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Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Vol. II
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
by Michael A. Wilson
Lower Yukon School District
Several years ago I heard a teacher complain to
an inservice presenter, "Our students come to school with no language
at all. They can't communicate in English, and they can't communicate
in Yup'ik." "No," I thought to myself, "that doesn't make sense. Of
course they have all the language skills that they have needed so
far. Just watch them when they are together with their friends, and
you will see perfectly effective communication." I was left
wondering, then, why the programs going on in the schools made the
students seem so language deficient.
My experiences with Whole Language have shed
some light on this question. I have begun to appreciate the
difference between building from the language of the students as
opposed to taking the language of so many standardized textbooks and
attempting to force it onto the students. I recognize that, in my
fourteen years of teaching, I have done plenty of both, and the
philosophy of whole language instruction has helped me to understand
why some types of activities have proven to be so much more
profitable (not to mention enjoyable) than others.
In every class I've taught there have been a
few students who would invariably claim "I don't know what to write."
Even after twenty minutes of spirited discussion, modeling, "bubbling
exercises," and so forth, those dreaded words would be heard, and I
would be nearly speechless with exasperation. Assurances to "just
write whatever you think" or "don't worry about spelling and grammar
for now" generally proved insufficient since, it seemed, the students
had a strong notion that their writing was going to be evaluated
ultimately as being either right or wrong, and a lot of students
clearly anticipated the latter judgment.
It was very frustrating (and still is, when it
comes up)since I do not pass such judgment on
open-ended writing assignments. Some students were far more critical
of their writing than I was inclined to be, and I was at a loss as to
how I could get them over the insecurities which made free writing
such an intimidating prospect. Why could a student explain to me what
he/she was thinking about writing, but then be unable to actually
write it down?
Quite by accident I found a type of writing
activity which helps a lot. One day when I was teaching the use of
quotation marks, I wrote a number of quotes from students on the
board, and the class perfectionist duly corrected some of the grammar
and incorrect spellings I had placed inside the quotes. I thanked her
for her observations, but pointed out that to change what the student
had originally said or how s/he had said it would be quite wrong.
Inside quotation marks, "correct" grammar could be wrong and
"incorrect" spellings, like "nuthin" could be very appropriate. In
virtually any novel on the shelf, examples of this could be
found.
Perhaps due in part to the contrariness of the
junior high mind, this discovery was quite exciting. By writing with
hypothetical quotations, one could write anything without having to
defend unusual grammar and spellings. In such writing, quotation
marks could, it seems, set you free.
I took notice of the unexpected enthusiasm in
English class that day, and since then I have made increasingly
greater use of dialogue writing. We pitch rules of spelling, grammar
and punctuation right out the window and just write what people say
and how they say it. (Secretly I smile, when I notice that most of
those rules haven't really gone out the window at all.)
Getting Started
Within the first couple of weeks of school I
introduce the notion of dialogue writing. We can readily find
examples of dialogues in our reading books, library books; even the
science and social studies books may have some. Dialectal spellings
and non-conventional grammar are pointed out and justifications for
their use are discussed. From this discussion we arrive at the Golden
Rule of dialogue writing: We record exactly what people say,
regardless of the properness of their grammar or pronunciation;
inside quotes, anything goes.
We next look at the simplest dialogue format,
which is play/script format. The speaker's name is followed by a
colon, then his/her words are given. Voice and stage directions given
in parentheses are noted; they will be given more attention later in
the year.
Finally we prepare to try our hands at dialogue
writing. Lest I hear, "I don't know what to write," I make the first
several assignments fairly concrete. For example: When you go to
lunch, listen to and try to remember a short conversation you hear
between two people. You will be writing it down when we get back. Or:
We'll take our restroom break now. When you get back, be prepared to
write down what you and one of your friends said to one another
during the break. Simple play/script format is used in the writing,
and voice and "stage" directions are optional. The first question
I'll be asked is, "How long does it have to be?" I'll answer, "It can
be any length; just try to remember as much as you can and write it
down." In my experience, these early results will range from 3-12
lines.
As a final step in this little activity I will,
with the permission of the writers, photocopy the results and the
next day I will hand copies to students who then recreate the
conversations for us to hear. In the points of view of most of my
students, these few minutes of hilarity are what this activity is all
about. At least at the junior high level, there's something really
outrageous about seeing your classmate-actors playing you and a
friend, no matter how mundane the recorded conversation.
In these early attempts I do no formal
evaluations on the writing, but I do save them for comparison with
dialogues they will write later in the year. I occasionally have to
exclude a dialogue from the oral reading activity if it threatens to
embarrass or hurt a student. Students learn quickly to evaluate for
themselves the appropriateness of their writing for class use.
Expanding Writing
The freedom to write in a natural voice and the
pleasure of hearing the dialogues performed and enjoyed
by others will motivate students to expand their writing, and they
will generally not hesitate as assignments become increasingly more
complicated and less concrete. Without prompting, most students will
begin including more speakers and more voice and stage
directions.
Examples of later writing assignments I give
include: Think of a conversation you and your friends had over the
weekend and write it out. Or: Write a dialogue of what you and your
friends said as you were going Trick-or-Treating. Or: Write a
conversation you had with one of your parents last summer. Or: write
a conversation you had or you heard that really surprised you.
Students will have to fabricate increasingly larger portions of their
dialogues as they are able to remember fewer of the exact words.
Eventually dialogues which are totally of the student's own invention
can be assigned.
In addition, more sophisticated development and
use of the writing can be achieved. As dialogues become more
substantial, they can be reworked, expanded upon, polished and
prepared for more formal presentation. Students may work in teams to
select "plays" which will be readied for rehearsal and ultimate
performance. I have had my classes develop some very satisfactory
Christmas skits using this process, for the most part.
