Writing Dialogue

So our district recently adopted the updated Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Language Arts series called Excursions. We like the new components they have added to it and everything seems to be pretty well thought out. We wanted to try the lessons on writing dialogue. The following work samples are from our second day of working with dialogue. We read the book My Best Friend by Mignon Hinds. The story lends itself to this type of writing very well. Another idea was to read The Very Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. Students were asked what they thought the characters in the book would say to each other in the different scenarios. Afterwards, we asked the kids to think of a friend, a setting and what they would say to each other. Here are photos of the book as well as student work. We think they did a great job!