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Grade 4 Reading & Writing · World 5: Sentence Harbor · Level 41
Dialogue
Quotation marks, commas, and capitals around exact words, including split quotes ("If you hurry," said Mom, "we'll make it.") and a new paragraph for each speaker.
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 41
- Dialogue is what characters say. Quotation marks go around their exact words, like hands holding them.
- When the speaker comes first, put a comma after said, and start the words with a capital. Grandpa said, comma, quote, The tide is coming in.
- When the speaker comes after, the comma goes inside the quotation marks, instead of a period. A question mark or exclamation mark stays.
- Sometimes the speaker splits one sentence in two. The second part starts with a lowercase letter, because it's the same sentence.
- Each time a new person talks, start a new paragraph. That's how a reader can tell who's talking, even when the writer doesn't say.
- The third line doesn't say who's talking, but the speakers take turns, so it's Ava.
Georgia's K-12 English Language Arts Standards:
- 4.L.GC.1.30 — Mechanics: Recognize and use conventional capitalization, quotation marks, and commas to indicate exact words and dialogue. (Master)