Today is rung 9 of 12 on this topic
Narrative craft — dialogue, detail and a real ending
Can do: Writes a story with a problem, dialogue punctuated properly, sensory detail, and an ending that isn't "I woke up".
Why it matters
Story writing is where children learn that specific beats general — the single most transferable lesson in all writing.
What it looks like when it's wobbly
Endless "and then" sequences, no dialogue, and an ending that cancels the whole story.
⏱️ Two-minute check
"Write a short story where someone loses something. Put one line of speech in it."
Solid looks like: A problem, a resolution, and speech marks in roughly the right places.
The full activity for this topic · 20 minutes
Show, Don't Tell
- 1Take a flat sentence: "He was scared." Rewrite it together showing the fear — hands, breath, what he looked at.
- 2Do three more together: happy, tired, angry.
- 3They write a short story and must include one shown feeling and one line of dialogue.
- 4Teach the speech rule once: new speaker, new line, punctuation inside the marks.
- 5Underline the best sentence in their story and say exactly why it works.
If it's too hard
Rewrite one told sentence into a shown one. That's the whole session.
If it's too easy
Write the same scene from two different characters' points of view.
Say this
"Don't tell me he was scared. What was his body doing? Let me work it out."