Middle School Language Arts, Middle School Reading

Teaching Dialogue and Internal Monologue in 2 Easy Steps

Linda Asaro
January 11, 2024

This is the fifth in a mini-series on teaching reading comprehension strategies with a focus on teaching dialogue and internal monologue.

If you are a middle school language arts teacher, then you teach reading comprehension strategies. Teaching dialogue and internal monologue in literature is a skill you’ll want kids to have now and throughout their academic careers. Understanding these components gives kids a deeper understanding of characters. Read here for tips on teaching reading comprehension strategies, specifically dialogue and internal monologue, in middle school.

blog post on teaching dialogue and internal monologue as reading skills in middle school — Read here for tips on teaching dialogue and internal monologue as a reading skill.

Why Teaching Dialogue and Internal Monologue is Important

Kids must have an understanding of characters when reading. One way to understand characters is by how they relate to others. Authors do this via dialogue. Dialogue is not only to entertain, as it often does, but it moves the plot along and gives key insight into a character’s traits and motivation.

Internal monologue is what the character is thinking. As readers, we are privy to the thoughts and motivations of characters through the author inserting what the character is thinking.

It is important for us to point out to our students to observe dialogue and internal monologue to get a deeper insight into the characters in a novel. This is a key step for teaching reading comprehension strategies.

General Tips on How to Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

When you teach reading skills, you will want to use some consistency with your students so they know what to expect and what is expected of them. For me, I use a reading workshop model of instruction. I have a whole series of blog posts on reading workshop which you might like to check out. Please know that I adapted my reading workshop from the “true” model to be more skills-based.

General Reading Workshop Guidelines

Teach the mini-lesson – keep it brief…10-15 minutes
Student workshop time- this is when kids work on something in their reading that you taught in the mini-lesson
Conference – meet with kids to check in with their reading and how they are doing with the skills you are teaching
Share- meet at the end of class to briefly share something from their reading

Step 1: Create a Mini-Lesson

What to Include in a Mini-Lesson for Teaching Dialogue and Internal Monologue:

I have an entire blog post related to teaching mini-lessons. Here is a shortened version:

Each mini-lesson follows a pattern. In this way, students not only know what to expect but you will have a “blueprint” for when you begin to create.

Here are the components with teaching dialogue and internal monologue examples:

Connect: Here you link what you have learned to where you are going in the lesson. Example: you might say, “When we last met we talked about the character traits of your main character. Today, you are going to examine what the character says and thinks to give you a deeper understanding of him/her.”
Teaching Objective: It is crucial to explicitly state to your students what you want them to learn. Example: “Today’s goal is to understand that one of the ways an author moves the plot along is by inserting dialogue between characters.”
Strategies: Here you will give kids a strategy or strategies to meet the objective. Example: “As you are reading, jot down what the character is thinking and if what they are thinking matches their actions. This will often give you a better understanding of the character.”
Engagement: This is where you want to show a real-life example and then have students practice during the lesson. Use “turn and talk” here so that students use a skill in a partnership. Example: “Turn and talk to your partner about what you were thinking when you walked into class today. Did it match the way you acted? ”
Student Objective: This is very important; it’s where students are given directions for their workshop time. Keep it brief and specific. It is always best to note that students should be doing this every time they read, not just in this lesson. Example: “Today and every time you are reading a novel, notice the dialogue between characters and what the character is thinking. Keep track of it in your reading notebook so that you can get a deeper understanding of that character.”

I have a mini-lesson on teaching dialogue and internal monologue in my store:

reading skills mini lesson for middle school on teaching dialogue and internal monologue — Simple but effective lesson on teaching dialogue and internal monologue.

Step 2: Practice with Teaching Reading Skills– Activities for Students

Once kids have learned the skill, it’s time to practice. This is the portion of reading workshop where students go off to work and do something to apply the skill you taught in the mini-lesson to their reading. Be careful not to “kill the skill”…you are looking for application, not a bunch of extra work for your kids.

What practice should NOT look like:

Random worksheets – “skill and drill” style are not conducive to truly learning and applying reading skills
Unrelated exercises – kids should be applying it to the reading they are doing now, or to a mentor text (a short story that is in the same genre as your current unit of study, for example- a short historical fiction story if you are in a historical fiction unit)
Work that is too long – you don’t want kids doing skill work that takes a long time; you want them getting into their reading

What practice SHOULD look like:

Mentor text work: Having a mentor text to refer to throughout a unit is key. You’ll want one that is in the same genre and contains skills that you will be teaching. For example, if you are in a realistic fiction unit and are teaching character traits, symbolism, theme, dialogue, and internal monologue, you’ll want a short story to do that. It should be a high-interest story. I love the story “The Scholarship Jacket” by Marta Salinas for teaching dialogue and internal monologue.
Reading application: As you progress in the unit and kids are reading novels, have them keep a chart of when dialogue and internal monologue is revealing a character trait.
Debate: Having kids debate is a great engagement strategy. For example, students might disagree on whether what a character said matched what they were really thinking. I would keep it quick (maybe 10 minutes) as you want kids actually reading during reading workshop.
Centers: Having kids do centers on a specific skill towards the end of a unit to show what they know and to extend their learning is ideal. It can also help them to prepare for an upcoming assessment. I have centers on dialogue and internal monologue available in my TPT store.