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Nouns and Pronouns
7, 8, 9
By – Melanie Marchand
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Grade Level – 7-9
Purpose: Students should be confident in their ability to recognize nouns in different forms.
Outcomes: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to identify nouns (proper, head, and dependent) and pronouns.
1. Put words on the board in three columns: people, places, and things.
2. Have the kids tell you what each column of words has in common.
3. When you establish that they are people, places and things, find out if anyone knows what kind of words they are (word class).
4. Explain the difference between proper nouns, head nouns and dependent nouns (compound nouns). Give examples and have the students suggest some.
5. Now put some sentences on the board and have the students identify these word classes within the sentences.
6. Write the following on the board: Mary has a ball. Mary likes to bounce the ball. Ask the students if they can think of another way to say the second sentence without using as many words. Hopefully they will come up with She likes to bounce it.
7. Explain that the noun Mary has been replaced by the pronoun she; therefore a pronoun is a word meant to take the place of a noun. Since Mary is a person, this type of pronoun is called a personal pronoun. Ask them to name any other personal pronouns that they may know.
8. Give them some exercises for homework:
a) Ten sentences where they identify the nouns (proper and head nouns).
b) Ten sentences where they identify head nouns and their dependants.
c) Ten sentences that concentrate on replacing nouns with pronouns.
9. Play “Pass the Pencil” for the rest of the class. Have the kids stand in a circle; one student should be in the middle with their his/her closed. Pass a pencil around the outside of the circle and stop when the student in the middle claps his/her hands. The student in the middle will then choose a letter of the alphabet. The student left holding the pencil then has to say five nouns (no proper nouns!) before the pencil completes one rotation of the circle and ends up back at them. If they succeed, the person in the center stays there. If the person can’t come up with five nouns, they then switch places with the person in the center of the circle.
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