Lesson video

Hello again.

I'm Ms. Waddell.

Today we're going to be practising writing speech.

It's such a useful skill to know because in our stories that we write, and also in stories that we read, people often talk, and so it's really good to know how to do that properly, and lay it out so that your reader understands it.

We're going to practise today and then our next lesson together, we are going to be writing a section of dialogue from Aladdin.

Let's go.

Let's look at how we're going to do this today.

We're going to do a warmup, first of all.

Then we're going to analyse speech, so think about how it conveys what it does to the reader, how it tells us something about the characters, and what they say.

We're going to be exploring synonyms for said, so synonyms are different words that can mean the same thing, something similar.

And then we're going to practise writing some speech.

In this lesson you are going to need an exercise book, a pencil and you need to click on your brain because we are doing something possibly for the first time.

And we need to make sure that we are really focused 'cause it's not difficult.

It just takes a bit of practise.

So if you haven't got any of those things, hopefully you've got your brain, will you pause the video and go and get them now? And when you come back, will you just remember to try and angle yourself, so wherever you're sitting, so that there're as few distractions as possible in front of you.

No TV, no phone apart from the one you're using, unless you're working on a phone.

Just to make sure that you can really concentrate and get the most out of today.

Pause the video and off you go and get those things.

Okay, first of all, I would like you to be the teacher.

Here is something that I've written, and I think I've done all right with it.

I've used an as sentence, I have used some really nice adjectives from my opening.

I've used an adverb, britely, so I feel happy about that.

And loomed, my new word from my last lesson where something looms over.

Vast desert, another nice adjective.

But I do think I might have made some mistakes.

Could you pause the video, read it and decide what you think I need to improve? Pause now? Okay.

So could you just tell me? If you tell me, then I might be able to improve.

Say it nicely because I was trying quite hard.

Yeah, I think there might be some spelling mistakes in there.

Well spotted.

Okay, let's see what they are.

Midnite, britely, and quite.

Yeah, okay, I can see they look a little bit funny now.

So ah yes, because my I fly high likes a T.

So that must be I-G-H-T, midnight.

Okay, I'm going to change those, and also all was quite.

All was, I'll stretch it out, quiet I want to say.

All was quiet.

Okay, so that one's wrong as well.

Thanks for pointing those out.

Let's see what they should be written like.

Okay, I'll change them.

Ah, so midnight, I-G-H-T.

Brightly and quiet.

Thanks for that.

Okay.

What else needs to be improved? Can you tell me? There is another mistake in there, yeah.

I've got my capital letter and I've got my full stop at the end.

Ah, yes, okay.

Yeah, so as, I've put my comma after the as when it should be as the midnight sky darkened, the stars shone brightly.

So it's got to be first one thing, as this was happening, this happened.

So with my comma in the middle to balance them out.

So I need to move that comma.

Let's see where I need to move it to.

After darkened.

As the midnight sky darkened, the stars shone brightly.

I've got a subject on both sides, I've got a verb on both sides.

And that means that my sentence is balanced.

So we're happy with that? Ah.

Can you see anything here? As the midnight sky darkened, the stars shone brightly.

The moon loomed.

Oh hang on, I'm talking about something new.

What do I need then? I haven't joined it together, so I need what was that? Yeah, full stop and a capital.

That way, capital letter.

So full stop after brightly.

New sentence, the moon loomed over the vast, the vast, very, very big, desert and all was quiet.

Thumbs up? Thank you for that.

So here's a new one.

On top of a large sand dune, two shadowy figures suddenly, appeared.

So I think it's quite good.

I've got large sand dune, I've got two shadowy figures.

Suddenly, I've used an adverb, suddenly appeared.

But something does look a bit funny.

Can you see what it is? Can you whisper? Whisper.

Yeah.

So I've got a comma after my adverb but I thought there was supposed to be a comma after my adverb? Oh, yeah.

It's only at the beginning of a sentence.

Is if my adverb or fronted adverbial is at the beginning of my sentence, I have a comma.

But if it's not, I don't.

So I better change that.

So it shouldn't have a comma after suddenly.

There we go.

Thank you.

That's so helpful of you.

Okay, now we are going to analyse speech.

We're going to think about how it's done.

So we need to find out, first of all, or have a little think about how we know what someone's feeling when they say it.

How do we know? Can you tell me? Good ideas.

Yeah, so sometimes we know by their facial expressions, how someone's saying it.

