Lesson Plan: Class 8-10 - Direct Speech to Indirect Speech

 

Lesson Plan: Direct Speech to Indirect Speech

Subject: English Grammar 

 Class: VIII to IX (adaptable) 

 Duration: 45 minutes 

 Teaching aids: Chalkboard, chart paper, flashcards, coloured chalk

1. Learning Objectives

The teacher expects the students to:

• Understand the difference between direct speech (the exact words of the speaker) and indirect speech (the idea reported by another person).
• Learn the reporting verb, reported speech and the conjunction used to join them.
• Learn the rules of change in tense, pronouns, and words showing time and place.
• Convert statements, questions, commands, requests and exclamations from direct to indirect speech.
• Identify when the tense does not change (universal truths, present reporting verb).

2. Learning Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Report what a friend, teacher or parent said, accurately and politely, in daily conversation.
• Write news reports, diary entries, messages and minutes of meetings by reporting what others said.
• Pass on instructions or messages (for example, "Mother told me to buy milk") in correct grammatical form.
• Avoid common errors in tense, pronoun and word order when reporting speech.

3. Introduction (Warm-up Questions)

The teacher begins with a short chat and asks:

1. What did your mother say to you this morning before you left for school?
2. If your friend was absent yesterday, how would you tell him what the teacher said in class?
3. Is there any difference between repeating someone's exact words and telling someone what he or she said?
4. Can you tell me what your friend told you at the break? (The teacher writes one student answer on the board in both forms.)

Example on the board:

• Ravi said, "I am reading a book." (Direct)
• Ravi said that he was reading a book. (Indirect)

The teacher then announces the topic: Direct Speech to Indirect Speech.

4. Reading and Understanding (New Words and Meanings)

Students read the board or chart aloud and write the meanings in their notebooks.

Term	Meaning
Direct speech	The exact words of the speaker, placed in inverted commas
Indirect speech (reported speech)	The meaning of the speaker's words reported in the reporter's own words, without inverted commas
Reporting verb	The verb that introduces the speech (said, told, asked, ordered)
Reported speech	The words that were spoken, reported after the reporting verb
Inverted commas	Quotation marks (" ") used in direct speech
Conjunction	A joining word such as that, if, whether
Backshift	Changing the tense one step back into the past
Pronoun	A word that stands for a noun (I, you, he, she, we, they)

Students then read the example sentences in pairs, underline the reporting verb in blue and the reported speech in red.

5. Mind Map

The teacher draws the following map on the board or chart paper, with Direct to Indirect Speech in the centre.

Step 1: Four things to change

Direct Speech
     |
     v
Remove inverted commas, add a conjunction
     |
     v
Change Tense (backshift)  -->  Change Pronouns  -->  Change Time and Place words
     |
     v
Indirect Speech

Step 2: Tense changes

Direct speech	Indirect speech
Simple present (I play)	Simple past (he played)
Present continuous (I am playing)	Past continuous (he was playing)
Present perfect (I have played)	Past perfect (he had played)
Simple past (I played)	Past perfect (he had played)
will / can / may / must	would / could / might / had to

Step 3: Time and place words

Direct	Indirect
now	then
today	that day
tomorrow	the next day / the following day
yesterday	the previous day / the day before
here	there
this / these	that / those
ago	before

Step 4: Types of sentences

Type	Reporting verb	Joined by	Example
Statement	said / told	that	He said, "I am tired." becomes He said that he was tired.
Question (yes/no)	asked / enquired	if / whether	She said, "Are you ready?" becomes She asked if I was ready.
Question (wh-)	asked	the same wh-word	He said, "Where do you live?" becomes He asked where I lived.
Command	ordered / told	to + verb	The teacher said, "Sit down." becomes The teacher told us to sit down.
Request	requested / asked	to + verb	She said, "Please help me." becomes She requested me to help her.
Exclamation	exclaimed with joy / sorrow	that	He said, "Hurrah! We won!" becomes He exclaimed with joy that they had won.

6. Consolidation and Presentation (Summary)

The teacher summarises the lesson in a few points and invites students to repeat them:

• Direct speech gives the speaker's exact words in inverted commas. Indirect speech reports the meaning without them.
• To change direct to indirect speech, remove the inverted commas, add a suitable conjunction, and change the tense, pronouns, and time and place words.
• In a question, the reported part takes statement word order and no question mark: She asked where I lived.
• In a command or request, use to + verb (negative: not to + verb).
• The reporting verb changes with the sentence type: said/told, asked, ordered, requested, advised, exclaimed.

