Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Punctuation sequence

Who Said That?

Inverted commas for direct speech

Lesson 7 of 14
Year 3 45 min

Objective

Use inverted commas to enclose the spoken words of direct speech, keeping the reporting clause outside and starting the speech with a capital letter.

Board title: Speech marks  ·  Say it: “Today we're putting speech marks around the exact words somebody said, keeping the speaker's name outside, and starting the first spoken word with a capital letter.”

Curriculum

  • Y3: introduction to inverted commas to punctuate direct speech
  • Terminology: inverted commas (speech marks) · direct speech
  • STA domain: G5.7
  • Forward link: the comma, end punctuation inside the marks and new speaker new line come in Lesson 8

Success criteria

  • open and close the marks around spoken words
  • keep the speaker's name outside the marks
  • start the first spoken word with a capital
  • write my own sentences with somebody speaking

Key vocabulary

inverted commas · speech marks · spoken words · speaker · capital letter

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: say a line of speech yourself, then ask how they would write down that YOU said it. Show Come inside now. twice, once inside marks, and ask which one they can hear. Say 'hold that thought' and move on.
9 min
Model with the café: say Mia said, "Two pizzas, please." aloud and draw the marks in the air where your mouth opened and where it shut, three times. Then the capital, the bit they drop: in The waiter said, "Enjoy your meal." a new voice starts, so a new capital starts, even in the middle of a sentence.
8 min
Places, Please! on the whiteboard, Mild band. Read all three versions aloud before the class votes, and say out loud only the words inside the marks. The bands are round counts, not year tiers, and a few items are plain capital or full-stop questions, use those as warm-ups or skip past to the speech items.
5 min
The trap and the votes: read "It is too spicy! laughed Ben." aloud in a single speaking voice, Ben never said the words laughed Ben, the marks have swallowed the sentence. Then the four vote pairs, a child says WHY before each reveal (answers: a-left, b-right, c-right, d-left).
15 min
Worksheet, independent. Circulate on Task 3: the starters open the marks for them, Mia said, ", so the slip to hunt is opened-and-never-closed, make every writer touch their closing mark with a finger. On Spicy, watch for marks creeping onto Marco said that the soup was ready, nobody said those exact words.
3 min
Plenary: two children read a Task 3 sentence, one reading only the words inside the marks. Then the class quiz: Polpetta wrote "Dinner is ready, called Nonna.", did Nonna say the words called Nonna?
On screenSPAGhetti → Places, Please! → Mild. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. Read the bank first: the bands are round counts, not year tiers, and a few items are plain capital-letter or full-stop questions rather than speech. Use those as a warm-up or skip past them; the speech items are what you are here for. ~8 items in 10 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Punctuation sequence · Lesson 7 of 14  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils Who Said That? · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. Or say a line yourself and have two children hold up their arms as the opening and closing marks while the class decides where they should stand.
If they're on devicesLesson code TALKC (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

Marks around the whole sentence. "It is too spicy! laughed Ben." They read the sentence as one event and box the lot. Read it back in a single speaking voice; the ear catches what the eye missed.

No capital on the spoken word. Dad said, "well done!" They think a capital only belongs at the start of a sentence. A new voice starts, so a capital starts.

Opened and never closed. She asked, "Are you ready? The child hears the speech end and stops writing. Teach them as a pair, like brackets, the second one is not optional.

Marks on reported speech. Marco said that the soup was ready. Nobody said those exact words, so no marks. If they cannot point to the mouth the words came out of, the marks stay off.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: give the spoken words already written; they add the marks and the capital only. Game on Mild.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read Task 2 aloud in character before they edit.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, write a short exchange where two different people speak.
  • EAL: some first languages use dashes or angle marks for speech. Show the difference once, plainly, and do not treat the old habit as an error.

Play it

Lesson code TALKC at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Punctuation sequence · Lesson 7 of 14  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora