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dankdo
Joined: 21 Mar 2007
Location: Paju City
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 Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:21 pm Post subject: Teaching possessive pronouns |
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| I'm teaching possessive pronouns to my 5-6 graders. I have no idea how to get started so far. Can anyone help me with suggestions? It seems to me that Korean children have a hard time with possessive pronouns. |
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koon_taung_daeng
Joined: 28 Jan 2007
Location: south korea
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| What the HELL's A PRONOUN????????????????? |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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Start by modeling: "This is *my* book. That is *your* book. That is *her* book." and so on. You could drill the pronouns and then put a list up on the board too.
Then practice with some "Whose book is this?" type questions. If practicable, go round the whole class and ask each student 2 or 3 different variations.
e.g.:
Teacher: Whose book is *that*? (points to book belonging to boy on left)
Student: It's *his* book. (points to boy on left)
T: Whose book is this? (holds up own book)
S: It's his book. (points to teacher)
T: His book? (mock surprise, points to boy at random)
S: No, *his* book! (points to teacher)
T: This isn't *his* book. This is *my* book.
S: It's *my* book. (points to teacher)
T: Your book? (points to student)
...and so on until they get it. Young students can get confused because the referents keep changing (in Korean they'd be more likely to use a title or name in some cases, e.g. 'Teacher's book'). Generally they find it funny when they make a mistake so that implies they understand the concept at the back of their minds: you just need a little patience and practice.
You can follow that with a writing exercise. Review it from time to time and that's it.
That's how I would do it anyway. |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:29 pm Post subject: Re: Teaching possessive pronouns |
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| dankdo wrote: |
| I'm teaching possessive pronouns to my 5-6 graders. I have no idea how to get started so far. Can anyone help me with suggestions? It seems to me that Korean children have a hard time with possessive pronouns. |
Hi Dankdo,
I can definitely help. Before you go into something like possessives, make sure they have a solid grasp on subject and object pronouns. Once they do, you can go into possessive pronouns. Here is one way of doing it:
Explain what the word 'possessive' means.
Then, List them next to their respective counterparts (i.e. list the subject pronouns, then next to them the object pronouns, then the possessive pronouns). Make a chart that shows the change. Have, say, 'Ralph' then next to it have 'he' for subject, 'him' for object, then 'his' for possessive, etc.).
From there on out, everything should be a cake walk. Make sure to keep things extreme simple. Only when they have a solid grasp should you dare to venture beyond their scope of ability. Remember Krashen's I+1 theory? (If not, check it out under wiki for a quick synopsis of it).
After you teach them and they take notes, go to my website, if you'd like, and download the pronoun worksheets. They'll really help the students in differentiating between the different types of pronouns and when to use them (under worksheets).
There are many other ways in which to teach possessives, this is just one that has worked well for me many times.
Me.
P.S. - Make sure to explain the difference between using 'mine' and 'my'. (Remember that my requires an object to proceed it and 'mine' does not). Think transitive vs. intransitive. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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| If we find a sure-fire method for teaching the possessive pronouns, perhaps we can get some of the native English teachers to learn not to say, "Her and her friend will be at the party tonight." I've only heard Americans and Canadians butcher the langauge in that manner, though. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
| If we find a sure-fire method for teaching the possessive pronouns, perhaps we can get some of the native English teachers to learn not to say, "Her and her friend will be at the party tonight." I've only heard Americans and Canadians butcher the langauge in that manner, though. |
So you would never say something like 'Me and my friend are going out', would you?
P.S. Yes, you would. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Privateer wrote: |
| CentralCali wrote: |
| If we find a sure-fire method for teaching the possessive pronouns, perhaps we can get some of the native English teachers to learn not to say, "Her and her friend will be at the party tonight." I've only heard Americans and Canadians butcher the langauge in that manner, though. |
So you would never say something like 'Me and my friend are going out', would you?
