Lesson video

Welcome back students, I'm Mrs.Bayley and this is your lesson on breaking up direct speech with dialogue tags.

For today's lesson, you will need a pen and some paper.

You will also need to make sure that your brain is switched on.

Before we begin, just take a moment to ensure that you have removed any potential distractions, such as your mobile phone.

You could turn your phone off, or you could put it on silent and away out of sight, perhaps in a drawer.

Before we start the main tasks, I'm just going to talk you through what we're going to do in the lesson today.

We're going to start off with a recap on dialogue tags, dialogue tags that introduce direct speech and dialogue tags that follow direct speech.

Then we are going to recap on pronouns.

Then we are going to learn how to break up direct speech with dialogue tags.

And that's our new learning for today.

And then it will be your turn to demonstrate your understanding of the new learning.

And finally, as always, you will test your knowledge by completing the exit quiz.

Fantastic, let's begin.

Recap on dialogue tags that introduce direct speech and dialogue tags that follow direct speech.

So over to you, which sentence has been punctuated correctly? I would like you to pause the video, read through the sentences, and I'd like you to write down which sentence has been punctuated correctly.

Is it one, two or three? Pause the video and complete that task now.

Absolutely fantastic work if you said sentence two.

Sentence two starts with a dialogue tag.

The dialogue tag introduces the direct speech.

So we know that we need to put a comma after the dialogue tag, but before the inverted commas.

So sentence number two has a comma before the open inverted commas, but sentence one and sentence three do not have those commas in the correct place.

So number two is the correct one.

Okay.

Let's take a moment to stop and reflect.

I talked to you through one of the rules there, but can you remember it? And what else can you remember in terms the rules? So my question to you is can you remember the punctuation rules that we need to apply when starting a sentence with a dialogue tag? I'd like you to pause the video and write down the rules that you can remember as a bullet point list.

Are you ready students? Brilliant.

Pause the video and do that now.

Absolutely fantastic work.

So, when a dialogue tag starts off the sentence and introduces direct speech, a capital letter is needed at the start.

Did you remember that rule? We also need to remember that a comma is needed after the dialogue tag.

So after the dialogue tag, but before the open inverted commas.

So let's have a look at what that looks like.

So as you can see in this example, capital letter at the start.

Now, you would always have a capital letter for a name anyway, for a proper noun.

But it's also important to remember that you would need a capital letter, if it was a pronoun too.

Let's say if it was he or she, you would need a capital letter.

So you always need a capital letter at the start if the start of your sentence is a dialogue tag, okay? Because it's the start of your sentence.

So a capital letter is always needed at the start when you introduce direct speech with a dialogue tag at the beginning of the sentence.

And then let's have a look, yes, a comma is needed after the dialogue tag and before the open inverted commas.

And we can see that there.

So now let's have a look at the next recap activity.

So I'm going to ask you again, can you identify which sentence has been punctuated correctly? So I also want you to notice before you do this task, that the dialogue tag is at the end of these sentences.

The dialogue tag is that the end of each of these example sentences.

So have a little think about that.

How does that change things with regards to our punctuation rules? So think about that.

And I want you to pick out the sentence that's been punctuated correctly and write down the number of it.

Is it one, two or three? So pause the video, read the sentences carefully and write down your answer.

Do that now.

Absolutely fantastic.

Very, very well done if you wrote down number three.

Now, I'm not going to tell you why that answer is correct just yet, because we will explore that in our next task.

Here we go then.

So reflection time again.

This time I'm going to ask you the following question.

Can you remember the punctuation rules we need to apply when ending a sentence with a dialogue tag? So what are the punctuation rules we need to follow when the dialogue tag follows the direct speech and is that the end of a sentence? I would like you to pause the video now and write down the rules you can remember in a bullet point list.

Do that now.

Well done students, fantastic work.

Thank you.

So, when a dialogue tag follows direct speech, a comma is needed after the direct speech, before the close inverted commas and a capital letter is not needed at the start of the dialogue tag if you were using a pronoun.

Now let's have a look at what those two things look like.

So a comma is needed after the direct speech, but before the close inverted commas, you can see that there, the comma has been placed after hungry, but before the close inverted commas.

You can also see that this time we do not have a capital letter.

A capital letter is not needed for the pronoun if it follows the direct speech and it's at the end of the sentence.

So that is the rule.

But, if it is a proper noun, if it is a proper noun like Ben, or Kaleel, or Katie, you would need to use a capital letter.

Okay.

I would like you to write a short paragraph based on this image.

It looks as though Dan and Tina are having a special meal for Tina's birthday.

In your short paragraph, I would like you to describe what is happening in the scene.

However, only Dan should speak.

You can describe Tina's actions, for example, Tina smiled, or Tina picked up her glass, but only Dan should speak in this paragraph.

You need to include at least two lines of direct speech from Dan.

Finally, for this task, I want you to position your dialogue tags at the end of your sentences.

You could start like this: It was a warm summer evening.

