3.4 Explicitly Teach the Who or the What: Nouns

In this section, you'll learn about teaching nouns, the first of eight grammatical building blocks in this skill explainer.

We're going to start by giving you a quick refresher on what nouns are, why we refer to them as the who or the what, and how our "function first, label later" approach works.

The function, or job, of a noun is to tell who or what a sentence or a thought is about. We explicitly teach students about nouns with a function-first approach (label later) by asking questions.
 

Here is a function-first question that we teach students to answer: 

Who or what is this sentence about?

The question "Who?" refers to people, and the question "What?" refers to things, places, and ideas. 

Imagine your student reads this sentence:

The gardener plants seeds.

You can ask them, "Who or what is this sentence about?" And they will answer, "The gardener." 

Here's another example they could read:

The cactus bloomed.

You'd ask the question, "Who or what?" And they will answer, "Cactus."
 

For students, being able to answer the question "Who or what?" when listening to a read-aloud or reading independently is a crucial part of comprehension.

Let's look at an example passage to see how this works. First, read the passage:

Now, go through sentence by sentence and look for the words that answer "Who or what?" We've bolded them for you below.

Easy, right? But this may be new for many of your students. 

Learning how to identify the who or the what will give them an overall understanding of what this passage is about — plants! Obviously, this is essential if we want students to comprehend what they read. 

Now back to our passage. Notice that the nouns you identified play different roles in the sentences. For example, take a look at this sentence:

Plants grow all over the world.

The noun plants is the subject of the sentence, telling us what the sentence is about. The next noun, world, is part of a prepositional phrase and tells us the answer to the question "Where?"

Nouns can be categorized as common or proper. A common noun is a general name for a group of something. For example, book is a common noun. The word book names a general type of reading material. Common nouns are not capitalized. Cactus Hotel is a proper name for a specific book. Proper nouns are capitalized.

Before you teach this model lesson, you'll want to download these function and picture cards: 

You'll see below an approach that introduces all four kinds of nouns right away: people, places, things, and ideas. Knowing your own students, you may decide to start with only people and places first, if you think introducing all four may be too much for them.

The following three steps will take you through the I Do, We Do, You Do approach to teaching nouns.

Think of this as the I Do section of your lesson, the part where you model or demonstrate.

Here's what you might say to your students:  

Today we're going to learn something about words. Words have a function, which is another word for a job. One function that some words have is to answer the question "Who or what?"

Show students the "Who? What?" card.

Say,

Words that name people, places, things, and ideas can answer the questions "Who?" and "What?" 

Show students pictures of people from your card deck.

Let's take a closer look at words that answer the question "Who?" These words name people. Here's a vet. This is a batter. And here's a girl. The words vet, batter, and girl answer the question "Who?"

Show students pictures of places from your card deck.

Say,

Words that answer the question "What?" can name places, things, and ideas.  

A map shows a place. Places can also be words like house and hillside.

Show students pictures of things.

Say,

We can also use things to answer the question "What?" A tree, a bird, and a guitar are things.

Show students pictures of ideas.

Say,

Ideas also can answer the question "What?" A thought is an idea. Love is an idea.

Now we can move on to the We Do portion of the lesson, you and the students working together. You'll work with students as they sort words into the categories of who or what. First you'll ask them to identify the who or the what in a sentence and then categorize it as a person, place, thing, or idea.

You might say, 

Listen to this sentence: The cat napped.

Who or what is this sentence about?

Students respond, 

The cat.

Say,

Is a cat a person, place, thing, or idea?

Students respond, 

A thing.

Say,

Listen to this sentence: Sam jumps.

Who or what is this sentence about?

Students say, 

Sam.

Say,

Is Sam a person, place, thing, or idea?

Students say, 

A person.

Next, you'll ask them to sort individual words:

I am going to say some words. Then we'll decide if each one answers the question "Who?" or the question "What?" 

Here we go: apple

Is an apple a who or a what?

Students reply,

A what.

You say,

And is an apple a person, place, thing, or idea?

Students respond, 

A thing.

You'll say, 

That's right. Apple tells us what. Apple names a thing. Say that with me.

You say together,

Apple tells us what. Apple names a thing.

You'll say,

Our next word is firefighter. 

Is a firefighter a who or a what?

Students reply,

A who.

You say,

And is a firefighter a person, place, thing, or idea?

Students respond, 

A person.

You'll say, 

That's right. Firefighter tells us who. Firefighter names a person. Say that with me.

You say together,

Firefighter tells us who. Firefighter names a person.

When your students show they understand nouns in the We Do section of your lesson, you can move on to the You Do section … letting them try it on their own, with your guidance.

Sorting Nouns Into People, Places, and Things

Here's a quick noun-sorting activity that will give your students good practice with nouns … and let you know if they've got the concept! (If your children are younger or are new to English vocabulary, you may want to have them sort pictures rather than words.)

Print out this free activity sheet, with words to be sorted: 

It will look kind of like this:

You'll notice in the word bank that the nouns for sorting include words with consonant digraphs. Be sure to use words that your students have already learned to read. If your students are further along in the phonics continuum, you can select more challenging words.

Make sure each child has a sorting sheet and a pencil. You might begin like this:   

Let's try sorting some words we already know how to read. You'll see your word list at the bottom of the page. All of these words answer either the question "Who?" or the question "What?" And we're going to sort them into people, places, and things. You'll start with the word nut. Is a nut a person, place, or thing?

Students reply,

A thing.

You say,

That's right. A nut is a thing. So go ahead and write nut in the last column, the thing column. Now you can do the rest on your own. Talk to your partner if you need help.

Here's an example of a completed chart:

Sometimes a word fits in more than one category. For example, the word vet is a kind of doctor for animals. If we think of the word vet this way, it refers to a person. We also go to the vet. When we use the word vet in this way, it means a place. To make this concrete for students, write the word vet in your chart in both the people column and the places column. 

Sorting Nouns Into a Who or a What

Once your students are done sorting words into those categories, ask them to pick a word and tell a partner whether it answers the question "Who?" or the question "What?" Remind students to say the word in a complete sentence. 

For example: 

Beth tells us who. Beth names a person.
Nut tells us what. Nut names a thing.
Moth tells us what. Moth names a thing.  

Close the lesson by introducing your students to the label noun: 

We can call words that answer "Who?" or "What?" nouns. Nouns name people, places, things, and ideas. When you see a word, ask if it is telling you "Who?" or "What?" If it does, it's a noun!