Quotations

Designed by: Hope Darby     School: Pine Grove

Grade Level: fourth     Subject(s): Language Arts

Core Curriculum Objective(s):  Edit for punctuation through an understanding of how punctuation clarifies meaning (end marks, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, underlining), distinguish between correct and incorrect usage. (4WE5)

Overview: Students will learn how conversation is indicated in writing. They will use the dialogue in a comic strip and convert it to written conversation using quotation marks. They will then compose a written conversation with a partner. After editing the conversation, the students will rewrite the conversation on construction paper, adding macaroni noodles for quotation marks.

Focus/Essential Question(s): How can you indicate conversation when you are writing?

Time Frame: 2 fifty minute periods

Resources/Materials: 
Comic Strips 
Construction paper 
Glue 
Macaroni noodles 
Transparency of a comic strip (one that students would be familiar with) 

Culminating Assessment: The teacher will use the following rubric to assess the student's comic strip dialogue.

The teacher will use the following rubric to assess the student's written conversation.   

Instructional Activities: 

Begin the lesson by displaying the comic transparency. Ask students how they know someone is speaking. (They should indicate that the speech bubble shows who is talking and what the character is saying.) 

Then ask students how they know someone is talking when they read a story. (They should indicate that quotation marks show who is talking.) 

Explain that quotation marks are how we show readers that a character is talking. Conversation helps writing become more interesting to the reader. 

Then explain how to use capitalization and punctuation (end punctuation, commas) correctly when writing conversation. Using the transparency comic strip, convert the speech bubbles into conversation with quotation marks. 

Demonstrate how to correctly punctuate the conversation. Explain how to capitalize the first word in the quotation marks. Explain how to use descriptive words such as begged instead of asked, or stammered instead of said. This will make the conversation more exciting. 

After modeling how to write the conversation, give each student their own comic strip and have them rewrite the conversation using quotations marks. Encourage them to use vivid language instead of using the word said. Remind students that their conversation must be correctly capitalized and punctuated. 

Day Two 

Tell students that today they are going to have a written conversation with a partner. Explain that they will write back and forth instead of talking. 

Model this by writing on the board: "Did you have a fun weekend?" Ms. Darby inquired. Ask a student how they might answer. 

Write their response on the board, correctly punctuated. After students have written a conversation on paper, they will edit the conversation to make sure there are no grammatical, spelling, or punctuation mistakes. 

Then they will rewrite the conversation on a piece of construction paper. They will then glue macaroni noodles on the paper where quotation marks should be. 

Allow students to choose a partner and begin writing. Remind students that their final writing should be large enough to allow for macaroni size quotation marks. The written conversations should be displayed in the classroom for others to read. 

If students finish early, they may be interested in going to the official Peanuts web page. The address is www.snoopy.com/.