3.9 Explicitly Teach Pronouns

You may have already taught your students how to identify pronouns like I, we, and it in sentences. The goal of our instruction here is to help students identify the job of each pronoun in a sentence. This helps them understand how words contribute to the overall meaning of a passage. 

The function of most pronouns is to replace a noun —  a who or a what — so that sentences sound more efficient and less repetitive. 

As a reader, we need to think about the noun that a pronoun is referring to. While, as a writer, we use a pronoun to replace a noun.

There are many types of pronouns that your students will eventually need to know about. Which, everybody, and myself are all pronouns. Here we introduce you to only subject and object pronouns, to keep things simple for your students. 

There are subject pronouns, where the pronoun functions as the subject of the sentence and performs the action of the verb: 

She planted the tree.

She is the subject pronoun in this sentence, the who that planted the tree. 

There are also object pronouns, which receive the action or follow a preposition:

Tito gave the cactus to her.

Her is an object pronoun in this sentence. It's used as the object of the preposition to.

Most of your students will be very familiar with hearing and using pronouns in their oral language. You can leverage that experience as you teach them how to understand what pronouns do in complex texts and how to use them in their writing. For now, we're just going to share how to explicitly teach the job of the pronoun to them.

Before you teach this model lesson, you'll want to download this set of free function question cards (if you haven't already!): 

You'll also need pictures of a dog running in a field and dogs sitting in a park . We've provided you these examples to print or post on your whiteboard.

When we teach students about pronouns, there are two different steps to consider: replacing nouns with a pronoun and determining what noun a pronoun is referring to. The teacher modeling (I Do) for both can be the same since this is where we introduce the concept. For the guided practice (We Do), we recommend starting with replacing nouns with pronouns since this is something students are used to doing in their oral language. Then we can move on to tracking the noun that a pronoun is referring to, but the order could easily be switched. 

Depending upon the level of your students, you may choose to do the two guided practice (We do) sections in one lesson or separate them into two lessons. Either way, when you move on to the independent practice (You do), be sure that the practice that you choose for your students matches the way they practiced in the guided practice (We do).

Think of this as the I Do section of your lesson. Here's what you can say to your students: 

Say,

Remember how we've been learning about the functions of different words? Today, we're going to learn about a kind of word that replaces the who or the what. I know you use this kind of word all the time. Think of the stories you tell me! 

For example, listen to this story about my cat: 

My cat is Misty.
Misty is gray.
Misty curls up on my bed.
Misty jumps so high.
Misty hides under the couch.

 Would you say it that way?

Students say,

No!

Say,

Right! That doesn't sound like how we talk! Instead of saying Misty over and over again, I can replace Misty with the word she. She is a word we call a pronoun. Pronouns can be used to replace the who or the what in a sentence. 

It would sound like: 

My cat is Misty.
She is gray.
She curls up on my bed.
She jumps so high.
She hides under the couch. 

We replaced her name, Misty, with the word she. She is a replacer word. It replaces the who or the what.

Writers use replacers all the time. And once you learn about them, you'll notice them in the books you read! Let's look at some examples.

Here, we can move on to the We Do portion of the lesson.

Say,

Now let's try one together.

Write the following sentences on the board: 

Max is a dog. Max runs in the field.

Show students this picture:

Say,

Let's talk about this picture of Max the dog. We're going to read two sentences about Max. 

Let's read these sentences together:

You all read aloud,

Max is a dog. Max runs in the field.

Show students the "Who? What?" card.

Say,

Who or what are these sentences about?

Students say,

Max.

Say,

When we are talking, we don't want to say Max in the first sentence and Max again at the beginning of the second sentence. That sounds repetitive. 

We can use a word to replace Max. We can replace the word Max in the second sentence because we already know who the sentences are about. 

What word can we use to replace Max?

Students say,

He.

Say,

Yes, he is a pronoun: He runs in the field. The word that he refers to is Max. Authors do this so that sentences do not sound the same over and over again. That can be boring for readers.

Write the following sentences on the board: 

The dogs are in the park. The dogs are sitting.

Show students this picture:

Let's read these sentences together:

You all read aloud,

The dogs are in the park. The dogs are sitting.

Say,

We know that the who or what in both sentences is the dogs. So instead of saying dogs again in the second sentence, what could we say?

Students say,

They.

Say,

Yes! The pronoun they can replace the word dogs because there is more than one dog: They are sitting. The word they refers to the dogs.

Think about this next part as the We Do section of your lesson. Depending on your students, you might teach this on a separate day, after you've taught them how to use pronouns as replacers (the above model lesson).

Say,

Now we're going to practice linking a pronoun back to the who or the what it replaced.

Write the following sentences on the board:

The dog played in the yard. It chased a ball.

Say,

Listen to these sentences for the word that replaces the who or the what of the first sentence: The dog played in the yard. It chased a ball.

Who or what is the first sentence about?

Students say,

The dog.

Say,

What word replaces the dog in the second sentence?

Students say.

It.

Say,

Right! The word it in the second sentence replaces the dog in the first one.

Underline the word it on the board. Then draw an arrow from it to the word dog as you say,

We could also say that the pronoun it refers back to the dog.

Write these sentences on the board:

The dogs sat. They waited for a treat. 

Say,

Let's read these sentences together and look for the word that refers to the who or the what of the first sentence: 

You all read aloud,

The dogs sat. They waited for a treat.  

Say,

Who or what is the first sentence about?

Students say,

The dogs.

Say,

What word replaces the word dogs in the second sentence?

Students say,

They.

Say, 

Right! They in the second sentence replaces the word dogs in the first one.

Underline the word they on the board. Then draw an arrow from they to the word dogs as you say,

The pronoun they refers back to the word dogs.

Say,

Words like it and they are called pronouns. Notice that the word pronoun has the word noun in it. That can help us remember that pronouns are related to nouns. Pronouns replace the who or what, the nouns, so we don’t always have to repeat the same word.

As with the other grammatical building blocks, your students may grasp the concept of pronouns pretty quickly, or it may take more time and more guided practice.

When your students show they understand pronouns in the We Do section, you can move on to the You Do section. 

You can integrate pronoun practice into your phonics instruction. Here's how it might look when you're teaching magic 'e'. 

At the end of a phonics lesson, your students will practice their fluency by reading a decodable text such as Jobs for Rose and Jake (opens in new window). After they've completed their reading, ask them to look at the last paragraph and underline each pronoun:

Then ask them to draw arrows from each pronoun to the who or what that it refers to.

You'll learn a lot about your students' skills with pronouns from this exercise. Students who may have had little trouble during your lesson might be confused by working with pronouns across multiple sentences. You may need to provide more explicit instruction about how this works. 

When students can't figure out what noun that a pronoun refers to, they can have trouble comprehending a passage, even if they can read all the words.