'Personal pronouns' tutor notes

The aim of the 'personal pronouns' topic area is to revise the rules and the uses of the personal pronouns I / me / you / it / he / him / she / her / we / us / they / them.

N.B. This module deals with personal pronouns - not possessive pronouns.
You may feel that some of the work in this module stretches into Level 2. The majority of work on pronouns does take place at Level 2 of the curriculum, but Level 1 specifies that learners should 'understand the term pronoun'.

How does this tie in with the curriculums?

• England
  Rs/L1.1 - 'Use implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge ... to predict meaning, try out plausible meanings and to read and check for sense.'
  'Understand the term pronoun.'
  Ws/L1.2 - 'Use correct grammar - write grammatically correct sentences...'
  
• Wales
  As England.
• Northern Ireland
  As England.
• Scotland
  See www.aloscotland.com for details of the Scottish curriculum.

In the Skillswise module you'll find:

Personal pronouns game
There are 3 levels of game. At level 1 learners have to identify the personal pronoun within a given sentence and type it into a text box. At level 2 learners have to choose the best personal pronoun to fill the gap. At level 3, the hardest level, learners are asked to re-type a sentence using personal pronouns where they make sense.
On each level, if a learner gets the right answer they are given the chance to dig for treasure on the treasure map, to build up points.
It is possible to play each level of this game over and over again, as sentences are randomly pulled in from a large selection and the treasure map will randomly generate, so that the treasure is always in different places. Please note, however, that the treasure map and score start afresh each time the game is closed or a new level is started.

A note on level 3 of the game -
There is only one right answer for each re-typed sentence. A sentence will only be marked as correct if it is entirely correct, i.e. the spelling and punctuation are correct aswell as the use of personal pronouns. Feedback, however, will give an indication of what the mistake was (use of pronouns or spelling). Answers can be entered entirely in capital letters (so if caps lock is accidentally on it's not a problem), but if answers are typed in lower case then the learner must make the correct use of capital letters.

As with all our games, we recommend that you take a look at the 'How to play' demonstration on the flash game, before introducing your students to the game. You can find this on the bottom, black bar when you open the game.
Please let us know what you think about this game.

Personal pronouns quiz
The learner can choose their level. Level A is the easiest and level C the hardest. All 3 levels deal with putting the right personal pronoun into the gap in the sentence.
Students can print out a certificate if they score 50% or more in the quiz. This will appear as a link on the results page - click on the link and the certificate will appear in a new window. Once printed students can write their name on the certificate.

Personal pronouns factsheets
The facts about using personal pronouns, with examples. In this case there are two printable sheets - 'What are personal pronouns' and 'Problems with personal pronouns'.

Personal pronouns worksheets
There are three worksheets in this section. The first involves filling gaps in short telephone messages, the second involves filling gaps in a longer piece of text (a postcard) and the third offers a blank template for learners to write their own postcard.
If you have a great worksheet for personal pronouns at level 1 - tell us about it and we might add it to the site!

Technical help:

To get the most out of this topic area you need the following 'plug-ins':

• Flash
  The game in this topic section uses Flash. This is free to download and should only take a few minutes. You can follow the BBC WebWise instructions to download it to your machine.
  Find out more.

If you don't have Flash the same learning points are covered in the quiz and in the worksheets and factsheets.
If you are new to the web, why not try the BBC WebWise online course, Becoming WebWise? It's free, you can do it in your own time from any computer and it will take you through everything you need to know to use the web successfully in your teaching.
Get WebWise.

You can find out more about the technical requirements for Skillswise in our Help - Technical Information section.

Taking it further:

With Skillswise:
Don't forget to check out the Skillswise Lesson plans and Teaching inspirations areas for more ideas about teaching personal pronouns.

On the web:
Here's a few suggestions of other places on the web that you might find useful resources that you can adapt for teaching personal pronouns.

• Object / subject worksheet
  This is a free worksheet from the Longman 'Spectrum' series that is available in PDF format (so you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to be able to access it). It asks learners to pair up subject and object pronouns and then to re-write sentences that have been mixed up.
  Go down to Unit 7 and click on the 'Object Pronouns' link.
  You will need the free Adobe Acrobat software to view this,
• British Council game
  The British Council has a site with games and activities for people who are learning English as a foreign language. This includes a 'drag and drop' game for pronouns. The learner has to choose which category of pronoun a word comes under - object, subject, possessive or reflexive ... so it may be a bit high for level 1. It is also very lacking in feedback, as you don't get a response about whether you are right or wrong. Might be useful, however, for a student and tutor to use together.
• Worksheets galore!
  13 worksheets from 'edHelper.com' practising both personal and possessive pronouns. Might be quite useful for early work, as the pronouns are broken down into pairs (e.g. choosing 'she' or 'her'). This is an American site and you can subscribe for more worksheets and lesson plans, but the pronoun ones are available for free.
• Teacher Resource Exchange
  This is a site set up by the UK government to allow teachers to exchange lesson ideas, plans and worksheets. This particular resource is aimed at Key Stage 2, but doesn't feel particularly non-adult. There are 2 charts showing personal and possessive pronouns and 2 exercises - the first sorting personal and possessive pronouns and the second identifying pronouns in sentences.
• Interesting discussion point?
  On the BBC's H2G2 community pages it seems that personal pronouns have been causing a bit of a stir! The debate seems to centre on how using the wrong pronoun can be perceived as being sexist (are builders always 'he'?) and how some people seem to go to great lengths never to reveal the gender of their partner. Could this be a good game for raising awareness of pronouns - talk about someone you know without ever giving away what sex they are?

Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of other websites.

Do you know of any great online resources for practising personal pronouns? Tell us about them!