Tracing the "Who" or the "What" - Part 5: Independent Practice

Julie Turner: Okay, boys and girls. So what I want you to do on this paper that is in front of you is I want you to first silently read the whole thing to yourself so you can ask yourself after who or what is this whole paragraph about.

Narrator: Tracing the who or the what through a story is an important part of understanding more complex texts. At Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, teacher Julie Turner and reading specialist Carla Stanford have been guiding their third graders through each step of the process, showing them how pronouns replace and synonyms reword. Earlier in this lesson, they practice spotting those moves as a group, and now it's time to try it independently.

Julie Turner: You'll use your pencil to circle that who or what in the first sentence. And just like Ms. Carla showed us, you are going to go through the whole paragraph and trace that who or what through the reworded synonyms and the replaced pronouns all the way through. So your first job is to do what? All the way through.

Students: Read.

Julie Turner: Alright. Read it and then we will circle and trace those words through. So let's start with the first step. Who or what is this whole paragraph about?

Student: Woodpecker.

Julie Turner: The woodpecker. So circle that word in the first sentence. Great. Now read the second sentence and see, did they call the woodpecker something else in the next sentence?

Student: This feathered driller.

Julie Turner: Excellent. So you said that who or what is that sentence about?

Student: Woodpecker.

Julie Turner: Okay, but what did they call the woodpecker?

Student: Driller.

Julie Turner: Is it just the driller? The whole thing. That whole descriptive word. "This feathered driller." So circle that whole thing. You got it. Excellent.

Carla Stanford: All right, sweet friends. This was excellent work. This is really hard thinking. And there were a lot of interesting words that were being substituted in for that who or what. You ready to identify them with me?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: All right. Who or what is this whole passage about?

Students: The woodpecker.

Carla Stanford: So friends that is so important as readers, we are always making meaning, and we always need to think about who or what is this about? You have figured out how to identify that. Now let's talk about what are the other words that represented that who or what, because you know how to trace it so you didn't get confused because that second one is tricky. Everyone put your finger on the second sentence. Let's read that one together. You ready?

Together: "This feathered driller."

Carla Stanford: Wait a minute, stop. Woodpecker. If we had not really been working on tracing throughout, this could have been tricky. "This feathered driller." Think about a woodpecker. Pretend like you're a woodpecker. Use your head and pretend you're pecking, but you're also drilling because what do they drill? The holes, right? And it's describing feathered. Is a woodpecker feathered?

Students: Yes.

Carla Stanford: What a clever way to not say woodpecker again. Do you see that?

Student: Yes.

Carla Stanford: But if we didn't have our word detective glasses on, we may have missed that. We may have been confused about what in the world is this author talking about? But now you know that authors are often looking for other ways to say the who or what. Let's go to the next one. Let's read that whole sentence. You ready?

Together: "This feather driller converts the whole into a home."

Carla Stanford: Next sentence.

Students: "He ..."

Carla Stanford: Wait a minute! "He," what does that represent?

Students: A pronoun.

Carla Stanford: It's a pronoun. And what is it taking the place of?

Students: The woodpecker.

Carla Stanford: The woodpecker and ...

Together: the feathered driller.

Carla Stanford: Excellent. All right. Let's go to the next and the last sentence. Let's read it together. You ready?

Together: "This Gila woodpecker is the first animal in the Cactus Hotel."

Carla Stanford: Who or what is that sentence about?

Students: The Gila woodpecker.

Carla Stanford: Excellent. So we traced all the way through the who or what, and now you are certain who or what is this passage about?

Students: The woodpecker.

Carla Stanford: You guys have done excellent work. I hope that when you go off, you now feel like you have this strong strategy to track the who or what all the way through a passage. And as writers, you can be very intentional and you can select words so that your readers can trace to all the way through the who or what. Excellent job. Let's do a round of applause.

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.