To Be – Location / Subject Pronouns

To Be – Location / Subject Pronouns
Daily Grammar Sentences

Instructions:  Give the student the sentences in the second column (Sentences to be Corrected).  Students write corrected sentences and turn them in to the teacher to be checked.

Theme: School Facilities	Sentences to be Corrected	Corrected Sentences
Monday	I is in this classroom.  Is they the multi-purpose room?  She no be in the library.	I am in this classroom. Are they in the multi-purpose room? She is not n the library.
Tuesday	He are in the bathroom?  I be no at the computer lab.  We be the office in.	Is he in the bathroom? I am not in the computer lab. We are in the office.
Wednesday	They not in classroom.  Is you in school?  It am in the library.	They are not in the classroom. Are you in school? It is in the library.
Thursday	You be on the school.  In the computer lab she not is.  Where is they?	You are at school. She is not in the computer lab. Where are they?
Friday	Nurse's room he not is in.  You be next to the multi-purpose room. Where is you from?	He is not in the nurse's room. You are next to the multi-purpose room. Where are you from?

Assessment can be made on three levels in Daily Grammar Sentences:

1. Did the student recognize the mistake?
2. Can they fix it?
3. Can they produce a sentence using that grammar point in free speech?

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Activity
What is it?
Type of Activity:  Partner
Materials Needed:  Picture cards of places
Directions for student:
You or your partner picks a card.  Without showing the other person, this player gives three clues about the mystery place.  For example (the nurse's office):  I can see a bed.  I can see some medicine.  I can see a scale.  The other person must guess and then the first person responds:  “Is it the principal’s office?”  “No, it is not the principal’s office.”  If the guesser does not get it right, the other person gives another clue.  Keep giving clues until they guess correctly.  The person with the card then says, “Yes, it is the nurse’s office.”
Assessment:   Through teacher observation.  If the student can consistently and correctly say the answer to each riddle, he/she has achieved the goal of this exercise.

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Grammar Explanation The system of auxiliary verbs is often one of the most difficult areas for learners to perfect, especially if their native language does not involve conjugations for different cases (e.g. many Asian languages).
Often it is helpful to show the students a chart of the conjugations:
 

	singular	plural
first person	I am	we are
second person	you are	you are
third person	he is she is it is	they are

Key points to understand are the different pronouns and the different forms of the verb to be.  Often this is very difficult to do without referring to the learner's native language.  If the learner has difficulty understanding, ideally, the teacher should find another native speaker of that language (preferably another student) to explain it.
Location is practiced with prepositions, first with in :

I am in the classroom.
He is in the car.
We are in the school.

Next, expansion to other prepositions:

She is next to the teacher.
They are behind the bookshelf.

Negation is straightforward, but be careful about contractions:

He isn't in the car
We aren't in the school.

But not

I amn't in the classroom.

Questions
Yes/No questions
These are formed by putting the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence.

Am I in the classroom?
Is he in the car?

Of course the same effect can be achieved by giving the sentence a rising intonation:

He is in the car?

5Ws
Question words are placed at the beginning, before the auxiliary.  Note that, as in a yes/no question, the auxiliary is before the rest of the sentence.

Where is he?  He is in the car.