"I hope you enjoy your meal," Dan said.

He lifted.

And then you could complete the sentence.

And maybe after that sentence, you could include another line of direct speech from Dan.

So if you are stuck, you can start off like that and finish what I've started there.

Are you ready students? Pause your video and complete the task now.

Brilliant.

Well done students, good work.

How did you get on? In your paragraph, did you start your dialogue tags with a lower case letter if you used a pronoun? Because remember our dialogue tags were positioned, we should have positioned them at the end of the sentence.

So if you used a pronoun instead of a proper noun, it should have a lowercase letter, not a capital.

So you can see my example that in the pink writing.

"Happy Birthday!" he said.

So he is lowercase, not a capital.

Did you put a comma in before you closed your inverted commas? Now I didn't, in my example, in pink there, because I used an exclamation mark.

But if it's a sentence where normally outside of direct speech, you would put a full stop.

Then you would, in this case, you would put a comma before you close your inverted commas.

So did you remember to do that? And did you remember to put a full stop at the end of your sentence? Well done students.

If you would like to take a moment to just tick and fix your work, please do pause the video now.

Okay, we're going to recap on using pronouns in dialogue tags.

As with any of the sentence when writing direct speech, we need to know when to use pronouns so that our writing does not become repetitive or confusing.

Do you remember what pronouns are? Here are some examples of pronouns, he, she, they, it.

Now pronouns are very useful, they stand in the place nouns.

Instead of saying, for example, Jayden went to the shop.

Jayden bought a drink.

Jayden walked home.

I can say Jayden went to the shop.

He bought a drink.

He walked home.

Using pronouns can stop our writing from sounding repetitive and confusing.

Okay, checkpoint time.

Which of the following is not a pronoun.

Is it A, it, B she, C He, or D Michael.

I would like you to pause your video and write down your answer now.

Absolutely fantastic if you wrote down D.

D is not a pronoun, it is a proper noun.

So pronouns can stand in place of nouns.

Michael cannot do that.

Okay, so you can't substitute Jayden.

Going back to my previous example, Jayden went to the shop.

Jayden bought a drink.

I couldn't substitute one of those Jayden's for Michael.

I could substitute one of those Jayden's for, he.

So Michael is a proper noun not a pronoun.

She is a pronoun, we use she in place of a girl's name.

It is also a pronoun.

We would use that in place of something that is an object generally or something that isn't human.

For example, instead of saying the noun phrase, the phone and the phone is over there.

I can say it's over there, it is over there.

So D is not a pronoun, it cannot take the place of a noun.

Okay, here is another task for you.

Can you make these sentences make more sense by removing some of the words and replacing them with pronouns? So let's have a look at the first one.

The boy said, "That's not fair!" The boy was angry.

"Wait until we play again next week," the boy said.

And the second example, "I won," the girl said.

The girl sat quietly for a moment.

"I can understand why you are frustrated though," the girl said.

So what I would like you to do is I would like you to pause your video, I would like you to rewrite the sentences, but I would like you to take some of the words out and replace them with pronouns so that it makes more sense.

I'd like you to pause video and complete that task now.

Absolutely fantastic students, well done.

Now don't worry, there is more than one correct way of completing this task.

There's more than one, correct answer.

Let me just talk you through that.

So, I've put, The boy said, "That's not fair!" He was angry.

"Wait until we play again next week," he said.

Now you might have just chosen to change one of those into he.

You might've kept two of the boys in there.

The boys said, "That's not fair!" The boy was angry.

"Wait until we play again next week," he said.

And that's absolutely fine, you didn't have to change both of them.

And you do have that freedom as a writer.

If you're writing makes sense, and it's not too repetitive, it doesn't matter which ones you turn into pronouns.

It doesn't matter how many you turn into pronouns, as long as it makes sense.

And it's the same for the second example.

So I've kept the girl the same for that first one, but I've changed the other two, the girls to she.

You might have just chosen to change one of them and that's absolutely fine, absolutely fine.

As long as your writing, isn't too repetitive and it makes sense, it's absolutely fine.

Well done.

Okay, it's now time for the new learning, breaking up direct speech with dialogue tags.

Dialogue tags can be inserted into the middle of a line of direct speech.

This can provide further meaning and effect.

Let's have a look.

Paul said, "I'm not saying you did it on purpose but you did hurt my feelings." Look at this next version.

"I'm not saying you did it on purpose," Paul said, "but you did hurt my feelings." The first one again: Paul said, "I'm not saying you did it on purpose but you did hurt my feelings." "I'm not saying you did it on purpose," Paul said, "but you did hurt my feelings." I want you to say them aloud to yourself.

I want you to just take a couple of minutes to read those two sentences aloud.

And I'd like you to think which one do you think is most effective and why? So you don't have to write anything down for this.

I just want you to pause the video, read both options aloud.

And I want you to just think about which do you think is the most effective and why? Okay.

What do you think? We probably have different opinions and that is absolutely fine.

Different readers will always have different responses to each other.

