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Skill Explainer
2.2 Explicitly Teach the "Did What" or "Is What": Verbs
Grammatical Building Blocks Skill Explainer
2.2 Explicitly Teach the "Did What" or "Is What": Verbs
After nouns, the next building block we teach is verbs. The function, or job, of a verb is to tell what is happening in the sentence. We explicitly teach students about verbs with a function-first approach (label later) by asking the questions "Did what" or "Is what?"
Three Types of Verbs
In this section, we’ll show you how to use the function-first questions that will help your students identify the function of action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs.
1. Action Verbs
As you know, most verbs tell the action that the who or the what does.
Here’s the function-first question that we like to use with action verbs:
"Did what?"
Imagine you ask your students to read this sentence:
The gardener planted seeds.
You can ask them, "The gardener did what?" And they will answer, "Planted." That's your action verb!
2. Linking Verbs
A small number of verbs link information in a sentence … like is, feels, and seems.
The cloud is fluffy.
The ice feels cold.
The sky seems ominous.
We call these linking verbs. Linking verbs answer this function-first question:
"Is what?"
Take a look at this sentence:
The boy is hungry.
To identify the linking verb, you’d ask your students,
The boy is what?
Students would say,
Hungry.
You'd say,
What word links the boy to hungry?
They'd say,
Is!
You'd respond,
The word is links boy to hungry. That's our linking verb.
Teacher Tip
For Your Knowledge Only This overview of did what and is what is for your teacher understanding. We would not teach students both action verbs and linking verbs at the same time. First, we would explicitly teach did what and be sure students had a good understanding of identifying the function of the verb in the sentence. Then we would teach the is what.
3. Helping Verbs
Photo by Tanya Martineau
A helping verb is a verb used in combination with an action verb, like the are in the sentence They are running. Helping verbs tell us when an action is happening.
Is and are help by telling us the action is happening now:
The kid is snacking. The kids are snacking.
Was and were tell us the action was happening before:
The kid was snacking. The kids were snacking.
(Yes, is and was can be both linking and helping verbs.)
Many of your students use helping verbs in their oral language. And they're usually high frequency words that your students learned to read early on. Once you teach students about helping verbs, they'll be able to think about the function that word is playing in sentences.
Examples of the Three Types of Verbs
Type of Verb
Examples
In context
Action
grow, plant
The seed grows in the pot.
The farmers plant their crops.
Linking
is, feel, seems
The farmer is a hard worker.
The farmer feels tired.
The dog seems thirsty.
Helping
Present: is, are
Past: was, were
Future: will be
The farmer is planting the crops. (present)
The farmer was planting the crops. (past)
The farmer will be planting the crops. (future)
Identifying Verbs in Context at the Passage Level
Photo by Tanya Martineau
A lot of students will be able to identify verbs at the word level, but transferring that understanding to connected text might be tricky.
For students, being able to answer the questions "Did what?" or "Is what?" when they listen to a read-aloud or read independently is a crucial part of comprehension.
Let's take a look at an example passage to see how this works. First, read this passage.
Plants grow all over the world. Some plants live in hot, dry deserts. Other plants grow in big, grassy fields called grasslands. Others live in forests with many trees. Wherever they live, all plants need water.
Now, go through sentence by sentence and look for the words thatanswer "Did What?" We’ve bolded them for you below.
Plants grow all over the world. Some plants live in hot, dry deserts. Other plants grow in big, grassy fields called grasslands. Others live in forests with many trees. Wherever they live, all plants need water.
These examples of verbs — grow, live, and need — tell us what plants do. They answer the question "Did what?" Being able to identify what is happening — what the subject of the sentence is doing — is essential for understanding what we read.
Prepare to Teach
Before you teach this model lesson, you'll want to download these free function question cards.
Grammar in Action: Function Question Cards
Now it’s time to teach!
Next we'll share short example lessons for teaching action verbs and linking verbs.
