Subject: ELA (English Language Arts)

Lesson Length: 30 - 45 mins

Topic: Understanding Types of Pronouns

Grade Level: 6

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will learn about subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns. They will create a comic to demonstrate properly using pronouns in writing.

Know Before You Start: This is an introductory lesson for understanding the types of pronouns.  Students will recognize that we use subjective, objective, and possessive forms of pronouns in speaking and writing.

Hook:

  • Offer the example "Maya likes to read. Maya reads all different kinds of books. Sometimes Maya let’s me borrow some of Maya’s books. I like that Maya let’s me borrow them."
  • Discuss:
    • Does something sound wrong in that paragraph?
  • Guide students towards the fact that using the same noun over and over in a story can get annoying! That’s why we have pronouns. 

Activity:

  • Explain that a pronoun takes the place of a noun, kind of like a substitute teacher takes the place of a teacher. List a few common pronouns.
  • Read and discuss the sample comic.
    • What is taking place?
    • What pronouns do they identify in each panel?
    • How are the pronouns used differently within each panel?
  • Explain that there are different types of pronouns.
    • Subjective Pronouns act as the subject in a sentence, e.g., I, you, he/she, we, they.
    • Objective Pronouns are used when something is being done to someone, e.g., him/her/it, you plural, them, whom.
    • Possessive Pronouns show that something or someone belongs to something or someone, e.g., my, his/her, their, your, our, mine, ours, etc.
  • Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a three-panel comic showing examples of subjective, objective, and possessive pronouns being used correctly.

Closure:

  • Give students an opportunity to share their comics with others. 
  • Discuss how students can use pronouns in their writing.

Differentiation:

  • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
  • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.
  • Allow students to work in pairs or groups as needed.
  • Display or print out list of pronouns for student reference.
  • Provide sentence frames as needed.

Resources:

  • Comic to print or display

Suggested Story Starters: