Hans had worked for seven years for a miller. When Hans finished his work, the miller gave him a large bag of gold as payment. Hans grew tired as he carried the heavy bag of gold on his three mile walk home. Along the way, a rider on a horse approached Hans and saw that he looked tired from carrying the gold. Hans expressed that he wished he had a horse to ride home so he wouldn't have to carry the heavy bag.

1. Emily Kissner
Name
Dialogue Assessment
Read the story excerpt below.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Hans was a young man. He had worked for the miller for
seven years. “Hans,”the miller said, “youhave done a good
job.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Now I will give you a bag of gold. This bag of gold is
your paymentfor all of the work that you have done for me.”
Hans took the bag of gold. It was as large as his head! The
miller was a generous man, and Hans had worked hard.
Hans started to leave the mill to walk home to his
mother. He walked for about three miles. Then he grew tired.
The bag of gold was so heavy!
A man came from behind him, riding on a horse. “Hello
there,” said the rider. “Youlook tired.”
“I am tired!” said Hans. “This bag ofgold is heavy. I hate
carryingit.”
“It must be a greatdeal of work.”
“If I only had a horse to ride,” said Hans. “Iwould be
perfectly happy.”
1. Find line 4 in the text. Who is the speaker?
2. Who is the speaker on line 16?
3. Writeanexampleof a speaker tag.
4. Which character says, “You look tired” on line 13?
5. How does the author show the changeof speaker on line 5?

2. Emily Kissner
Answers
1. Hans
2. the rider
3. (answers will vary)
4. the rider
5. indent
Teaching Notes
In manycomplex texts, dialogue conveys importantinformation. Use
thisquickassessment to find out if studentsare ableto read and
understand dialogue.
For more dialogue assessmentsand easy-to-useresources for helping
studentsto read and understand narrativetext, seemy unit on
TeachersPayTeachers: Analyzing StoryElements.
I’ve also writtenabout helping studentstounderstand dialogue inmy
book, The Forest ANDthe Trees: Helping Readersto Understand
Detailsin Textsand Tests.
Permissiongranted for teacherstoreproduce for classroom use. All
other rightsreserved. Emily Kissner 2015.