Creating from speech bubbles

1) Tell everyone that they're going to see a part of a picture story which is about a breakdown in a relationship. Elicit and agree on names for the four characters (the dark-haired woman, the dark-haired man, the light-haired woman, and the light-haired man). Make sure everyone knows what each of the characters are called.

 2) Divide the class into two equal sized groups - A and B. With a large class it may be necessary to subdivide the groups again so that you have three or four students in each mini group (or breakout room).

 3) Show or send group A the image representing part 1 of the story, and group B the image representing part 2. Ask them to work together in their groups to come up with a line of dialogue for each of the speech bubbles. Encourage them to make the utterances as natural as possible and support them in this by monitoring all the groups carefully. Make sure that they are comfortable with actually saying the lines once they've agreed on what they should be.

Part 1

Part 2

4) When everyone's ready, invite the students to form new pairs with an A and a B in each pair. A goes first and tells his or her part of the story, and then B continues. They should make sure they use direct speech in their telling and make the lines of dialogue natural, but also emotionally charged where necessary.

5) Now ask the new pairs to join with another pair and convert their story into a remote theatre performance where they each become one of the characters. There are really only three speaking parts in the play so the dark-haired man character could also become the narrator, and/or technical person.  

6) One or two groups perform their plays to the camera for everyone to see.   

Note:

These images have been kindly reproduced from 'Dialogue Activities' by Nick Bilbrough (Cambridge University Press 2007)