• 7-11
• Urmson
• Finnish

Kirsi Urmson, Rauman normaalikoulu, Finland

Studying punctuation in direct speech

I started studying punctuation with my class when they were on the third grade. The pupils were taken to a situation with a task where there was no puctuation. It was challenging to know who was talking. It was difficult to follow the story.

The pupils were given texts to find out how the direct speech was marked in the texts. This was guite challenging for the third graders.

I decided to make a new attempt with them on the fourth grade. After spending some time on forming rules by the individual pupils, I gave them a simple test. They had to write and puctuate some sentences I read to them out loud.

The variety of answers can be seen on the attached materials. The pupils were given these sheets and they could see right away there is a problem with the rules. There were too many different answers. 

This time they had to use parts of stories I had copied for them to find support for the sentences they thought were written with the correct punctuation.

They were given a work sheet for this. Now they had a more concrete approach to tackle the problem: what kinds od rules do we need for puctuation in direct speech so that one can follow the story.