This unit has been designed for Year 5, Year 5/6 and Year 6 teachers to support children's understanding and development of using dialogue to convey character and advance the action in narratives.

This document can be used to support planning a series of extended warm-ups alongside a unit of work, be taught as a discrete unit - as targeted support for a group of children, or as part of a narrative unit during the analysis phase of the teaching sequence.

The focus of this unit is to generate, explore and use a toolkit for integrating dialogue to convey character and integrating dialogue to advance the action in narratives. Children sometimes include dialogue in narratives without much regard for how it supports and adds to the overall story. This unit has been specifically designed to target and develop this skill.

The National Curriculum Programme of Study for Year 5 and Year 6, within the composition statutory requirements states that: Pupils should be taught to draft and write narratives by: describing settings, characters and atmosphere and integrating dialogue to convey character and advance the action.

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Published 2026