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  I taught students with fun lesson plans for reading and language arts. I taught them independent reading strategies. I taught students how to use commas and semicolons. I felt good. Then I read their narrative essays and unleashed a banshi-like scream of regret. I had failed to teach my students the importance of quotation marks and punctuation. I needed to punish myself, so I walked to the auto shop and riveted my hand to a metallic table. The pain knocked me out. When I awoke, there hovered directly over me a giant, mustached pair of quotation marks discussing comma use with quotations. They then transported me back to my classroom, whacked me on the head with jumper cables, and knocked me out again.

  When I awoke, a comma use with quotations lesson plan rested on my desk. Unfortunately, the principal fired me on account of the damage caused to the auto shop. I never got to use my lesson plan.

  But you can.
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  Rules: Quotation Marks and Punctuation

  • Use quotation marks at the beginning and end of a direct quotation. Do not use them, however, to set off an indirect quotation.
    • Bob said, "I doubled my money in the stock market last month!"
    • Bob lied about doubling his money in the stock market last month.
  • Punctuate a speaker's words with a comma, question mark, or exclamation point inside the quotation.
    • Bob cried, "I'm ruined!"
    • Bob wondered, "Am I ruined?"
    • "I'm happier than Lenny at a petting zoo," Bob's enemy said.
  • Place a comma after explanatory words (he said, for example)
  • In dialogue, begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes and use a separate set of quotation marks.
  • Use single quotation marks when using quotation marks inside of quotation marks.
    • He said, "I know she said, 'Let's go to the Dominican Republic, this summer,' but I'd rather go to Hawaii."
  • Put a colon or semicolon outside the closing quotation mark
    • Here are things "not to do": thing 1, thing 2, thing 3.
  • If a sentence that includes a quotation is a question or exclamation, place the question mark or exclamation point outside the quotation marks.
    • Are you familiar with "The Road Not Taken"?
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  Procedures and Assessment

  • Before discussing quotation marks and punctuation, assign students to write a page of straight dialogue for three different scenes: this is most effective when using a piece of literature you're currently reading.
  • Review rules for punctuating quotations and dialogue.
  • Instruct students to rewrite the dialogue into a prose story.
  • Assessment should be based on technical aspects of punctuating quotations.
  • For lesson plans on writing effective dialogue or creating good dialogue, try one of these lessons.
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  Your Dreams Come True

  Looking for a standards based syllabus for high school language arts? Click the link and find all the resources--lesson plans, unit plans, handouts, powerpoints--you need for an entire semester at brighthub.com.

Mechanics

1. Lesson Plan: How to Use Commas Correctly?
2. Lesson Plan: Using Semicolons
3. Lesson Plan: Quotation Marks and Punctuation
4. Lesson Plan: When to Use a Hyphen
5. Lesson Plan: Teaching Apostrophe Use
6. Teach Your Class How to Use Parentheses (It's Really Easy)