The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 129–130 · Part 1: Part First

37. Quotation marks: Lady Moon

Goal: Your child puts quotation marks around the exact words someone says.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗ 🖨 Copywork sheet

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)

What's in the book

Section 129 introduces quotation marks with Lord Houghton's poem "Lady Moon", a conversation between a child and the moon, and explains direct quotations. Section 130 asks the child to copy the poem with all its quotation marks and then write it from memory.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Read it as a conversation

    Read "Lady Moon" aloud as a little play: your child reads the child's questions, you read the moon's answers.

    "Lady Moon, Lady Moon, where are you roving?"

    "Over the sea."

  2. Find the new marks

    Ask the book's questions: Who asks the first question? Who says "Over the sea"? What new marks do you see, and where?

    Let your child point to each pair of marks and say whose words are inside.

  3. The rule

    Read the end of Section 129 together.

    Whenever, in writing, the exact words of a person are used (or quoted), these words are enclosed in quotation marks.

    Ask: If the marks were left out, how would we know which words were the moon's?

  4. Copy (Section 130)

    Your child copies the poem carefully, with every quotation mark, question mark and capital. Go slowly; quotation marks are easy to forget at the end.

  5. Check it gently

    Your child checks their copy against the book, one stanza at a time, looking only at quotation marks. They fix any missing ones themselves.

  6. Say it, then write it

    Learn the first stanza by heart, then write it from memory with its quotation marks.

  7. What a good result looks like

    Example (written for this guide, not from the book):

    A good copy looks just like the book, line for line: a pair of quotation marks around every question the child asks, a pair around every answer the moon gives, and the question marks inside the marks.

    One of your child's own, to try the rule:

    "Where are you going, little cloud?"

    "Over the hill."

Afterwards

Write the whole poem from memory over the next few days (the book asks for this).

Tip

Quotation marks always come in pairs: one where the speaking starts and one where it stops.

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