Tracing the "Who" or the "What" - Part 1: How to Use Pronouns & Synonyms

Julie Turner: Boys and girls, remember how we read the story "The Cactus Hotel" earlier today?

Narrator: As your students start to read more complex text, they'll need to be able to track the subject, the "who" or the "what," across a passage. It's what turns a group of disconnected sentences into a story. Students already know that every sentence has a "who" or a "what." What they'll be learning today is how authors use pronouns and synonyms to point back to the subject and keep those ideas connected. Watch as third grade teacher Julie Turner and reading specialist Carla Stanford guide students at Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta through their first step in tracing the subject ... learning how pronouns and synonyms work.

Carla Stanford: Today we're going to become experts on the "who or what."

Narrator: They start by reviewing pronouns.

Carla Stanford: There's a group of words that can take the place of the "who or what." What are those words, Ms. Turner?

Julie Turner: Those words are called pronouns. Let's read through the list of words together. I, you, she, he, it, we, you, they.

Carla Stanford: Thumbs up if you've heard of a pronoun before. Thumbs up if you've used a pronoun when you were talking. Yes. You're already experts on pronouns when you're talking. You might say, "My mom is working hard. She is a hard worker." Right? And you would take mom and you would replace it with what pronoun? She. Excellent. So we know about pronouns when we are speaking, but now we want to think about the way an author uses pronouns to replace. Everyone say "replace."

Students: "Replace."

Carla Stanford: Say "pronouns replace."

Students: "Pronouns replace."

Narrator: The label pronoun doesn't tell us exactly what pronouns do. By teaching students that pronouns replace, Ms. Stanford is helping them understand the job of a pronoun.

Carla Stanford: So they replace the "who" or "what." And when they replace, they refer back. And what we have to start doing is thinking about, what are they referring back to? So we're going to do some practice. We're going to read some sentences, and we are going to make some decisions. We're going to pretend to be the author, and we're going to make some decisions about what pronouns should replace. You ready?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: Let's do it.

Julie Turner: Let's take a look at our first sentence.

Everybody: "The giant cactus grows."

Narrator: Ms. Turner asks her students to think about what pronoun would replace the giant cactus in a second sentence: "The giant cactus grows for years."

Carla Stanford: "The giant cactus" is a noun that we can replace with one of those words from the list. Which word would replace "the giant cactus"? Give me a thumbs up when you know which word could replace "the giant cactus." Hadley, which word do you think would replace "the giant cactus"?

Hadley: It.

Julie Turner: Exactly: "It grows for years." "The giant cactus" is "it."

Carla Stanford: Do you see how that would have been repetitive to say "the giant cactus" and "the giant cactus"? And the job of the pronoun was to do what?

Students: Replace it.

Carla Stanford: Replace it.

Students: So it's shorter.

Carla Stanford: So it's shorter, and it's not so repetitive. So now let's read, all together, both of the sentences; and let's replace "the giant cactus" with it. Are y'all ready?

Students: Yeah.

Carla Stanford: All right. Let's read together.

Everybody: "The giant cactus grows. It grows for years."

Carla Stanford: Doesn't that sound so much better?

Students: Yes.

Narrator: The cactus hotel story has a lot of subjects to keep track of. The hotel itself, birds, bats, and snakes. Knowing which pronoun can stand in for a subject will help students keep track of, or trace, who or what each sentence is referring to, boosting their comprehension.

Julie Turner: So I think it's worth doing one more example where we're not replacing it with it, because it is one singular thing. But I noticed on this sentence ... "The ants and mice want to live in the cactus hotel." ... I don't think I can replace it with "it" this time.

Carla Stanford: Why not? Why can't we replace it with it?

Students: Because there's two of them.

Carla Stanford: There's two, and it only refers to ...

Students: One.

Carla Stanford: Yeah. They know so much already. I love it.

Julie Turner: Let's take a look at our next sentence: "The ants and mice find space to nest." So what do we think we can replace it with?

Students: They! They!

Julie Turner: Let's see ... the word they. Aha! You got it. All right. Let's read those two sentences together now. Ready?

Everybody: "The ants and mice want to live in the cactus hotel. They find space to nest."

Carla Stanford: Okay. As a reader, do you see how this is flowing?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: When you get to they, your brain should be thinking, "Oh, what does 'they' stand in for? What is it replacing?"

