Making a Drama out of Grammar (3)

Personal Pronouns’Photo Shoot

In KS2,the new DfE POS expects young learners to..... 

 "understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including(where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English."

Here we are considering physiical and expressive ways to explore and internalise the meanings and use of the personal pronouns we require when working with verbs.

Personal pronouns refer to the person or other people and things doing the action/ controlling the choice of verb ending.

Young learners need to play with these personal pronouns tounderstand their role in sentences and how they are the “trigger” thatgenerally changes the ending (spelling) of the verb stem.

This is an activity for learners who have reached the stagein their use of present tense verbs in simple communication (such as questionsand answers about themselves), when you think it is time to focus on thepersonal pronouns and how these alter the meaning of a question or answer.  

Participating in physical activities and performance hasalways helped my learners to internalise the key personal pronouns and to wantto learn the meanings of the new words in the target language.

Below is a sequence of activities that lead to a “PhotoShoot” as if the children are models posing for the camera in a real photoshoot .There is some groundwork that has to be done first …in anygood photo shoot, preparation is key!

A note for the language teacher!

Personal pronoun word choices are different depending on thetarget language.In French the word for "they" depends on whether it’s a masculine,mixed or feminine plural personal pronoun (ils/ils/ells) and in German thereare three different meanings of the same sounding personal pronoun -sie(she),sie (they) and Sie (you when you are being polite).In Spanish we do not alwaysuse specific words for the personal pronouns when we form the verb.The meaning of the verb in Spanish is containedin the ending change on the verb stem.

However all the language learners need to know that the sound of thespoken verb and spelling of the written  verb in the target language is dependent on the personal pronoun usedwhen creating the  message in our heads.

It's good therefore to start the physical activities below in English with our own target languagepronouns first.You can discuss with the children the meaning of the pronouns inEnglish. 

Once the children are comfortable with personal pronouns in Englishthen we develop the “Personal Pronoun Photo Shoot” in the target language.

Steps to a successful photo shoot

Revisitand recall the personal pronouns in English.

Create symbols using stick men to simply represent the personal pronouns (I,you,he,she,it, we, you plural, they).Share your flip chart stick man pose sketches with thechildren. 

Here are mine. I have divided them into singular personal pronouns stick men symbols :

plural personal pronouns stick men symbols:

Ask the children with a talking partner to discuss which personalpronoun each stick man pose represents?

Now reveal your personal pronoun labelling. Where they correct?

A photographic record

Ask children to come to the front and strike a pose of atarget language personal pronoun . Ask the class to take imaginary photos ontheir heads of these poses- just like they were real photographers keeping arecord.

Strike the pose

Divide your class on to groups of four – two boys and twogirls. They are now a team. In a large space, in the play ground or if it’spossible in your classroom play a game of “Stop! Go! Strike the pose!”.Ask thechildren to walk around the classroom when they hear  “Go!” and to find their team members and stand stillwhen they hear “Stop”” and then as a team to strike the pose of the personal pronoun theyhear!Pause and hold and then start the game again.

Now add an element ofcompetition.Last time to take the pose is out!Who will be the last teamstanding and the best team to strike the poses? 

Photo shoot producers

Now two groups of four children must work together. Workingwith the second group, can the first group become the producers of a photoshoot? Make sure the stick men symbols and labels are clearly visible at thefront of the classroom for reference). Each child takes it in turns to call a pronoun and theother group must strike the pose .Swap roles so that the second group are nowthe producers.Share the photo shootperformances with the class-ask each group of producers to select what they think are their best two shots.

Frame the photoshoot!

Finally back in their original groups ask each group tocreate a sequence of “photo shoots” to depict the personal pronouns they havebeen practising.

Why not create a photo shoot gallery?Take real photos – onefrom each group of children (their best shot perhaps?) that can then be labelledwith the correct personal pronoun and be in the classroom on display as part of their photo shoot forfuture reference!