The Use of Dialogues in the Classroom

Donald Cronkite
1994 Woodrow Wilson Biology Institute

Objectives

• Involve all the students in classroom activity
  
  
• Communicate fact-laden material in a fresh way
  
  
• Initiate discussion and communal solving of problems
  
  
• Have fun learning
  
  

Background

Dialogues have a long and honorable tradition in education. Plato used them to communicate complex philosophy and Galileo used them as the format of two of his most important scientific works, the Two New Sciences and the Two World Systems. At first I thought of writing dialogues to be performed in front of a class, but then I became more aware of a situation in my classes that called for a different solution.

In a class of any size at all there are 'silent students,' often women or minorities, who attend but participate little if at all. There are also subjects which are not very interesting to present as lectures. Especially characteristic are 'fact laden' subjects. For example, I wanted students to learn about the physical and chemical properties of water as they related to biology. The freezing point, boiling point, temperature of greatest density, hydrogen bonds, surface tension, capillary action, specific heat, and on and on are things the students need to know but which I don't want to lecture about.

So I wrote a dialogue and announced to the class that I had decided to reform the drama. Until now the usual way to encounter a play was for a large audience to sit and watch as a small number of actors put on the play. This seems very passive to me, so instead everyone will perform the play simultaneously while a single person (me) watches this performance.

Students are asked to form pairs, and each one is given a script and, when necessary, some props. They are instructed to put on the play, delivering the lines aloud and following all the stage directions. I move around, encouraging students who aren't reading aloud and answering questions when appropriate.

The effect is relatively chaotic for an outside observer. Everyone reads at once. Some really get into it and move around in response to the stage directions. But they get to say things in the class without worrying whether they are correct or not; they encounter potentially dull material in an interesting way; and they take home a script which is also a set of notes for that day's material.

Principles of Dialogue Writing

1. Associate the dialogue with the experience of the class. Have the characters mention things that everyone in the class recognizes. This might be a funny thing that happened at school, a controversy going on in the community, anything that will connect the students' experience with the dialogue. It is also useful to create settings for the dialogues that students can relate to, like the school cafeteria or a place students like to go to. I have tried some with exotic locations like Paris and find that local settings are better received.

2. Make the dialogues short. The example used here is about twice as long as I usually write. This one was written especially for the Woodrow Wilson Institute, and I assumed that I would be able to keep adults interested somewhat longer than students. Usually I strive for 2 typewritten pages. That results in one page duplicated front and back, which is easy for students to handle.

3. Include some stage directions that result in the students moving a little bit. Have someone slap his or her forehead or stand up or something from time to time. This increases the amount of time students will pay attention. I usually write a noticeable action into one of the last lines so that I know when people are coming to an end.

4. Avoid having one character speaking significantly longer than the other. For that matter, avoid any really long speeches by either character. The point is to involve all of the students significantly.

5. Ask the students to recall something or solve a problem as part of the stage directions. Sometimes I have one character ask a question and then the stage directions for the other character say 'Solve that problem' or 'Answer that question.'

6. Avoid situations that might embarrass individuals in the class. I avoid the temptation to write some of the foibles of students into the script. The point is to get everyone into the material in as non-threatening a way as possible, so I decided that I wouldn't take a chance on scaring someone away for a silly reason.

Sample Dialogue: Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, A Drama

The following dialogue is to be used in conjunction with the classic paper of G.H. Hardy which first spelled out the principles of the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. It is meant to elucidate the historical issues and to introduce the idea of the equilibrium, but it is not itself based on fact. I have no idea if Hardy and Yule ever met, but if they did, this is how I would like it to have been.

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Introduction

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