But I personally, I think the second sentence is more powerful and emotive really by placing the dialogue tag in the middle, the writer that has really slowed down the pace, creating a sad and sombre better tone.

It gives me the impression that Paul is feeling sorrowful and reflective.

Inserting dialogue tags into the middle of sentences is a fantastic skill to learn.

Let's have a look at how we do it.

When we insert a dialogue tag into the middle of a line of direct speech, we must put a comma at the end of the first part of the sentence before the close inverted commas.

Can you see that after purpose? I'm not saying you did it on purpose, comma, close inverted commas.

We must only include a capital letter at the start of the dialogue tag, if we are using a proper noun.

So because Paul is a proper noun, we use a capital letter, but if this was a pronoun like he, or she, if we're putting it in the middle of our sentence, we would not use a capital letter.

We must also remember to put a comma after the dialogue tag, before the next set of open inverted commas, here.

Okay, let's recap.

So when we're inserting a dialogue tag into the middle of a sentence of direct speech, we must put a comma at the end of the first part of the sentence before the close inverted commas, we must only use a capital letter in the dialogue tag, if it's a proper noun.

And we must remember to put a comma after the dialogue tag, before the next set of open inverted commas.

So let's just check your understanding of that.

Which of these sentences has not been punctuated correctly? So you're going to pause the video, you're going to read the three sentences and you're going to write down one, two or three.

Absolutely fantastic if you selected three.

This one does not include a comma after the first part of direct speech.

Can you see that? So the other two do that, correctly.

There's a comma after way and before the close inverted commas.

And there's a comma after so, before the close inverted commas.

But in sentence number three, there is not a comma.

The writer's forgotten to put a comma after you.

So three is not correct.

There we go.

Okay, are you ready for the final section of the lesson? So what I would like you to do is you're going to shortly, after I've explained the task and gone through an example, what you'll be doing is you will be inserting a dialogue tag into direct speech.

So it says: Can you insert the dialogue tag into the direct speech where indicated? You should create your own dialogue tags.

You can use pronouns or proper nouns.

So let's have a look.

"Emily, I don't think you realise how serious this is." So the arrow is pointing just sort of after Emily.

So that is where I'm going to insert my dialogue tag.

So here is my example, "Emily," and I've put a comma and closed my inverted commas, she said, common open inverted commas.

"I don't think you realise how serious this is." So I've remembered my three rules, comma before the close inverted commas, I do not use a capital letter for a pronoun.

So that's why she has a small s.

Then I've got another comma before opening the inverted commas.

So, this is what I want you to do.

I would like you to do the same thing.

I would like you to have a look at these two sentences, see where the arrow is pointing and where the arrow is pointing, I want you to insert a dialogue tag.

Now it's up to you what your dialogue tag is, you could use a pronoun or you could make up a name.

You could put said for each one, or you could mix it up a little bit and put something like muttered, or whispered, or signed.

So that's up to you.

Good luck with this task.

I would like you to pause the video and complete the task now.

Very, very well done.

That was a difficult task.

How did you get on? Now, please be assured that there are many different answers here.

So we may have different answers.

There is certainly more than one option.

There's many options for the dialogue tags.

So don't, worry about that.

You can have all sorts of muttered, whispered, screamed, bellowed.

So there's lots of options for that.

However, we should have all followed the same punctuation rules.

Let's go through this.

So does your answer look like this? "Whenever I hear that song," comma close inverted commas.

So you should have the comma and close inverted commas.

Did you get that? Now if you used a pronoun, it should be lowercase, it shouldn't be a capital.

So if you put he, or she, you should have a lower case letter.

Then you should have a comma.

Did you remember the comma? So the comma comes before the open inverted commas.

Fantastic.

And it's the same punctuation rules if you used a proper noun, but if you used a proper noun like Mrs. Jones or Kevin, then you do use capital letters, 'cause we do use capital letters for proper nouns.

How did you get on with that? Would you.

I think it would be a good idea to pause your video and just really check your punctuation now.

So do you make any corrections, don't worry if you got it wrong, that is how we learn.

So pause and mark your work now.

Okay, let's look at the next sentence.

So it's the same again, comma, close inverted commas, then lowercase letter for the pronoun, comma again, open inverted commas.

And it says it's the same, same rules if you used a proper noun, but apart from the fact that it is a capital letter for a proper noun.

So did you use some interesting virtuosos in your dialogue tags? Some of you might have chosen to write something like whispered, so fantastic.

Well done for your hard work.

Do pause the video and mark your work now.

Okay.

That was a lot to take in today.

You've done absolutely brilliantly.

Before you do your exit quiz, I just want to say thank you so much for your hard work.

You have done a fantastic job.

If you are able to, please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to you share it with your teacher so they can see all the fantastic things you've learned today.

And if you'd like, ask a parent or carer to send a picture of your work to Oak National on Twitter and that way I can see your wonderful work too.

Well, thank you very much for all your hard work and don't forget to complete your exit quiz.

Thank you, well done students.