Students: The ants and mice.

Carla Stanford: So you constantly, as a reader, have to track that. And as a writer, if we do the opposite, right? We're the ones creating the content. We don't want to have our stories have the same words repeated over and over and over. And so now we know we can use a pronoun to replace.

Narrator: Next, Ms. Stanford explains how synonyms work.

Carla Stanford: Everyone say synonym.

Students: Synonym.

Carla Stanford: A synonym is a word that means "the same." Say synonym.

Students: Synonym.

Carla Stanford: Same.

Students: Same.

Carla Stanford: Use your hand. Synonym.

Students: Synonym.

Carla Stanford: Same.

Students: Same.

Carla Stanford: If happy is a word, what is a word that means the same as happy.

Student: Joy.

Carla Stanford: Joy.

Student: Excited.

Carla Stanford: Excited.

Student: Happiest.

Carla Stanford: Happiest. Glad. Those are all very similar. What'd you say, sweet friend?

Student: Happiness.

Carla Stanford: Happiness, right? So words that mean, that are similar. They might not be exactly the same, but they give the same sentiment, the same meaning. So as readers, as we are reading, and we're thinking about who or what is the sentence about, who or what is the passage about? We know that the "who" or "what" will be named. We know the "who" or "what" can be replaced with a pronoun, but a "who" or "what" can also be reworded. Everyone say reworded.

Students: Reworded.

Carla Stanford: With a synonym!

Narrator: Synonyms and pronouns aren't interchangeable tools. So assigning each one a consistent function ... pronouns replace, synonyms reword ... helps students stay anchored as they're reading and processing sentences.

Carla Stanford: So we're going to practice this together. This happened a lot in "The Cactus Hotel" where the author intentionally took a "who" or "what" and did some rewording. So we're going to put our heads together; and our "who" or "what" we're going to think about is the Cactus Hotel. So I want you to think about that. If you were going to come up with another word to reword so that your passage didn't say, "The Cactus Hotel was big. The Cactus Hotel had lots of creatures. The Cactus Hotel had blooms on top" ... so that you didn't repeat "the Cactus Hotel" over and over and over ... what is another word or group of words that you could use in place of it? I'm going to have you turn and talk. Turn and talk with the people at your table, and let's see if you can come up with an idea before I share the ideas that Ms. Turner and I came up with.

Student 1: For insects, you could do bugs.

Student 2: But we're talking about both of them.

Student 1: Oh yeah.

Carla Stanford: I love your ideas. You're doing great work. Okay. We're going to pull some together. All right, friends. Eyes this way. I heard some amazing ideas. We have the Cactus Hotel. What did you say, friend?

Student: A house for animals.

Carla Stanford: A house for animals. That's really cool. These guys also were saying ...

Student: A word for house.

Carla Stanford: Another word for house. They were really brainstorming. What is another word for a house? I heard some people over ...

Student: Home.

Carla Stanford: A home. A home. What else?

Student: A nest?

Student: Maybe ...

Carla Stanford: A nest.

Student: Shelter.

Student: A shelter.

Student: Shelter.

Carla Stanford: A shelter. Do you like that? A shelter?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: A shelter for animals? That could work.

Student: A safe place.

Carla Stanford: A safe place. There's this scientific word that I'm thinking of that means a home for animals. Do you guys know? What is that, Hadley?

Hadley: Habitat.

Carla Stanford: A habitat. Everyone say habitat.

Students: Habitat.

Carla Stanford: So now we have come up with a whole plethora of synonyms to reword "the Cactus Hotel." So let's think about this. As a reader, if I'm reading "The Cactus Hotel" and I know the "who" or "what" this book is about is what? It's about the Cactus Hotel. Now I can anticipate all the ways the author may reword "the Cactus Hotel" so they don't repeat it over and over and over and over again. Does that make sense? Now shift your brain. Say, shift!

Students: Shift!

Carla Stanford: Now think about it as a writer. As a writer, if Ms. Turner said, I would like for you to write a paragraph about the Cactus Hotel and all the residents of the Cactus Hotel, now you have a strategy. You can use the Cactus Hotel. You can use a replace word called a ...

Students: Pronoun.