Action Verb Sample Lesson
To start your lesson on action verbs, here's what you can say to your students. (You can think of this as the I Do section of your lesson.)
Today, we’re going learn about words that answer the question "Did what?"
Show students the "Did what?" card.
Say,
Words that answer "Did what?" tell an action.
For example, the frog "Did what?"
The frog hopped.
The word hopped answers "Did what?"
Think about this next part as the We Do section of your lesson.
Say,
Now I'm going to read to you these three sentences. After each one, I want you to tell me which word "Did what?"
The dog barked. The dog "Did what?"
Students say,
Barked.
You say,
The plant grew.
The plant "Did what?"
Students say,
Grew.
You say,
The paint ran.
The paint "Did what?"
Students say,
Ran.
You say,
The words barked, grew, and ran are actions. We call action words verbs. Most verbs are actions. Verbs tell us what nouns do. Action verbs answer the question "Did what?"
Now let’s put this together with what we learned about nouns, the who or what.
Write this sentence on the board:
The rose wilted without water.
What word tells us who or what this sentence is about?
Students answer,
The rose.
Say,
Right! Now let’s ask this. The rose "Did what?"
Students answer,
Wilted.
Say,
Yes! The rose wilted. Wilted is our action verb.
Teacher Tip
Talk About Verbs Throughout the Day You can talk about verbs in every lesson you teach, from phonics (spell) to history (vote) to math (subtract). We need verbs to learn more about people, places, things, and ideas … words in each content area. Identify verbs during read-alouds or in whatever text students are reading, beginning with the earliest decodable text.
Linking Verb Sample Lesson
Here’s how you could start a lesson on linking verbs:
Some verbs have a different job. They link information. Let’s look at this sentence.
Write this sentence on the board:
The rose is red.
In this sentence, your verb is the word is. The word is links the word rose to the word red. Our who or what is the word rose. And the word red tells us something about the rose … its color!
Because the verb is links the what to more information about the what, we call it a linking verb. It answers the question "Is what?" The rose "Is what?"
Students say,
Red!
You say,
So what’s our linking verb?
Students say,
Is!
Next, write this sentence on the board:
The man is happy.
You’ll say,
Let’s look at another example. Read this sentence with me: The man is happy.
Who or what is this sentence about?
Students say,
The man.
You say,
Right! Now let’s ask this question: the man "Is what?"
Students say,
Happy.
You say,
That’s right! The man is happy. What word links the word man to the word happy?
Students say,
Is!
You say,
Yes! The word is links the man to information about the man … how he’s feeling, which is happy. So what's our linking verb?
Students say,
Is!
Next, you'll help them distinguish between action verbs and linking verbs. Write these sentences on the board:
The cactus grew tall in the desert.
The cactus is prickly.
Snow fell silently during the storm.
Snow is a blanket on the ground.
The dogs ran in circles in the snow.
You say,
Now, let’s look at the verbs in these sentences. We will decide whether it’s telling us an action — "Did what?" — or if it’s linking to information — "Is what?"
Let's read this together: The cactus grew tall in the desert.
Grew tells us an action. Grew answers "Did what?"
Let's read our next sentence: The cactus is prickly.
In this sentence, is our verb a did what or an is what?
Students say,
Is what!
You say,
That's right! Is links cactus to prickly. Is answers "Is what?"
Okay, next sentence: Snow fell silently during the storm.
In this sentence, is our verb a did what or an is what?
Students say,
Did what!
You say,
That's right! Fell is an action. Fell answers "Did what?"
Okay, next sentence: Snow is a blanket on the ground.
In this sentence, is our verb a did what or an is what?
Students say,
Is what!
You say,
That's right! Is links snow to blanket. Is answers "Is what?"
Okay, next sentence: The dogs ran in circles in the snow.
In this sentence,is our verb a did what or an is what?
Students say,
Did what!
You say,
That's right! Ran is an action. Ran answers "Did what?"
In the next section, we'll show you how to teach adverbs.
