparation
- Before this lesson, students will have written a text of some sort that
includes dialogue. You might use the lesson plan A
Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Images to Detailed Narrative.
- If students are to use word processing programs or HTML editors, you might
prepare a sheet that explains how to change font colors in the program.
- If desired, test the Dialogue Tags Guide on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
- If students need a review of the use of dialogue tags in narrative writing, use the Dialogue Tags Guide to outline the way that tags are used and suggest possible revision strategies students can try after this activity.
- Distribute the Character Clash Instruction sheet (or share the sheet using an overhead).
- Read an overhead or computer-projected copy of the dialogue example with
your class. Alternately, you can use a student example (with the student's
permission, of course) or a passage from a book you've read recently as a
class.
- Using the instruction sheet, work through the example text to demonstrate
how to complete the activity.
- Ask students to choose a narrative or another piece of writing that includes
dialogue to examine for paragraphing conventions.
- Allow students to work at their own pace, using the instructions and their
own text.
- Circulate through the room, helping any students who have questions or comments.
- Collect the highlighted draft with the revised draft.
Web Resources
- Collaborating to Write Dialogue
http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/lpt/nwpr/404/
- Taken from the National Writing Project Report, this essay outlines a teacher's use of collaborative activities, such as dramatic enactment of scenes, to help students improve the dialogue in their papers. By writing out sections of the narrative as a dramatic scene, students can easily see the shift in speakers that will need to be represented by paragraphing in the final essay.
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Kidwatching provides the perfect assessment for this activity. As you circulate throught the room, note which students understand the concepts and which need more practice. Provide on-the-spot help for any students who need more examples or instruction.
More formal assessment of the paragraphing of the narrative, if you choose to include it, works best as a part of the assessment of the paper itself. |
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
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