Carla Stanford: Pronoun. And now you can use a reword, which is a ...

Everybody: Synonym.

Carla Stanford: You have a strategy. You ready to try some more?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: So now we're going to look at birds, rats, and snakes. That's our "who" or "what." Now you are going to work with the people at your table, and I want you to come up with the rewords or the synonyms. It can be one word, or it can be a group of words. Turn and talk.

Student 1: Synonym is creatures, animals ...

Student 2: And um ...

Carla Stanford: What do you think?

Student: Visitors.

Carla Stanford: Oh, visitors. Do you like that one? Okay, Kingston and Kailei. Okay. We had some brilliance over here. We're going to check in with them. These two friends had a way that they want to reword birds, rats, and snakes. They said ...

Kingston and Kailei: Visitors.

Carla Stanford: Visitors. You guys agree? I also heard some other ones. Did you hear some over here, Ms. Turner?

Julie Turner: I heard desert animals.

Carla Stanford: I like that one, too. I heard another one over here.

Student: It was creatures.

Carla Stanford: Do you like that one? So we have desert animals. We have creatures. We have visitors. And we have birds, rats, and snakes. Do you think we have a bank of words that would help us anticipate what's coming?

Student: Yes.

Carla Stanford: I think so, too. You want to see what we came up with?

Everybody: The animals.

Carla Stanford: Would that work?

Students: Yeah.

Carla Stanford: Not as fun as yours, but yeah.

Students: Creatures.

Students: Residents of the hotel.

Carla Stanford: Excellent. Now, trick question. If I wanted to replace, not reword, but if I wanted to replace all of these "who" are "whats", what pronoun would I use?

Students: They.

Carla Stanford: They. You're really getting the hang of it. You guys are doing excellent work.

Julie Turner: Okay. So boys and girls, you said that the replacement pronoun for cactus is ...

Students: It.

Julie Turner: Now I want to hear some of the synonyms that you had for cactus. Raise your hand. Joseph.

Joseph: Hotel.

Julie Turner: Hotel. All right. So I'll write hotel on my list. Let's see if we've got another idea. Kingston?

Kingston: Plant.

Julie Turner: Plant. Absolutely. Cactus is a plant. We'll add the word "plant" to the list. And I saw some of those people had the same idea as Kingston.

Carla Stanford: I think you guys have gotten really good at this. Are you ready? Drum roll.

Everybody: [hands patting to make a drumroll sound]

Carla Stanford: Can you do it with your partners?

Student: Yeah.

Carla Stanford: Can you turn and talk and work to fill out the next one all by yourselves?

Students: [unintelligible]

Julie Turner: Okay, boys and girls, I think we're ready to have some discussion here. I heard a really good conversation between Ava and Joseph. They were deciding which pronoun to use. And, Ava, I heard you say something about the word it. Can you tell us what you said about the word it?

Ava: So what I said about it was ... bats and insects are two, and "it" means one, so we decided to put they.

Julie Turner: That was such a smart idea. And I see some people are giving you this. They had the same conversation with their partners. And I know I saw some really eager hands ready to answer replacement synonyms for bats and insects. Sadie.

Sadie: Creatures.

Julie Turner: Creatures. That's a great word that will replace both bats and insects. Let's record that on our chart. I think we haven't heard from Amy in a while.

Amy: Animals.

Julie Turner: Animals. That makes sense. Let's record the word animals.

Carla Stanford: Thumbs up if you had animals on your paper; and if you didn't, you can add it. This is all about creating a word bank for you to really think about this. So we're going to stop right here. Put your hands down and put your eyes right here. You guys, thank you so much for this hard work you did today. You already knew what a pronoun was, and you already knew what a synonym was; but what you started learning today is that they have a job when they're in a sentence or when they're in a passage. And as readers, if we know their job, we know their intention, we can track them and we can be thinking about the "who" or "what."

Narrator: Now that students understand the role that pronouns and synonyms play at the word level, their next lesson will be focused on applying what they've learned at the next level: sentences and passages.

Carla Stanford: Pat yourselves on the back. Give yourselves a round of applause. Give yourselves a woot woot!

Students: Woot woot!

Carla Stanford: Good job.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Burgess-Peterson Academy, Reading is Essential for All People, and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUTeaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA Washington, D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.