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

The next building block we teach is adverbs. The function, or job, of an adverb is to tell more about the action. 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 the function-first questions that will help your students identify adverbs. Adverbs answer these questions about the verb or action:

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 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, of course, that, except for the word carefully, these answers aren’t just single words. When we talk about the when, where, how, and 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. Let's take a close look at this sentence:  

After the thunderstorm, the cactus bloomed suddenly across the desert due to the rain. 

The table below shows the functions, or roles, that adverbs have in expanding an action. 

Note: To understand the difference between phrases and clauses you’ll want to visit our Syntax skill explainer that’s coming soon! 

Let’s take a look at some example sentences to see how this works. Here, we will use sentences from The Cactus Hotel by Brenda Z. Guiberson for a read-aloud to model how, while teaching your students about grammatical building blocks, you are also building their content knowledge. We are looking for the words that answer the questions "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?"

Cactus, pine, and grass survive because they adapted to the amount of water in their habitat.

After a big rain in any habitat, plants that live there get the water that they need!

Notice how the adverbial component can be a single word, like in there, a phrase, like in after a big rain, or a clause, like in because they adapted to the amount of water in their habitat. 

It’s important to consider context when thinking about phrases, because the same phrase can function in multiple ways. 

For example, let’s consider the phrase in the desert in these sentences:

The cactus grew in the desert.
The cactus in the desert grew slowly.

In the first sentence, the phrase in the desert tells us where the cactus grew, expanding on the action (or verb). In the second sentence, in the desert is telling us about the cactus; the phrase is telling us which cactus (the one in the desert), so it’s functioning as an adjective.

Reading groups of words as phrases that answer these "action expansion" questions — "When?", "Where?", "Why?", and "How?" — helps us to read with expression and comprehend. As students increase their grammatical awareness of phrases, fluent reading improves. We can practice scooping phrases to read fluently.

Before you teach this model lesson, you'll want to download these free Sentence Function Cards.

In this section we will 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!

Here’s how you could start:

Sometimes we want to tell more about an action, or verb, like the words run, swing, or jump. We can do that by adding words and phrases that answer "When?", "Where?", "How?", and "Why?" about the action.

Let’s look at how we can add information about the action by answering these questions.  

Show students the "When?" card. 

Write these sentences on the board:

Yesterday the dog barked.
During the summer the plants grew.

Say,

Let’s read this sentence together: Yesterday, the dog barked. If I ask the question "When did the dog bark?" We would say yesterday. Now, let’s read the next sentence: During the summer the plants grew. "When did the plants grow?" 

Students say,

during the summer.

Show students the "Where?" card. 

Write these sentences on the board:

Cactus grow here.
The dog barked in the yard.

Let’s read this sentence together: Cactus grow here. If I ask the question "Where do cactus grow?" We would say here. Now, let’s read the next sentence: The dog barked in the yard. "Where did the dog bark?"

Students say,

in the yard.

Show students the "How?" card. 

Write these sentences on the board:

Cactus grow slowly.
The dog barked with great excitement.

Let’s read this sentence together: Cactus grow slowly. If I ask the question “"How do cactus grow?" We would say slowly. Now, let’s read the next sentence: The dog barked with great excitement. "How did the dog bark?"

Students say, 

with great excitement.

Show students the "Why?" card. 

Write these sentences on the board:

The cactus fell due to the strong wind.
The dog barked because someone was at the front door.

Let’s read this sentence together: The cactus fell due to the strong wind. If I ask the question "Why did the cactus fall?" We would say due to the strong wind. Now, let’s read the next sentence: The dog barked because someone was at the front door. "Why did the dog bark?"

Students say,

because someone was at the front door.

Say,

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