So if I was saying I think that is a really good piece of work, I might be saying that I think it's a really good piece of work but you could tell by my voice that another feeling is happening.

I'm probably maybe a bit angry at the same time.

So you can tell from Jafar's face, and the servant's face, that what they're feeling.

Jafar's probably feeling a bit angry or frustrated, and the servant, well, he just doesn't look very nice.

I'm not sure what his feeling is there.

It's always what they say.

So the words that come out of their mouth.

And it's also how they say it.

So there I was using a deep, angry voice, but I also might say something in a sweet voice but my face is looking angry.

It's quite hard to do that at the same time.

So it's how someone says it as well.

And sometimes we can use an adverb to say how someone says something.

And it's also what we do with our body at the same time.

We might be holding back and saying something like this, or we might be saying something really close.

We might be saying something while shielding our face.

That also tells us the meaning of what we're saying.

It adds to the picture of what is going on for the character.

We're going to watch the clip and I want you to listen very, very carefully to what they say and how they say it because next, we're going to look at synonyms for said.

So think about how it is, what they're saying and how they're saying.

Off we go.

You are late.

1,000 apologies, oh patient one.

You have it then? I had to slit a few throats but I got it.

Uh, uh, uh.

The treasure.

Ow.

Trust me, my pungent friend.

You'll get what's coming to you.

What's coming to you.

So now we're going to look at synonyms for said.

So the different ways that we can show how our characters have said something.

First of all, let's see how well you were paying attention.

Did Jafar bellow.

You're late.

Or mumble.

You're late.

Which one? Left.

Left or right? Point for me.

He bellowed, bellowed, deep and loud.

He bellowed.

Now, the servant, did he howl, so like a wolf.

Like you might howl in pain.

Or did he mutter? Which one, did he howl or mutter? Point to the one.

He muttered it, yeah.

Okay, did Jafar growl what he said or did he snivel.

Like this, like Wormtail in Harry Potter when he really thinks that he wants you to be impressed by him? Which one? Point.

He growled, yeah.

And maybe last one, let's see.

He snarled or did he croak sort of in this kind of way? A croaky voice? Yeah, it's more of a croaky voice.

It's a bit pathetic, even though he's trying to be brave, isn't he? So let's have a little look at other ways that we could say shouted.

You're late! Can you have a think about how you might say that instead of shouted? We just had a few.

Can you remember them? Say them aloud to me.

See if you can write them down, some of the synonyms we had for shouted.

Pause the video and write them down now.

Okay, let's see what you got from that.

Can you tell me? Maybe whisper.

Blow, say it through there like that.

See if you can get it through the screen.

Ready, steady, go.

Boomed.

Snarled.

Growled.

Really good idea, well done.

Let's have a look at the servant now.

So how does he say 1,000 apologies, oh patient one? Pause the video and write down maybe two different synonyms for how he said 1,000 apologies, oh patient one.

Okay, now tell me.

Really good.

Let's see.

We could have replied 'cause he does reply, yeah, that's a thought.

Replied, it doesn't have to be really exact every time.

So replied is useful.

Muttered.

Yeah, we had that one.

Muttered, brilliant.

And maybe snivelled.

Yeah, 'cause he's kind of pathetic but he's trying to be a very brave, evil person, isn't he? Okay, now we're going to have a practise.

Really well done for those suggestions.

They're going to be useful written in your book or on your paper.

We're going to practise some speech now.

Don't worry 'cause some adults even find this difficult getting it right.

You, I bet, are going to be brilliant by the end of this lesson.

Off we go.

Here are some speech punctuation.

My turn, your turn.

Speech marks.

Or you could also call them inverted commas.

Your turn.

Good.

What do they look like? What numbers do they look like? The first two? Yeah, 66.

And the next ones? 99, yeah.

Okay, let's have a look at another piece of punctuation we'll need when we're writing speech.

A trusty comma.

You know that one already.

And a question mark 'cause someone might have a question in something they say.

Or an exclamation mark maybe if someone's shouting or something.

Absolutely, I think you know those ones.

Really well done.

So let's have a look at this speech written down.

We've got our 66, opening speech marks.

And then we've got our 99, closing speech marks.

So our 66 and our 99.

And then we've also got a piece of punctuation to show that that bit of speech is finished.

So they've finished saying what they were saying there.

Here, let's have a look again with the full sentence.

"You're late!" And then boomed, how they said it.

