Unit Plan 23 (Grade 5 ELA): Writing Dialogue & Building Scenes
Grade 5 narrative writing unit: master dialogue punctuation, integrate actions and thoughts, and maintain consistent voice and tense to craft vivid, emotionally real story scenes.
Focus: Dialogue punctuation; actions/thoughts; narrative voice
Grade Level: 5
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Writing—Narrative; Language)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
This week writers learn to make characters sound real and scenes come alive. Students will punctuate and paragraph dialogue correctly, blend action beats and interior thoughts to reveal character, and keep a consistent narrative voice (POV and tense). By Friday, each writer crafts a tight narrative scene with purposeful dialogue, clear pacing, and clean conventions.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Write dialogue that is punctuated and paragraphed correctly; use tags, actions, and thoughts to develop characters (W.5.3b; L.5.2).
- Use transitional words/phrases and sentence variety to manage sequence and pacing in scenes (W.5.3c).
- Provide concrete details, sensory language, and precise words to convey experiences (W.5.3d; L.5.1).
- Maintain a consistent point of view and verb tense; apply grammar/usage accurately (L.5.1; L.5.2).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 5
- W.5.3b–d, L.5.2, L.5.1
Success Criteria — student language
- My dialogue shows who speaks and what they feel using beats/thoughts—not just tags.
- Every new speaker starts a new paragraph; punctuation and capitalization in quotes are correct.
- My scene has a clear mini-arc (setup → tension → response/decision) with smooth pacing.
- I kept the same POV/tense and edited for commas, capitals, and quotation marks.