Dialogue Lesson

Age, Common Core Standard, & ISTE Student Standard:

11-12 Grade English, Reading & Writing Comprehension, & to facilitate and inspire student learn and creativity.

Assignment:

Read "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway and complete this quiz to show understanding and comperehension of the story.

After taking the quiz, watch this video about the importance of dialogue and how to construct it.

Digital Project:

I want my students to understand dialogue and it’s importance within stories. Not only writing it, but being able to analyze it. After reading “Hills Like White Elephants,” I want them to create a free blog on one of the many platforms, and write a small story (500 word minimum) using only dialogue. Tags for who is speaking can be used, but only with the word said before or after the name of each character, if they choose to use them at all. The story must stand on it’s own with the dialogue between characters and not have the lines be obvious as to what they are talking about. (I.E. if a character is being abused by a boyfriend she cannot say “He hit me last week.” Or if a divorce is occurring there cannot be discussion about a custody or asset settlement.)

With how short the assignment is, there should be serious thought involved in how the students construct the back and forth between their characters. There can be more than two speaking to one another but it will only take place in one scene.

After they complete their own assignment, there will be a Google Doc sent out with the links to other’s stories and they will try to guess what the situation being discussed at hand in the comment section in each other's comment sections.

The assignment will not be graded based on creativity but rather the understanding of what power dialogue holds when it stands alone and the ability to read stories between the lines.