After students have written a lot of dialogues
in simple play format, I begin requiring one more step in their
writing process, that of converting the plays into paragraph format.
A good deal of whole-group instruction and modeling is used at this
time since a number of new skills come into play. Lessons are
presented on:
1. rules of punctuating quotes in
sentences
2. rules of paragraphing
conversations
3. varying the placement and the wording of
the he-said/she-said statements
4. converting stage directions into
narrative statements
5. selecting between first and third person
points of view.
Extending Writing Into Other Areas
of the Curriculum
The dialogue writing activities I have
described thus far represent the extent to which I have gone into the
process with my own classes. I would like now to suggest some ideas
for utilizing these writing skills in other classes.
In Reading Class:
- Hypothetical conversations between the
student and a character or between characters can be created based
on any book or story. These can be a fun alternative to the
traditional book report, e.g., imagine you meet Julie (of the
Wolves) as she is leaving Barrow. Walk with her for a few minutes
and record your conversation, e.g., record what you think might
have been said between the general and the Indian chief when they
made their agreement.
- Students may develop creative writing based
loosely on a book they've read, e.g., the rats of NIMH talked
together about the scientists who kept them. Tell what the mice
around your house might say about you if they could talk to each
other. Write your conversation with the men who just rescued you
from the Island of the Blue Dolphins.
In Social Studies Class:
- Creating conversations between the student
and individuals from history or from current events will reinforce
the important aspects of the individuals, e.g., talk with Adolph
Hitler about his goals for Germany, and give him your opinions on
his methods and goals. If you could talk to Sirhan Sirhan, what
would you say, and how do you think he would respond?
- I believe that preparing for, conducting
and writing up interviews could follow naturally from dialogue
writing. These have many uses in social studies, e.g., interview
someone who remembers the time before airplanes flew to this
village. Record a dialogue between the village corporation
president and yourself which explains the corporation's goals and
your reactions to them. Prepare questions for a hypothetical
interview between you and Mahatma Gandhi, then research his
probable responses.
- Synthesizing conversations between
important people also requires research and careful consideration
of the people involved. Create the dialogue for that late-night
meeting between Seward and de Stoeckl at which the purchase
agreement for Alaska was negotiated.
In Science Class:
- Most of the social studies activities can
apply to the important people and developments in the sciences as
well, e.g., create a debate between a Creationist and an
Evolutionist. Create a conversation between two dinosaurs who have
differing views on the cause of their species' future demise.
Interview a Venusian. Base his/her answers on what you have
learned about conditions on Venus.
- As an alternative to the traditional lab
report, students may transcribe the conversations they have with
their partners as they are hypothesizing, experimenting and
observing.
The possibilities go on and on. Such dialogue
writing is not intended to replace other types of writing, but it is
rather an alternative -an alternative which I have found fairly
easy to develop in junior high students and one which is motivating.
And the potential for taking this type of writing further, for
incorporating art and drama to create fun, educational activities, is
limitless.
For the past several years, my students and I
have derived a lot of enjoyment from writing and performing
student-produced dialogues. Even my most reluctant writers have
developed greater confidence through writing and then seeing their
words performed and enjoyed by their peers. As a result of developing
in myself a better understanding of the Whole Language philosophy, I
will be making even greater use of this technique in the future,
extending its use into some of my high school classes and
experimenting with some of the more sophisticated types of
dialogues.
Foreword
Ray Barnhardt
Part I *
Rural School Ideals
"My
Goodness, People Come and Go So Quickly Around
Here"
Lance C. Blackwood
Parental Involvement
in a Cross-Cultural Environment
Monte Boston
Teachers and
Administrators for Rural Alaska
Claudia Caffee
The Mentor Teacher
Program
Judy Charles
Building
Networks
Helen Eckelman
Ideal Curriculum and
Teaching Approaches for a School in Rural
Alaska
Teresa McConnell
Some Observations
Concerning Excellent Rural Alaskan Schools
Bob Moore
The Ideal Rural
Alaska Village School
Samuel Moses
From Then To Now:
The Value of Experiential Learning
Clara Carol Potterville
The Ideal
School
Jane Seaton
Toward an Integrated,
Nonlinear, Community-Oriented Curriculum
Unit
Mary Short
A Letter from
Idealogak, Alaska
Timothy Stathis
Preparing
Rural Students for the Future
Michael Stockburger
The Ideal
Rural School
Dawn Weyiouanna
Alternative
Approaches to the High School Curriculum
Mark J. Zintek
Part II *
Rural Curriculum Ideas
"Masking" the
Curriculum
Irene Bowie
On Punks and
Culture
Louise J. Britton
Literature to Meet
the Needs of Rural Students
Debra Buchanan
Reaching the Gifted
Student Via the Regular Classroom
Patricia S. Caldwell
Early Childhood Special
Education in Rural Alaska
Colleen Chinn
Technically
Speaking
Wayne Day
Process Learning
Through the School Newspaper
Marilyn Harmon
Glacier Bay
History: A Unit in Cultural Education
David Jaynes
Principals of
Technology
Brian Marsh
Here's Looking
at You and Whole Language
Susan Nugent
Inside, Outside and
all-Around: Learning to Read and Write
Mary L. Olsen
Science Across
the Curriculum
Alice Porter
Here's Looking at
You 2000 Workshop
Cheryl Severns
School-Based
Enterprises
Gerald Sheehan
King Island
Christmas: A Language Arts Unit
Christine Pearsall Villano
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
Michael A. Wilson
We-Search and
Curriculum Integration in the Community
Sally Young
Artist's
Credits
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