Two Sentences Run Together: Full Stop or Question Mark?

There is a question hidden somewhere on this 2nd grade capitals-punctuation page, and finding it is part of the job. Three lanes each hold two sentences printed as a single lowercase run with no marks at all, beside a small fruit picture: did emma see the banana i can see two bananas. Two handwriting rules sit under every lane for the two sentences to be written out on. The checklist across the top now shows both marks together on its end-mark badge, a full stop and a question mark, rather than the single full stop the simpler page carries.

Adding the question mark changes the reading rather than the writing. On a page where every sentence ends in a full stop the mark can be supplied by habit; here it has to be chosen, which means the child must notice the question word or the inverted opening as they read. Worth knowing before you hand it out: the page guarantees at least one question, not one in every lane, so a lane holding two plain statements is normal and correct. A child who puts a question mark on every line has been counting on a pattern rather than reading, and that is precisely the assumption this arrangement is built to break.

Print the PDF free and have each line read aloud twice, once flat and once with the voice rising at the end, then ask which version sounded right. The ear settles the mark faster than any rule about question words. Where does it end? is the same run-on task with every sentence a statement, choose the end mark keeps the sentences separate and only asks for the mark, and unscramble the sentence is the step below, where the words themselves are still out of order.