Write 10 sentences on the board without using pronouns. For example, "Mary went to the store with Mary's mom last night and happened to see Mary's boyfriend, which Mary dreaded because Mary was in Mary's pajamas." The sentences should be topical and interesting for the age group you teach.
Direct the students to replace the nouns with pronouns to make the sentences easier to understand. To encourage critical thinking, ask probing questions such as, "Why did you choose that word to replace Mary?"
Choose lyrics from a popular song that includes pronouns and write each word from the sentence on a separate 8- by 11-inch sheet of paper. For example, "Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see."
Make extra cards with pronouns and have the students line up with the original sentence intact with one student per sheet of paper. Call out "sub," as in a game of basketball, and substitute pronouns for proper or common nouns. In this instance, a student holding "he" would substitute for the student holding "Drew." Try variations of this game such as swapping out nouns for pronouns. Playing games reinforces the message after students understand what purpose pronouns serve.
Instruct students to draw a blank table with two columns and two rows in their notebook. They should label column titles "personal" and "possessive," and row titles "subject" and "object." Write every pronoun that falls in these categories on the board. Encourage students to participate by calling out pronouns.
Have the students fill in their charts the best they can after all the pronouns are on the board. Review the correct placement of pronouns. Turn this into a game by awarding prizes to the students with the most correct pronoun placements and hang a pronoun table poster in the classroom as a reference.
Have the students write short stories without using any pronouns. When they finish, students can volunteer to read their stories aloud. The class should get a laugh out of the stories.
Have the students swap papers and replace nouns with pronouns where appropriate after a few papers have been read aloud. Let a few more students read the edited stories aloud so the class can hear the corrected work.