|
|
|
|
| Overview |
 "Hmm," Paul sighed. He looked up at me. "Hey, does the punctuation go inside or out? I mean is it 'do you have my shirt?' or 'do you have my shirt'?"
How many times have you heard a similar question in your classroom? It's not too surprising. The rules shift around so much depending on how the dialogue is used, and what is done can vary depending upon the country you're in. This mini-lesson asks students to look closely at their writing, marking quotation marks and considering how the conventions of punctuation apply.
|
| From Theory to Practice |
By teaching students how to identify the conventions used in their own writing,
self-editing activities such as this quotation marks lesson help students become
more responsible writers. The power is shifted from the "correcting" teacher
to the writers, who are able to make their own corrections.
Constance Weaver argues in Grammar for Teachers (1979), "There seems
to be little value in marking students' papers with 'corrections,' little value
in teaching the conventions of mechanics apart from actual writing, and even
less value in teaching grammar in order to instill these conventions" (64).
Instead, learning about grammar, conventions, and text structures is most effective
when when student writers "learn through language" (see the information
on Literacy Engagements for
more details). Contextualized in the students' own writing and their need to
communicate with their readers, self-editing activities allow students not only
to learn through language but to learn through their own language.
Jeff Wilhelm concurs in his brief "Undoing the Great Grammatical Scam!"
(2001). Wilhelm explains, "If we want students to use language more correctly
in their own writing and speaking, then we must teach them to do so in that
meaning-producing situation that will co-produce and support that learning.
What we need is the contextualized learning of correct language use" (62).
This lesson plan accomplishes that goal.
Read More
Weaver, Constance. 1979. Grammar for Teachers: Perspectives and Definitions.
Urbana: NCTE.
Weaver, Constance, Carol McNally, and Sharon Moerman. 2001. "To Grammar or Not
to Grammar: That is Not the Question!" Voices from the Middle
8.3 (March): 17-33.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. 2001. "Undoing the Great Grammatical Scam!" Voices from the Middle 8.3 (March): 62.
|
| Student Objectives |
Students will
- explore conventions for using quotation marks and other punctuation marks in written dialogue.
- examine their own writing closely using a self-editing activity.
- work toward their own empowerment as writers by correcting their own writing.
|
| Instructional Plan |
Resources
- General rules on quotation marks and enclosing punctuation from your students'
writing textbook or a similar resource
- Student-selected pieces of their own writing
- Overhead or computer-projected example of narrative for class demonstration
Preparation
- Before this lesson, students will have written a text of some sort that
includes dialogue. You might use the lesson plan A
Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Images to Detailed Narrative.
- Arrange for students to have their textbooks on hand, or provide the conventions
on an overhead or on the board. Alternately, you could use the online sheet, Using
Quotation Marks from the Purdue OWL.
Instruction and Activities
- Go over the general rules on using quotation marks with other punctuation
marks. Pay particular attention to the rules governing whether periods, commas,
semi-colons, question marks, exclamation points, and so forth go inside or
outside the quotation marks.
- Read an overhead or computer-projected copy of the dialogue
example with your class. Alternately, you can use a student example (with
the student's permission, of course) or a passage from a book you've read
recently as a class.
- Using the guidelines from your textbook, work through the example text to
demonstrate how to punctuate the sentences.
- Ask students to choose a narrative or another piece of writing that includes
dialogue to examine for their use of quotation marks.
- Have students go through their papers backwards (that is, from the last word
of the text to the first), and underline or circle all the ending punctuation
for dialogue.
- Once their text is marked, ask them to go through the text again, this time
checking the punctuation in the circles to see if the conventions are being
used. Ask students to revise as they go, moving or adding punctuation as necessary.
- Allow students to work at their own pace, using the instructions and their
own text.
- Circulate through the room, helping any students who have questions or comments.
- Collect the highlighted draft with the revised draft.
Web Resources
- Purdue Owl on Using
Quotation Marks
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_quote.html
- Don't have a textbook handy? Use these rules and examples to explain the
conventions related to quotation marks.
|
| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Kidwatching provides the perfect assessment for this activity. As you circulate throught the room, note which students understand the concepts and which need more practice. Provide on-the-spot help for any students who need more examples or instruction.
More formal assessment of the use of quotation marks in the narrative, if you choose to include it, works best as a part of the assessment of the paper itself. |
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
|
|
|