We've got it after the speech marks, you've got boomed but there's no capital letter after that exclamation mark.

That's strange.

That must be because the sentence hasn't quite finished.

"You're late!" boomed Jafar.

It's as if those speech marks protect the next letter from the punctuation there.

So that is not a capital letter, even though it comes after that exclamation mark.

It's like the magical speech marks are protecting it.

So is this right? "You're late!" Snarled Jafar.

Should my S be like that? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Is that good? No, it needs to be a lowercase.

Let's have a look at this one.

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Thumbs down because it's protected by those speech marks.

Let's have a look.

First of all, you also need to remember to have your full stop at the end of the sentence because that's kind of where your sentence is ending.

So within the speech marks, the person who's speaking sentence is ending, and then at the end, after the speech marks, that's when your sentence is ending.

So you need to have your full stop there.

Here I'm going to introduce you to a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful helpful thing for writing speech.

It's called the speech sandwich.

Here we've got our bread and our bread has our opening speech marks, our 66.

Then we've got our tomato.

And our capital letter.

So our opening speech mark, bread, capital letter, tomato.

Then we've got the speech in the middle, the nice cheese, and then we have the punctuation at the end to show the speech sentence has ended.

There we've got an exclamation mark.

And then another bit of bread, the 99 closing speech marks.

So for any good picnic, we need a good speech sandwich.

And that will help you remember all the bits.

You can see it's symmetrical.

You've got the bread, the tomato, the speech, the tomato, the bread.

And that helps you to remember that there needs to be something either side.

There's our 99 for our bread.

And after the speech sandwich, you've got to say who said it with your synonym for said.

You could say said or in a more interesting way, you could say growled.

And then you need to have your full stop at the end of your sentence there.

So let's have a look at this one.

First thing I think to make it easier, it's best if you underline or identify where the speech is by saying it.

So here he says, "Stop!" yelled Jafar.

So you can hear where the speech stops there.

So then we underline the speech.

Then we know what the bread needs to go around.

We've got some bread, our two speech marks around there, and we've got our capital letter, tomato.

We've got our exclamation mark, other tomato.

And then we've got who said it with the lowercase Y.

And the full stop at the end.

So let's have a look at this one.

We've got "I'm sorry for being late," replied the servant.

So I would like you to just identify the speech, decide, you could do symbols with your hand where the different bits of punctuation are.

And then come back and let's have a look.

So pause the video, work out where do you think the bits of your speech sandwich should go? Pause now.

Okay, let's look at it together.

So here's the speech.

"I'm sorry for being late," replied the servant.

So that's our speech.

And there's our speech marks.

Is that what you were thinking as well? We've got speech marks, capital letter.

Let's break it down.

We've got our speech marks for our opening bread.

We've got our capital letter for I, because the person's beginning to speak.

And we've got all our speech, "I am sorry for being late." And then here, he doesn't say it in a really strong or shout-y way, so I've a comma instead of a full stop.

So with speech, when the speech has ended and it's not an exclamation mark or a question mark, it needs to be a comma instead of a full stop.

And then our full stop goes right at the end.

So we close speech marks, small R for replied, and then our full stop right at the end.

Have a look.

Is that how you've thought it should go? You're going to write one down in just a minute, and have a go.

Let's have a go with this one.

Write down this sentence, and then I want you to correct the punctuation and put the speech sandwich in the correct place.

Pause it now, copy it down, underline the speech, underline the speech, put the speech sandwich around.

Remember your tomato, and your tomato on the other side.

And then remember the right at the end.

Pause now and have a go.

Okay, now hold it up to the screen so I can see.

Really good work.

I can see you've had a really good go.

Shall we go through it together? Okay, let's go.

Here we've got our opening speech marks.

Check yours.

Then we've got our capital letter inside the speech marks.

Check yours, give yourself a tick if you've done it.

Then we've got the speech, which you probably underlined.

Then we've got the piece of punctuation inside the speech marks.

Then we've got to close the sandwich with our bread.

And just double check that you have lowercase.

So not a capital there because of the boundary, the barrier, the magical shield of the speech marks.

And then check you've got your full stop at the end.

So just pause and edit yours if yours doesn't look like this.

Wowzers, you have worked so hard.

You've learnt a really good new skill.

In the next lesson together with me, we're going to be putting that into our Aladdin writing.

And so you've had a good chance at practising it.

We're going to write it in the next lesson.

Fantastic work, well done.