indirect speech worksheet ks2

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• Direct Speech And Indirect Speech Resources And Worksheets Ks2

Direct speech and indirect speech – 9 of the best resources and worksheets for KS2 SPaG

Help children know when and how to use speech marks in direct speech, and why not to use them in indirect speech, with these lessons, activities, worksheets and more for Key Stage 2 grammar…

What is direct speech?

Direct speech in writing is where you are writing down a direct quotation of someone’s actual words, and these are marked by inverted commas eg “I’ll meet you at the library tomorrow morning,” Sharon said.

What is indirect speech?

Indirect speech (or reported speech), on the other hand, is where you are given a rough approximation of what someone said, not their exact words, and doesn’t require quotation/speech marks, eg ‘Sharon told them she’d see them in the library tomorrow.’

What are inverted commas?

Inverted commas go before and after direct speech, surrounding what was said.

Direct speech examples

• “I’m tired,” she yawned.
• “What’s that sound?” he asked. “It’s coming from under the floorboards!” Elle replied.
• The police officer shouted, “There they are!”

Indirect speech examples

• Mrs Weismann asked you to go see her in her office.
• My dad told me to clear up my room.
• Jerry said he found the book out in the playground.

1 | Getting speech punctuation right at KS2 guide

Perfectly punctuating dialogue is something that can trip up even experienced editors – but this quick guide should help pupils get it right, from the start.

Read it here.

2 | Punctuating direct speech resource pack

This powerful KS2 grammar resources pack provides everything you need to teach a series of five lessons on punctuating direct speech, culminating in an extended writing task where children can use their grammatical understanding in context.

Get this resource pack here.

3 | Direct speech challenge worksheets

Similarly, this bright, appealing grammar worksheet is an excellent way to practise and revise using direct speech in Year 4.

It is divided into five sections: understand, challenge, test, explain and apply.

Activities include SATs style questions and opportunities for creative writing responses, with eye-catching images as prompts.

Find this one here.

4 | Learn speech conventions through knock, knock jokes worksheet

This resource sheet from Rachel Clarke uses a small-steps approach to slowly scaffold children through the rules and conventions of dialogue. In the first instance pupils are simply asked to rewrite knock, knock jokes in speech bubbles.

Once they’ve got the hang of this, they should then be encouraged to write the name of the speaker and ‘said’ before each speech bubble. The second level asks pupils write each line of the knock, knock joke using inverted commas.

Each example on this sheet starts with the reporting clause before the dialogue, which enables pupils to practise adding a comma after the reporting clause.

Download it here.

5 | Speech marks washing line

This handy idea was created by Clarice Morley, an English teacher in a Pupil Referral Unit, who found her boys were struggling with the use of speech marks.

They invented three characters – male, female and a rabbit – and produced some labels such as “Rory exclaimed” and “Brenda whispered”. Clarice then stretched a washing line across the board, and had two pegs with the speech marks on.

The boys would write something someone would say onto a piece of paper, then they matched one of the labels with one of their speeches, and hung the speech on the washing line.

They soon grasped it is only the reported speech that hangs on the line, and the pegs (speech marks) keep it in place.

Print out the worksheet for this resource here.

6 | How to use inverted commas video guide

For a nice little introduction or recap to inverted commas, watch this video of Mr Thorne take you through their uses.

It’s clearly explained with large captions across the bottom so that children can see his examples written out with the correct punctuation.

7 | Speech mark rules

There are many “rules” of speech marks, but no definitive list, and you don’t want to overwhelm children with too many while they’re just learning.

So this Rising Stars list of five rules is a nice size for children to read and take in.

Check it out here.

8 | Quotation marks worksheet

This two-page worksheet has six tasks and an extension all revolving around punctuating speech.

So it starts with putting speech marks into sentences, then putting speech marks and all other punctuation, before building up to punctuating longer passages.

Print it here.

9 | Inverted commas worksheet set

This resource set has three parts. One is ‘Witch and Tiger Conversation’, which shows ten pictures with blank speech bubbles. Children choose names for the witch and the tiger, then create the contents of the conversation.

Next they re-write this conversation in the form of a story by adding phrases such as ‘said Tom’ and ‘asked Joe’ as well as speech marks and other punctuation.

The second and third parts are ‘Missing Speech Marks’ worksheets, where children need to add speech marks to sentences.

Get all this here.

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KS2 KS3 literacy punctuation speech marks direct and indirect speech SPAG worksheet

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

6 July 2021

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Three short literacy worksheets about identifying and correctly punctuating direct and indirect speech, and converting between them. Ideal for year 5 (who are confident readers), year 6, and maybe year 7 and year 8. Works well as a starter, main SPAG activity, homework, home learning or cover work.

The first sheet involves adding speech marks to sentences containing direct speech.

The second sheet involves simply identifying whether a sentence is an example of direct or indirect speech.

The third sheet involves converting between direct and indirect speech.

I gave this as a starter for a cover lesson for my “top” year 5 class, and it was given as homework for another year 5 class. Children seemed to enjoy this, and it did help consolidate the correct punctuation of direct speech. I recommend this as a consolidation activity to children who have a firm understanding of written speech.

I recommend giving this 15-20 minutes to complete, with more time if children are cutting and sticking this into books themselves (a good idea for fine motor skills), and then 10 or so minutes to self-assess or peer-assess. The answers are unambiguous, so it is easy to self/peer-mark as a whole class.

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Who said what? – direct and reported speech

A worksheet on direct and reported speech for upper KS2. Includes sample text for children to rewrite: e.g. some text of reported speech to be rewritten as directed speech and some text of direct speech to be rewritten as reported speech. Includes examples to help guide children.

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Practise and revise identifying and using direct and reported speech with this bright, appealing PDF grammar worksheet. Pupils will have the opportunity to rehearse various speech rules in KS2 when punctuating direct speech. Activities include test-style questions and opportunities for creative writing responses, with eye-catching images as prompts. This primary resource is divided into five sections: Understand Match the direct and reported speech Challenge Rewrite the reported speech as direct speech Test Identify direct and reported speech and punctuate direct speech correctly Explain Explain the difference between direct and reported speech Apply Write a short newspaper article that contains direct and reported speech

What is direct speech ?

Direct speech writes exactly what a person says, punctuated using inverted commas and other speech punctuation.

For example:

‘Everyone must follow the rules,’ explained Roger.

What is reported speech?

Reported speech states what someone said without necessarily reporting their actual words. For example: Roger explained that the rules must be followed by everyone. National Curriculum English programme of study links

Pupils should be taught to use and punctuate direct speech

This resource is part of the SPaG Gym collection. View more from this collection

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