Quotation Marks

Punctuation Marks - Quotation Marks

When I was a kid (oh good grief - did I just say that?), punctuation was a regular feature of my day.



I am sure ALL old fashioned teaching strategies included punctuation. It was one of the language activities that every teacher used and used and used.

Throughout my own teaching career punctuation was still a feature of my writing program. It was one of those teaching strategies I inherited from my youth, I suppose.

Of course, language activities have broaden in scope since then (thank goodness), but WE did know our punctuation.

But now I have found, especially in my relief teaching time, that kids really struggle with punctuation. Forget using colons or semicolons! Basic punctuation causes problems.

I know language arts (I think it is back to being called English now) is much more about punctuation.

However, learning punctuation is still an important skills.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are obviously just one of many of the punctuation marks kids need to learn.

Quotation Marks seem simple enough, but honestly, I don't know whether it is sheer laziness or kids don't know.

Kids can't use them.

I have been teaching for a long time - and I mean a LONG time.

I have only been relief teaching for a few years and I have found, without exception, that this is a problem activity for kids in all year levels.

So - Champion of Relief Teaching to the RESCUE!

So constructed this short little PowerPoint which teaches kids how to use Quotation Marks.

I loaded it up on my laptop. It is one of the things in my bag of tricks I take with me whenever I am relief teaching.

It has all the relief teaching boxes covered.

• Teaching
• Individual (Quiet) Work
• Work is corrected.

In the PowerPoint, The quotation marks move around the screen and end up in the right spot.

So I use it a lot when relief teaching.

Teaching

The first component is a teaching component.

That does wonders for the kid's engagement when they find out that they have a relief teacher who is actually going to teach!

Individual Exercises

The second component is individual exercises.

While the kids are doing these activities control the pace of the lesson by hurrying them up.

Let them know you are serious about getting some quality work done.

Work is corrected

After which the kids correct their work.

It would be great if you could get the kids to write a first draft copy and tell them that they have to use quotation marks.

Perhaps that might be something for your next relief teaching day.

Would you like a copy for your next relief teaching day?

DOWNLOAD the file HERE for FREE

You might also like Dianne Bates book on How to Self Edit.

CLICK HERE to download the file.