P.S. Yes, you would. |
I? Never! I would never use such a construction. I would say, "My friend and I are going out." |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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| koon_taung_daeng wrote: |
| What the HELL's A PRONOUN????????????????? |
When you find the answer to that, pass it on to Privateer.
| Privateer wrote: |
Start by modeling: "This is *my* book. That is *your* book. That is *her* book." and so on. You could drill the pronouns and then put a list up on the board too.
Then practice with some "Whose book is this?" type questions. If practicable, go round the whole class and ask each student 2 or 3 different variations.
e.g.:
Teacher: Whose book is *that*? (points to book belonging to boy on left)
Student: It's *his* book. (points to boy on left)
T: Whose book is this? (holds up own book)
S: It's his book. (points to teacher)
T: His book? (mock surprise, points to boy at random)
S: No, *his* book! (points to teacher)
T: This isn't *his* book. This is *my* book.
S: It's *my* book. (points to teacher)
T: Your book? (points to student)
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Uhh, those are possessive adjectives. I know, I know. What the hell's an adjective? |
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jeffkim1972
Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Location: Mokpo
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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This is where it would really help to learn some Korean.
The fundamentals of grammar should be taught by a bilingual person in my opinion.
The efficiency of learning in this case if very low. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
| koon_taung_daeng wrote: |
| What the HELL's A PRONOUN????????????????? |
When you find the answer to that, pass it on to Privateer.
| Privateer wrote: |
Start by modeling: "This is *my* book. That is *your* book. That is *her* book." and so on. You could drill the pronouns and then put a list up on the board too.
Then practice with some "Whose book is this?" type questions. If practicable, go round the whole class and ask each student 2 or 3 different variations.
e.g.:
Teacher: Whose book is *that*? (points to book belonging to boy on left)
Student: It's *his* book. (points to boy on left)
T: Whose book is this? (holds up own book)
S: It's his book. (points to teacher)
T: His book? (mock surprise, points to boy at random)
S: No, *his* book! (points to teacher)
T: This isn't *his* book. This is *my* book.
S: It's *my* book. (points to teacher)
T: Your book? (points to student)
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Uhh, those are possessive adjectives. I know, I know. What the hell's an adjective? |
In this case, it's a pronoun in the possessive case, aka "possessive pronoun." Here's a good example for his (under the main entry for he). |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| jeffkim1972 wrote: |
This is where it would really help to learn some Korean.
The fundamentals of grammar should be taught by a bilingual person in my opinion.
The efficiency of learning in this case if very low. |
I agree that a knowledge of the students' L1 would be enormously helpful in teaching grammar. One of my big objections to English only policies is how they waste the limited time we have with students. Of course, automatic mastery of appropriate use will only come with practice using the language.
| CentralCali wrote: |
| In this case, it's a pronoun in the possessive case, aka "possessive pronoun." Here's a good example for his (under the main entry for he). |
The possessive pronouns are: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs. These are pronouns because they can substitute for a noun phrase. Instead of 'This is my car', we can say 'This is mine', with 'mine' replacing the noun phrase 'my car'.
bacasper is right that the common name for what privateer described is possessive adjective, but they really aren't adjectives. They are determiners, which can again be seen by substituting the determiner 'the' for them: 'my car' / 'the car'. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:58 am Post subject: |
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| Gee, silly of me to post a link to a site saying exactly what you're trying to inform me of. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
| Gee, silly of me to post a link to a site saying exactly what you're trying to inform me of. |
I wouldn't say your link says exactly the same as what Woland says but it does say that his is either an adjective or a pronoun and they are different usages.
To answer the OP's question, I'd say first teach possessive adjectives. Once they got that down, it is easy to explain that a possessive pronoun takes the place of a possessive adjective + a noun. For example,
"Your house is white. Mine is brown."
Here, "mine" substitutes for the possessive adjective "my" and the noun "house."
Hope that helps. |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Learn the Korean and write it on the board. Then practice it. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:35 am Post subject: |
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Well I've learned what not to call a possessive pronoun from this thread, but it still feels odd calling 'my' a possessive 'adjective'.
As someone else pointed out though, possessive pronouns are straightforward to teach once they get possessive adjectives. |
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