More examples for the teacher to present:

Type	Direct speech	Indirect speech
Statement	Priya said, "I like mangoes."	Priya said that she liked mangoes.
Statement	The boys said, "We are playing cricket."	The boys said that they were playing cricket.
Statement	Kumar said, "I have lost my pen."	Kumar said that he had lost his pen.
Statement	She said, "I visited my uncle yesterday."	She said that she had visited her uncle the previous day.
Statement	Ali said, "I will call you tomorrow."	Ali said that he would call me the next day.
Yes/no question	The teacher said to me, "Do you know the answer?"	The teacher asked me if I knew the answer.
Wh- question	Mother said to Rani, "What are you doing?"	Mother asked Rani what she was doing.
Command	The captain said to the players, "Run faster."	The captain ordered the players to run faster.
Negative command	The nurse said to the visitors, "Don't talk loudly."	The nurse told the visitors not to talk loudly.
Request	Anu said to her friend, "Please lend me your book."	Anu requested her friend to lend her his book.
Advice	The doctor said to him, "You should take rest."	The doctor advised him to take rest.
Exclamation	They said, "Alas! We have lost the match."	They exclaimed with sorrow that they had lost the match.

The teacher reads one direct sentence aloud, and students call out the indirect form before the answer is shown.

Several students then come forward to present one example of each sentence type on the board.

7. Reinforcement (Additional Information)

The teacher adds the following points:

• When the tense does not change:
  • The reporting verb is in the present or future tense: He says, "I am busy." becomes He says that he is busy.
  • The reported speech is a universal truth or habitual fact: The teacher said, "The Earth moves round the Sun." becomes The teacher said that the Earth moves round the Sun.
• Pronoun change depends on the speaker and listener:
  • First person (I, we) changes according to the subject of the reporting verb.
  • Second person (you) changes according to the object of the reporting verb.
  • Third person (he, she, they) usually does not change.
• Other useful reporting verbs: advised, warned, suggested, promised, threatened, begged, wished, replied, remarked.
• Negative commands: "Don't make noise," said the teacher becomes The teacher told us not to make noise.
• Real-life use: news reports, interviews, passing on messages, writing diaries and giving witness accounts.

8. Evaluation

a) Lower Order Thinking Questions (Remembering and Understanding)

1. What is direct speech? What is indirect speech?
2. Name any three reporting verbs.
3. What is the indirect form of now, tomorrow and here?
4. Fill in the blank: He said, "I am happy." He said that he ______ happy.

b) Middle Order Thinking Questions (Applying and Analysing)

1. Change into indirect speech: Meena said, "I have finished my homework."
2. Change into indirect speech: The teacher said to Arun, "Where are you going?"
3. Change into indirect speech: The mother said to her son, "Please close the door."
4. Change into direct speech: Ravi told me that he would come the next day.

c) Higher Order Thinking Questions (Evaluating and Creating)

1. Find and correct the error: She asked me where did I live. Explain the rule you used.
2. Why does the tense not change in this sentence? The guide said that the Taj Mahal is in Agra.
3. Two friends have a short conversation about a school picnic. Write the dialogue and then report it in indirect speech as a paragraph.
4. Your friend was absent for the last three days. Write a short note reporting everything the teachers said in class.

9. Remedial Teaching (For Slow Learners)

• Identify the difficulty: use a short oral test to find out whether the problem is with tense, pronouns, or sentence types.
• Peer tutoring: pair each slow learner with a confident classmate for short practice sessions.
• Colour-coded charts: keep tense and time-word charts on the wall and use the same colours for the same rule every time.
• Step-by-step method: teach one change at a time, first statements only, then questions, then commands. Give a checklist: 1. Reporting verb, 2. Conjunction, 3. Pronoun, 4. Tense, 5. Time and place.
• Substitution tables and flashcards: students match direct sentences with their indirect forms and fill in simple frames such as He said that he ______ (was / is) ______.
• Mother-tongue support: explain the rules in simple language, using local-language examples where needed.
• Extra practice and encouragement: give a few easy sentences daily, check them individually, and praise improvement.

10. Writing Activity

Students write in their notebooks (10 minutes):

1. Dialogue to report: Write a five-line conversation between you and your friend or teacher. Then rewrite it in indirect speech.
2. Short paragraph: Write 5 to 6 sentences on "What my mother told me today" using at least three different reporting verbs.

The teacher moves around the class, checks the work and corrects errors on the spot.

11. Follow-up (Homework and Assignment)

1. Homework: Convert ten sentences from direct to indirect speech (3 statements, 3 questions, 2 commands, 1 request, 1 exclamation).
2. Activity: Interview a family member or neighbour with three questions, then write a short report of their answers in indirect speech.
3. Project (optional): Collect five short conversations from a newspaper, story or comic and rewrite them in indirect speech in a scrapbook.
4. Revision: Learn the tense change table and the time and place words by heart for a short oral quiz in the next class.