When I was teaching school, many of my second graders struggled with placing quotation marks in their writing. This first surprised and then puzzled me.
I thought it was relatively obvious to discern which the spoken words were when I read. I didn’t have time to stop and figure this out. In retrospect, it seems that the difficulty for my students might lie in the fact that when a child is reading a passage, he is speaking ALL of it. So there is a bit of a challenge to separate words spoken by a character in the passage from those he is speaking. A tactile activity or a skit could help clear up the confusion.
 

Let’s use the story of the Little Red Hen, as it is chock full of spoken words:

 

Little Red Hen had seed.

 

“Who will help me work?” said Little Red Hen.

“Not I,” said Pig.

“Not I,” said Cat.

“Not I,” said Duck.

“We want to play,” said they.

 

Then Little Red Hen had wheat.

 

“What can I do with this?” said Little Red Hen.

“I will get help. I will call Duck, Cat, and Pig,” she said.

Little Red Hen ran to Duck, Pig, and Cat.

“I have wheat. Who will help me?” asked Little Red Hen.

 

“Will you, Pig?” asked Little Red Hen.

“No, not I,” said he.

“Will you, Cat?” asked Little Red Hen.

“No, not I,” said he.

“Will you, Duck?” asked Little Red Hen.

“No, not I,” said Duck. “We are busy.”

 

So Little Red Hen did the work. Little Red Hen made bread.

 

“That smells good!” said Duck, Cat, and Pig.

“Is that for us?”

 

“NO! Stop!” said Little Red Hen.

“I did the work. You did the play. So I will eat this bread.”

And so she did.

 

What you will need for this activity:
 

How to play:
 

Read the story to your child first. Ask her to identify the characters in the story. She would say, “Little Red Hen, Duck, Pig, and Cat.” Then tell her she will act the part of the Little Red Hen, and you will be the other characters.
 

Review the story, this time with her looking at the words with you. You will read the first line: Little Red Hen had seed. Next let her know it is her turn to speak. Underline with her the words she will speak: Who will help me work?
 

Talk your way through the story, reading together, and talking about the words actually spoken by each of you, and then underlining the spoken words with your marker. Use one color for the words spoken by Little Red Hen and another color for the other characters. Doing this will provide a color-coded text and will highlight the spoken words.
 

When you get through the story this way, tell your child you can just act out the play again, just reading the words that are underlined. Doing this activity will show her visually the spoken words and as she sees them, she will also hear herself and you speaking those words.
 

Add quotation marks:
 

Explain to your child that we use quotation marks to surround the words someone has said. A quote is a faithful repetition of the words someone spoke. Quotation marks tell the reader instantly that you are reading exactly what that character said. Insert quotation marks around “Who will help me work?” Have your child identify the next words that are spoken and let her insert the quotation marks. Continue like this until you have punctuated the whole story.
 

This activity will not only help your child understand what quotation marks mean, but will help her in reading other text. Best of all, her writing will reflect her understanding of how to use correct punctuation with conversation.

Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.

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