A New Way Of Learning Subject-Verb Agreement in the EAL Class

A New Way Of Learning Subject-Verb Agreement in the EAL Class

Numerous EAL students have struggled over the years to understand the rules of subject-verb agreement. In the EAL class they are exposed to the “S Rule” early on. The “S” stands for the s which is on the verb when it is used with a singular subject, for example, “She likes dogs.” and no “s” on the verb if the subject is more than one ( person / object/ living thing), for example, “They like dogs.” 

This week, grade 5 EAL students have been shown a visual way to represent these rules by using colored Unifix Cubes. First, the students were shown the cubes on the paper below.

It was explained to them that the single red block stands for a singular subject. If the subject is more than one person, two or more red blocks can be used. The single yellow block represents the verb with an s at the end, for example, likes. The two yellow blocks represent the verb without an s at the end, for example, like. The blue blocks represent the rule breakers or odd balls. Two blue blocks show that the subject is greater than one, but it takes a verb that goes with a singular subject. For instance, I is a single subject, but it takes a verb that goes with a subject that is greater than one, in the case of presents verbs. “You” can be a singular subject and it also takes a verb that goes with a subject that is greater than one. 

Once the students were able to follow the pattern they were given a set of subjects to match the blocks with to show that they understood the rules.

After that, the students were asked to write down the rules that go with the blocks.

Finally, the students made posters to show the rule.

Hopefully now that they have a better understanding of the rules for subject-verb agreement, they will apply them when they write.