The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 279–281 · Part 2: Part Second

79. Broken quotations: the Mad Tea Party

Goal: Your child writes a quotation that is broken in two by words like "said Alice", with the right marks.

⏱ About 30 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 279 is "The Courageous Travellers", a short joke for dictation. Section 280 explains broken quotations with sixteen numbered paragraphs from "The Mad Tea Party" in "Alice in Wonderland". Section 281 asks the child to copy the paragraphs with broken quotations.

The lesson, step by step

  1. A joke for dictation (Section 279)

    Read "The Courageous Travellers" together and enjoy the joke.

    "We ran, and they ran after us."

    Your child studies it, then writes it from dictation and checks it against the book.

  2. Read the tea party

    Read the sixteen paragraphs aloud, first just for the story. Take parts: Alice, the Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse.

  3. What is a broken quotation?

    Look at paragraph 7.

    "And be quick about it," added the Hatter, "or you'll be asleep again before it is done."

    Ask: Whose words? Where are they broken? How many pairs of quotation marks? Why is "or" not a capital? (It is the same sentence going on.)

  4. Sort them

    Your child goes through the paragraphs and says for each: broken or entire?

  5. Copy (Section 281)

    Your child copies four paragraphs with broken quotations, with every mark.

  6. Check it gently

    Your child checks against the book, one paragraph at a time, looking at the quotation marks and the comma before the second part. They fix their own slips.

  7. What a good result looks like

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

    "Come here," called Mother, "and look at the rainbow!"

    The quotation is broken by "called Mother"; each piece has its own pair of quotation marks, and "and" has no capital because the sentence goes on.

Afterwards

Read more of "Alice in Wonderland" together; the book recommends it.

Answers to the book's problems

Section 280, broken quotations: paragraphs 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16. Entire: 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14.

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

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