Lesson Title Features of Dialogue and using synonyms of said.

Focus Literacy
Year Level 5/6
Learning English
Area

Lesson information

Brief lesson Introduce the topic of dialogues and question students on what they know about them. Discuss what
description the rules of dialogue are and explain to the students how to use them, display these rules on the
board for students later reference. Piece of dialogue on the board that needs to be edited students
raise their hands and tell the class were the feature goes. Then look at the passage and discuss the
use of said and synonyms of said. Students to raise hands and give examples for the class and I refer
them to earlier display of synonyms. Task of writing a dialogue with an image for context and brief
discussion for ideas. The students then write a dialogue of an aim of 4 lines to 1 page in the
remaining 30 mins of lesson.
Objectives and Our aim is to get students to recognise the use of features of dialogue, the relevance and use of
intentions synonyms of said in creating a descriptive text and applying this knowledge in the form of their own
dialogue.
Input The students will be presented verbally in discussion and activation of prior knowledge. Visually in the
form of a visual representation of their learning to be applied through an image to create context for
dialogue. Students will utilise writing skills to undertake development of dialogue.
Australian Curriculum links

Content descriptors Year 5 Content Descriptors Year 6

Writing
Create literary texts that experiment with structures,
ideas and stylistic features of selected authors
(ACELT1798)
Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater
precision of meaning, and know that words can have
different meanings in different contexts (ACELA1512)
Writing
Experiment with text structures and language features
and their effects in creating literary texts, for example,
using imagery, sentence variation, metaphor and word
choice (ACELT1800)
Create literary texts that adapt or combine aspects of
texts students have experienced in innovative ways
(ACELT1618)

Evaluation
The aim of the lesson is to get students start recognising the features of dialogue and where they are
positioned in a text. For students recognise synonyms of said and their use in developing descriptive
language in a text. Have a go at creating their own dialogue based off an image for context, to check for
understanding of the lesson.

I can write a dialogue with use of 1 of the rules of dialogue present

I can write a dialogue with use of 2 of the rules of dialogue consistently
I can write a dialogue with use of all the rules of dialogue consistently
Activity Focus and Teaching and Learning Focus Questions Resources
understandings
1. Discussion of Understanding the 1. As a class discuss dialogue and What is a dialogue? Whiteboard
Dialogue features of dialogue get students to activate prior Where do speech marks Butcher Paper
features knowledge of the subject. go in a dialogue?
2. Introduce the rules of dialogue Where do you put
after discussion of prior punctuation in speech?
knowledge, displayed on the When do you use a new
board written on butcher paper. line in dialogue?
3. Discuss synonyms of said, ask Example synonyms of
students for example and there said?
uses.

2. Editing a Apply understanding of 1. As a class ask students to edit Where should Whiteboard, butchers
piece of punctuation, speech an example dialogue piece punctuation go inside paper, markers
dialogue marks and new line for 2. Students raise hands to come the speech marks?
new speaker to an and place speech marks, Are there different uses
example piece punctuation and indicate new punctuations that can
lines with a marker on the be used in speech? E.g
board. exclamations, question
marks

3. Writing a Apply understanding of 1. Using an image create a What should we be Lined paper, pens, red
dialogue features of speech in dialogue of the 3 people thinking about when pen
creative dialogue conversing (from between 4 creating a dialogue?
 lines as a minimum and a page) (Characters, new lines,
2. Discuss the image as a class punctuation, speech
and generate ideas around what marks).
the discussion might be about
3. Clarify what to include and
direct students to use the rules
of dialogue to create their own
dialogue
4. Students have a go at editing
their own work
5. Collect dialogues as evidence
Teaching strategies: Check for understanding after instructions and ask students to paraphrase instructions, move around the
classroom and check how students are going,
Closure: Collect work and summarise the lesson to consolidate the learning ask the students what the rules of dialogue.

Resources:
Rules of Dialogue
1) You must open and close speech marks
2) You need to include a piece of punctuation before you close your speech marks
3) New speaker means a new line

Image for Context

Teaching Notes:
Activity 1:
 - Introduction to dialogue, Ask students what they know about dialogue/ writing a dialogue
- Speech marks where do they go?
- What word signals there is a dialogue? Said, synonyms of said
- Refer to the resources of previous lessons on synonyms of said on the window

Activity 2:
- Can you put your hands up you know where some feature of dialogue should go in the example
- Praise and encourage efforts of students for answering and having a go

Activity 3:
- Discuss the image of the ocean with a small boat on it, 3 people on the boat, prompt what might the people talk
about on the boat, where are they etc.

Reflection on Lesson
The lesson started well with a good transition from the previous session after lunch of USSR/ writing of letters by some
students. I outlined the lesson well with the activities planned out and set up. Students responded well to questioning to
activate prior knowledge, reviewed features of dialogue with activity of editing a passage on the board. I moved well around
the class monitoring students progress and transitioning well from instruction. Intention of the lesson was clearly repeated
and expectations (learning objectives) set for students. The presented picture stimulus was used to create a context and
most students were able to write a dialogue with the feature of dialogue.
Even Better If
As some students failed to grasp some of the features of dialogue a useful tool would have been to have used an example of
complete dialogue to illustrate to students better the use of features of dialogue.
Deeper exploration of the picture stimulus would have benefited some students to have a better idea about creating a
dialogue. In discussion with mentor she suggested that there would be benefit of using another example picture stimulus and
creating of an example from it for them to work from.
If I had got the student to write down in their English book the three rules of dialogue for future reference