This excercise is for students in third to sixth grade and is designed to teach them in four days to:
1. Punctuate dialogue
2. Describe characters’ actions
3. Have their characters move as they talk together

Day One
It will make their writing more fun to read if you encourage them to have their characters move as they talk to each other. They’ll have to watch how the members of our family move when they talk. They’ll find they move their eyes, hands, feet, and their shoulders when they have conversations.
When they write dialogue, they should include body movement descriptions. It can read like the example below. Just to show you how this works, I’ve put the descriptions inside parentheses ( ). they should not do this in their descriptions:
John was getting mad. His voice rose and (he waved his hands in the air) He shouted, “I get the catcher’s mit!”

Bill said, (as he looked John in the eyes), “I get it today, I asked the coach yesterday.”
“You did not. I was there and you didn’t say nothin’ about today.”
John (now pointing his finger at Bill’s chest) said, ?I got the mit and I’m gonna keep it!? (He put it behind his back.)
Bill (reaching behind John and trying to grab the mit) said, “Give it to me!”
John said, (as he lifted his lip), “Try and take it!”

To show them how important it can be to let their readers see their characters move when they talk, I’ve written this short conversation again and taken out the movements. They’ll recognize that it’s harder to ‘see’ the characters when they don’t have bodies to go with their voices.
John was getting mad. His voice rose as he shouted, “I get the catcher’s mit!”
Bill said right back at him, “I asked the coach yesterday.”

“You did not. I was there and you didn’t say nothin’ about today. I got the mit and I’m gonna keep it.”
Bill said, “Give it to me!”
John said, “Try and take it!”
Today they’ll decide on:
1. The two characters for their dialogue
2. What they’ll talk about
3. What kinds of people they’ll be
If they use the following notes it should help them:
Number 1: Give your two characters names:
Character A.____________________ Character B.____________________
Number 2: What they’ll talk about:
________________________________
Number 3: Decide the kinds of people they are:
Character A. Age: Sex:
List three words that describe this person:
Character B. Age: Sex:
List three words that describe this person:

Day Two
Today they’ll decide on the setting for their dialogues. They’ll want to describe:
1. The place
2. The time of day
3. The weather
4. The activity at the time of the conversation
Number 1. The Place: ______________________________
Number 2. The Time of Day: ______________________________
Number 3. The Weather: ______________________________
Number 4. The Activity at the time of the conversation: _______________________________

Days Three and Four
Today and tomorrow they’ll write the conversations. It won’t be necessary for them to include any of the above information in their dialogues.
They may want to look at my dialogue to see how to punctuate theirs. Encourage them to ask you each day to look at what they’ve written.