How Do You Punctuate Direct Speech? Let’s Learn How!

Every year teachers worldwide battle with a common grammatical foe – the quotation mark. Teaching young writers the rules of punctuating direct speech is no simple task. Students won’t learn the material from worksheets alone. They need to ‘see’ the punctuation rules in action within texts! 

We’ve developed another tool for your teacher toolbox–an interactive teaching presentation that specifically addresses direct speech punctuation.

Through this teaching presentation, your students will begin to understand how to use commas and quotation marks to indicate direct speech and quotations in a text.

Practice Applying Direct Speech Punctuation

This presentation works best as an introduction to direct speech punctuation.

This resource uses varied types of sentences—character dialogue and direct quotations from simulated non-fiction texts so that students can practice with both types of direct speech. This resource also requires that students identify sentences with proper use of quotation marks and commas to mark speech.

Scaffolding + Extension Tips 

• Challenge students who already understand the concept to try one of our handy Direct Speech Task Cards.
• Support students who need help understanding the concepts by providing additional thinking time during instruction or a visual reference, such as a quotation marks poster, punctuation mark guide, or speech marks anchor chart, to remind them of their punctuation rules.  

Before You Download

Download the Google Slides resource file by clicking on the Download button. Project the slides onto a screen and start teaching!

This resource was created by Jennifer Hall, a teacher in North Carolina and a Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Make sure students leave your classroom proficient in their punctuation with these resources and activities:   

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