3.6 Explicitly Teach the When, the Where, the How, and the Why: Adverbs

The next building block we teach is adverbs. The function, or job, of an adverb is to tell more about the action, like the word quickly does in this sentence: 

The penguin swam quickly. 

How did the penguin swim? Quickly. Quickly is your adverb!

We explicitly teach students about adverbs with a function-first approach (label later) by asking questions. 
 

In this section, we'll show you how to use these function-first questions to help your students identify adverbs:
 

Let's look at this sentence:

In the morning, the gardener carefully plants the seeds in the garden to grow beans.

You can identify the adverbs — and adverb phrases — by asking these questions:

When did the gardener plant the seeds? — in the morning
Where did the gardener plant the seeds? — in the garden
How did the gardener plant the seeds? — carefully
Why did the gardener plant the seeds? — to grow beans

You'll notice that, except for the word carefully, these answers aren't just single words. When we talk about the when, the where, the how, and the why, we're talking about all the words needed to convey the information. Why did the gardener plant seeds? To grow beans! That's three words that make up an adverb phrase. 

Identifying words, phrases, and clauses that tell you more about the action helps us better understand what we read. The table below shows the functions, or roles, that adverbs have in expanding an action.

Before you teach this model lesson, you'll want to download these free resources:

In this section we'll give you examples of how to teach each of the four questions for identifying adverbs in sentences. Depending upon your students you may start by introducing one or two at a time. You can decide which would be best to start with!

Think of this as the I Do section of your lesson. Here's how you could start a lesson on adverbs. 

Write this sentence on the board:

The eagle flew.

Say,

Sometimes when we're telling a story or we're writing, we want to tell more about an action. Let's imagine we're telling a story about eagles. We could start with a sentence like this:

The eagle flew.

That's not enough information! We can tell more about what happened by adding words and phrases that answer the questions "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?" about the action. Take a look at this sentence.

Write this sentence on the board:

After she caught a fish, the eagle swiftly flew to her nest to feed her babies.

Read to your students,

After she caught a fish, the eagle swiftly flew to her nest to feed her babies.

Say,

When did the eagle fly? After she caught a fish.

Where did the eagle fly? To her nest.

How did the eagle fly? Swiftly.

Why did the eagle fly? To feed her babies!

Let's look at how we can add information about an action by answering the questions  "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?"

Show students the "When?" card. 

Words that answer the question "When?" tell us a specific time or period of time that an action happened. Listen to this sentence for the word or phrase that tells you when the action happens.

Write this sentence on the board:

Yesterday the dog barked.

Say,

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

Yesterday the dog barked.

You say, 

If I ask the question, "When did the dog bark?", we would say, "Yesterday."

Show students the "Where?" card. 

Words that answer the question "Where?" tell us a location where something happens. Listen to this sentence for the word or phrase that tells you where an action happens.

Write this sentence on the board:

The dog barked in the yard.

Let's read this sentence together

You all read,

The dog barked in the yard.

You say,

If I ask the question, "Where did the dog bark?", we would say, "In the yard."

Show students the "How?" card. 

Words that answer the question "How?" tell us the way something is done. Listen to this sentence for the word or phrase that tells us how the action happens.

Write this sentence on the board:

The dog barked with great excitement.

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

The dog barked with great excitement.

You say,

If I ask the question, "How did the dog bark?", we would say, "With great excitement."

Show students the "Why?" card. 

Words that answer the question "Why?" tell us the reason something happened. In this next sentence, we'll look for the word or phrase that tells us why the action happened.

Write this sentence on the board:

The dog barked because someone was at the front door.

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

The dog barked because someone was at the front door.

You say,

If I ask the question, "Why did the dog bark?", we would say, "Because someone was at the front door."

Now underline the adverbs and adverbial phrases in the sentences on the board. 

Yesterday the dog barked.

The dog barked in the yard.

The dog barked with great excitement.

The dog barked because someone was at the front door.

Then say,

The words and phrases that answer these questions "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?" are called adverbs.

Think about this next part as the We Do section of your lesson. 

Write this sentence on the board:

In the summer the plants grew.

Say,

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

In the summer the plants grew.

Say,

Now, let's answer this question: when did the plants grow?

Students say,

In the summer.

Say,

Yes! The phrase In the summer tells us when the plants grew.

Write this sentence on the board:

Carrots grow by the fence.

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

Carrots grow by the fence.

You say,

Where do carrots grow?

Students say,

By the fence.

Say,

Yes! The phrase by the fence tells us where the carrots grow.

Write this sentence on the board:

Pumpkins grow slowly.

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

Pumpkins grow slowly.

Say,

How do pumpkins grow?

Students say, 

Slowly.

Say,

Yes. The word slowly tells us how the pumpkins grow.

Write this sentence on the board:

The cactus fell due to the strong wind.

Let's read this sentence together:

You all read,

The cactus fell due to the strong wind.

Say,

Why did the cactus fall?

Students say,

Due to the strong wind.

Say,

Yes. The phrase due to the strong wind tells us why the cactus fell.

Now underline the adverbs and adverbial phrases in the sentences on the board. 

In the summer the plants grew.

Carrots grow by the fence.

Pumpkins grow slowly.

The cactus fell due to the strong wind.

Then say,

These words and phrases that answer these questions "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?" are your adverbs. Adverbs tell us more about an action, what's happening.

As with the other grammatical building blocks, your students may grasp the concept of adverbs after a single lesson, or it may take more time and more guided practice.

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

Once your students are ready to practice on their own, you can use our sentence detective activity that you might have downloaded above.

You might start by saying,

Today we will use our function question cards to unpack the meaning of a sentence. Good readers are always making meaning as they read. Using the function questions can help us as we do that!

Display the function question cards that you will use to unpack the sentence, along with the sentence you will be working on. 

Say, 

We will use our function question cards to unpack the meaning of the sentence. Who or what is this sentence about? 

Read aloud the sentence: 

Ask,

Who or what is this sentence about?

Students will reply,

The cactus.

Say,

Right! Now let's ask: The cactus did what…"

Students say,

grows

Then you will follow the same steps for the adverb function questions "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?" depending upon which one is answered in the sentence.

Download the full resources below.