Teaching dialogue can be rough! I like to ease the pain by adding a little fun through comics!

Day 1
Teach the rules of Dialogue, using quotes, and proper punctuation.

​I like this free resource from Young Teacher Love

Day 2
Review when to begin a new paragraph.
This can be tough for kids... I had a hard time explaining it all until I stumbled upon PATS

Start a new paragraph when there is a change in
Place
Action
Time
Speaker

I take some time pointing out real examples from real books during our read aloud, I project a page to display and then do a slow read. Kids have a lot of fun explaining why the author started a new paragraph!

Day 3
Introduce the assignment with examples. 
On this day, I show the students a simple Peanuts comic. I explain how the story is told through the pictures as well as the dialogue. Together, we talk about inferences we can make about what happened before the comic, what might have happened in between each picture, and what each character must be thinking. From there, I show them an example written by me. 

At this point, I also have to explain perspective and point of view. I point out which character I am telling the story from or explain why I decided to tell it from third person point of view. I read the story out loud, each student has a copy of the comic as well as my writing. We go through and discuss descriptions of action I used, when I changed paragraphs and why, and how I incorporated the dialogue from my story into my comic.

Day 3 or 4 (depending on class and time.)
I then pass out comics to each student and let them get busy!

I want my students to love reading. Cultivating a love for reading while also improving reading levels requires a delicate balance between skill practice and well... fun.

My first round of Book Club is done with my small guided reading groups. Each group is given a choice of books at their level, and we meet daily (with my higher groups every other day,) practicing various skills and engaging in book talks. Through these groups, I set the stage for more independent work and student led discussions. Throughout the series, we gather information to create a Dodecahedron Final Project   Throughout the years, I have created several novel study packets that end with a Dodecahedron as the final project.

The kids love these, and the final project is so great for display!