Page 47 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 1.5
continued
He Said, She Said: Characterization
Grammar USaGe
Punctuating Dialogue
Look at how the writer uses dialogue in paragraphs 16–21. What do you notice about the use of quotation marks? How does the writer indicate who is speaking?
When writing dialogue, remember these points:
• Place a person’s spoken words inside quotation marks (beginning and ending).
• Place the period, comma, exclamation mark, or question mark inside the ending quotation mark.
• Capitalize the first word of dialogue.
• Start a new paragraph when a different character speaks.
my Notes
17 “Hi!”
18 I’m still trying to pull free, but the girl’s got me in a death grip. My mom’s grinning,
looking at our hands and my fiery red face. “And what’s your name, honey?”
19 “Julianna Baker. I live right over there,” she says, pointing with her unoccupied hand.
20 “Well, I see you’ve met my son,” she says, still grinning away.
21 “Uh-huh!”
22 Finally I break free and do the only manly thing available when you’re seven years old—I dive behind my mother.
23 Mom puts her arm around me and says, “Bryce, honey, why don’t you show Julianna around the house?”
24 I flash her help and warning signals with every part of my body, but she’s not receiving. Then she shakes me off and says, “Go on.”
25 Juli would’ve tramped right in if my mother hadn’t noticed her shoes and told her to take them off. And after those were off, my mom told her that her dirty socks had to go, too. Juli wasn’t embarrassed. Not a bit. She just peeled them off and left them in a crusty heap on our porch.
26 I didn’t exactly give her a tour. I locked myself in the bathroom instead. And after about ten minutes of yelling back at her that no, I wasn’t coming out anytime soon, things got quiet out in the hall. Another ten minutes went by before I got the nerve to peek out the door.
27 No Juli.
28 I snuck out and looked around, and yes! She was gone.
29 Not a very sophisticated ditch, but hey, I was only seven.
30 My troubles were far from over, though. Every day she came back, over and over
again. “Can Bryce play?” I could hear her asking from my hiding place behind the couch. “Is he ready yet?” One time she even cut across the yard and looked through my window. I spotted her in the nick of time and dove under my bed, but man, that right there tells you something about Juli Baker. She’s got no concept of personal space. No respect for privacy. The world is her playground, and watch out below—Juli’s on the slide!
20 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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