This powerful KS2 grammar resources pack provides everything you need to teach a series of five lessons on punctuating direct speech, culminating in an extended writing task where children can use their grammatical understanding in context.
This primary resource pack includes:
- Direct speech PowerPoint
With explanations, examples and activities to introduce this topic to your class
- Reporting clause PDF cards
These cards come in two sizes and include reporting clauses such as ‘he claimed’, ‘Gary pleaded’ and ‘she whispered’
- Direct speech Challenge worksheets
Tick the sentences that are punctuated correctly, add punctuation where needed to sentences and use the image to write a conversation between the two characters
- Jack and the Beanstalk direct speech story sheet
Rewrite the story using the direct speech given, but add the action, and continue the story with more speech if you want to extend the activity
- Writing plan
Includes an image and writing prompts to plan a short story
- Teacher’s notes
What is direct speech?
Direct speech in writing is where you are directly quoting someone’s words, and these are marked by inverted commas eg “I’ll meet you at the library tomorrow morning,” Sharon said.
Indirect (or reported) speech, on the other hand, is where you are given a rough approximation of what someone said, and doesn’t require quotation/speech marks, eg ‘Sharon told them she’d see them in the library tomorrow.’
What are inverted commas?
Inverted commas go before and after direct speech, surrounding what was said.
Direct speech examples
“I’m bored,” he complained.
“What’s that noise?” he asked. “Your sister!” his dad replied.
The conductor shouted, “Sit down!”
National Curriculum English programme of study links
Use of inverted commas and other punctuation to indicate direct speech