Before you teach — read this first
Grade 1 · Lesson 21 — Why we need them, and what they are
U1 · Level One — Parts of Speech · Pronouns (1 of 3) · 10–15 minutes · 18 slides ·
Launch → I do → We do → You do → Closure
The grammar behind this lesson — read this before you teach it.PronounsWhat it is. A pronoun stands in for a noun that is already known, so we do not have to say the noun again.
Why our test works. 'Which noun is it replacing?' works because a pronoun is only meaningful when something earlier supplies its meaning. If no noun answers the question, the word is not doing a pronoun's job.
Leans on. Nouns. A child who cannot find the noun cannot find what replaced it.
Watch for. Children point at the nearest noun rather than the right one. Ask them to read the sentence with the noun put back in and hear whether it still makes sense.
What this lesson is
Lesson 1 of 3 on pronouns. The single idea is: Saying the naming word twice sounds wrong; I, you, he, she, it, we, they fix it. The tool the children are handed is the question “Whose place is it taking?” — by the end of the topic that question, not the teacher, settles every case. Held constant today: Taught from a PROBLEM. Subject pronouns only — object forms are Grade 2. The worked example is built on We gave Poodle and him some soup., ringing We.
Why it matters — say this in your own words, about ten seconds.
“Every one of these words is a tool you will keep for life.”
A different reason every lesson, on purpose. It is not on a slide and it
is not a script — if you have a better reason today, use yours. What should land is the
idea, not a sentence they can recite.
Recall — sixty seconds, before anything new
Retrieve: Nouns · What a word is + What a sentence is. Ask for it before you introduce anything, take the answers from boards rather than from hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on. This is the middle of the launch: context, then this, then why it matters. Only what today leans on — a minute spent retrieving something unrelated costs the same and buys nothing, and the child who cannot recall the prerequisite is the one you will lose in the I-do.
How it goes
- Sixty seconds of retrieval opens it: “Yesterday: nouns you cannot touch — idea nouns. Quick — one together.” Same language as when it was taught, a new example. If the class cannot do this, that is today's real work — stop and reteach.
- Ten seconds on why it matters — “Every one of these words is a tool you will keep for life.” Your words, not those; it is a different reason every lesson so what lands is the idea rather than a sentence they can recite.
- You name the one idea: Saying the naming word twice sounds wrong; I, you, he, she, it, we, they fix it. Then the plan — what it is, the question we ask, and that we will find them together.
- Then you do one yourself, on screen, one click per move: We gave Poodle and him some soup. · the question · ring We · name it a pronoun. Do it exactly the way you want it done — this is the task they are about to do on their boards, not an easier one.
- You build the same thing on the board and leave it up for pronouns. The four steps are identical in every lesson of this unit — sentence, question, test, answer — so the children read the method rather than the layout, and today's board shows We gave Poodle and him some soup. still marked when they start work.
- The We-do runs 4 items on whiteboards — We gave Poodle and him some soup. (p.25), The word pronoun means for the noun., he, she. You are scanning for who applies the question and who is guessing from meaning; those look identical on a right answer and completely different on a wrong one.
- Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves — Sheet and pencil · Ask the question on every item · Find the pronoun in each one. Then they work alone, with the same worked example printed at the head of their sheet.
- Close on Pronouns may also have person and number. — an item they have not met, so it measures rather than reminds — then the line they leave with: “A pronoun stands in for a noun.”
- Watch for: Cannot say which noun the pronoun replaces — Recognising the word is easier than tracking the reference. If you see it: “Put the naming word back in. Does it still make sense?” The swap-back is both the check and the repair. (Remedial sheet 09.)