Who’s Talking Worksheet

Quotation marks tell a reader that someone is speaking, but they do not say who. That job belongs to the little tag beside the quote, and second graders have to learn to look for it. This Who’s Talking Worksheet gives them a short garden story where three friends argue politely about where to hang a bird feeder, and every line of dialogue is tagged with a name. Children read the story, then match four quoted lines back to the character who said them.

The Who’s Talking Worksheet is a three page printable. Page one carries the illustrated story, page two carries four multiple choice questions and one written response, and page three is the answer key. Three of the questions quote a line word for word and ask who said it, so the child has to go back into the text and find the name beside the quote. The fourth question asks why the club chose the low branch, which is a cause the story states but never labels. The written response asks the child to explain how they know who is talking, which is the strategy itself put into words.

What’s Included

• A 150 word second grade story built almost entirely from tagged dialogue
• A full color watercolor illustration of the garden scene
• Four multiple choice questions with three answer choices each
• One written response with two ruled writing lines
• A Name and Date line and a complete answer key

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• Tracking a speaker across a page of dialogue is what makes longer chapter books readable, and this is where that habit starts.
• Every answer is proved by a single sentence, so children practice pointing at evidence instead of guessing.
• The three characters all speak more than once, so the child cannot solve it by remembering who talked first.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

Read the story aloud twice, the second time with three children taking the three speaking parts, and ask how they knew which lines were theirs. Have students highlight every name tag in one color and every set of quotation marks in another. For a quick extension, ask children to rewrite two lines of the dialogue with the tag moved to the front, as in Rachel said, and compare how the sentence changes. This 2nd grade story elements worksheet also works well as a partner reading page, a small group mini lesson, or a take home review.

Related Resources

• Story Elements Reading Graphic Organizer Worksheet
• Important Elements of the Story Worksheet
• Writing about a Character Worksheet
• Story Elements Song