Stone Fox Quotations

We have been working on dialogue a lot lately.  The district writing sample is quickly approaching and I KNOW these kids are going to need to write a narrative that includes dialogue... and right now they aren't all there yet.  We finished up Stone Fox last week, and their final writing activity included making up 7 interview questions that they would ask Little Willy after he won the race.  They weren't allowed to be "Yes/No" questions, there had to be some depth to the questions.  That alone was a big deal.

After they created 7 questions they got to have some fun.  They had to go and interview Little Willy.  All 32 of the kids in the class had to think like Little Willy and if they were asked a question they had to respond as him.  Each person had to ask 7 different people their questions, and had to record their responses directly onto their papers.  My little news reporters!

Then we had a little art project.  They had to transfer 3 questions with 3 responses onto a piece of construction paper into 3 dialogue bubbles.  They had to write their questions (remembering question marks), and the responses had to include quotation marks, the speaker, and proper punctuation.  Oh my goodness!  We still have so much to work on... but at least it was a fun activity and they were all motivated to do their best.

How do you practice dialogue?