Writing a Story with Dialogue

Today in school we had to start the process of writing a story with dialogue.  My son hates writing a paragraph much less a story from his imagination....with characters in conversation!  So again we are taking it step by step.

First we are coming up with "seed ideas", using things around us to come up with a plot for his story.  We made a folder out of construction paper to hold all of his "ideas" & then started looking through newspaper, magazines, etc.

I told him to cut out anything that was interesting for a setting....where would the story take place?  Photos of cities, houses, woods, mountains, beaches, etc.   Then I asked him to cut out photos of people that would make interesting "characters".  Old, young, anyone with a different look, etc.   The third thing I wanted him to look for was clothing...what would your characters be wearing?


He taped a sheet of lined paper on the outside of his folder & made a list of the photos that he placed in his folder, that way he knows what information he has saved.  Now when he starts writing his story he can go to the photos when he is describing where they live, what they are wearing, & what the character looks like, etc. Instead of trying to imagine what it would look like he has actual details that he can "see" & describe.

That is the plan...we are still working on the photos.  So far he has found one house, some ice cream cones, & a bunch of animals.  Not exactly what I was looking for but I am going to let him work on this on his own without too much interference on my part.  Who knows, maybe he will write about the animals having a birthday party at the house with ice cream cones!  Of course they will be talking animals since we need dialogue.  Who knows it may turn out to be a great story!