What Would They Say? Dialogue Activity

Make a copy of this digital template to give students and opportunity to show what they know by writing dialogue!

I was fortunate enough to work with the most amazing department head for many years. Timmary Leary is a master of creating professional development that is engaging and meaningful. She introduced us to this amazing activity, on paper, while we were having a department in-service day in the galleries of the Worcester Art Museum. In teams, we chose two portraits in the gallery and used details from the paintings to write a convincing dialogue between the two. It really opened our eyes to how our students could respond to artwork by writing dialogue as a way of making meaning.

Many years later, I saw a similar activity, in a digitized form, from Jake Miller who is a master of creating tutorial gifs. See how he demonstrates the set up for this activity in Google Drawings here.

The best part about this activity is its versatility. Students can work independently or collaboratively to create dialogue between two figures in any image you choose. You choose the image and share the slide deck with students…they move the word bubbles into place and add meaningful dialogue!

Customizing the template is simple!

1. Go to ‘File’ and click ‘Make a Copy’ to have your own editable copy of this template.
2. Select an image to paste on the first slide. I have provided a few artworks or you can select one of your own that supports your curriculum content.
3. In the slide list on the left, click on the first slide and press Control + C to copy it.
4. Press Control + V to  paste the slide as many times as students will need to create a conversation between the characters.
5. Share the slide deck with students as ‘View Only’ so they make their own copy or share on Google Classroom with ‘Make a Copy for Each Student’.
6. Students can click + drag the word and thought bubbles to each character, resizing as needed, and add dialogue!