Take their photos and write dialogue

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Home : 2007 : September : 26

Take their photos and write dialogue
By Risa

I don't teach 2nd grade, so I can't give you the specifics for teaching how to write dialogue. The following suggestion can be used as a culminating activity. This was something I did with my sixth graders, several years
ago, but the basic idea might work for your second graders at a more basic level.

Several years ago, for motivating my students to write dialogue, I used photos of them for which they wrote a conversation they might be having.

I had them work in pairs or threes, to come up with
(1) Characters (names of their group members)
(2) Setting such as: at school, in the library,

on the playground, or in the classroom
(3) Conversation topic such as: trying to find a book, watching an ongoing game, working at the computer.

I photographed them, then printed out their photos. Using the photo as a guideline for what they might be saying, they wrote out their dialogue. We took the work through the steps of the writing process and published the work (typed up under the photo) which was put together with all the other students' pages and titled: "Talking it Out: All in a Day's Work in Room 42"

Sample (Your second graders probably won't write this much):
James, Mark, and Sarah are in the hallway, excitedly walking up to the classroom. James tries to open the door.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed. "The door's locked!"

"That's strange," commented Sarah. "She told us to come back to the room after we ate our lunch."

"Knock on the door," suggested Mark. "She might be inside waiting for us." James pounded on the door.

"James!" scolded Sarah, "You didn't have to pound! If she's in there she'll hear us knocking!"

Suddenly, Mrs. Craig came behind them. "I'm sorry! I had to go make copies of the pages you'll be using for this project. Let's go inside and get started." So they all walked in and continued with their project.