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A little about me and the purpose of this blog. I am a licensed high school teacher (Language Arts 6 - 12) in the state of Tennessee going on 13 years now. I have 7 children and drive a school bus. Love me or hate me, none of my students will tell you that I am a typical school teacher. I, like many, believe that education is woefully equipped to keep pace with technology. As a technology enthusiast and educator publishing on a crypto website, I am trying to do my small part to bridge this gap for as many people as I can. Recently, the development of AI has created an accelerated urgency for education to take its head out of the sand and teach relevant skills in the classroom. The resources, lessons, and philosophy I publish here, I use in my own classroom, and anyone (especially homeschoolers) can use this blog as a resource to supplement their own instruction. If you are new to my blog, I suggest starting at the beginning as I will be structuring my lessons here the same way I would for my classroom. Tips are appreciated. Questions and feedback in the comments are welcome. So if you are a teacher, student, or homeschooler that is motivated to learn about, teach, or utilize all available technology in education (or know someone who is), I encourage you to give me a follow: https://x.com/TheRealMrE09
And to view my entire blog: //https://www.publish0x.com/education-and-ai-resources-and-instruction
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English Lesson 9: Using AI to Master Pronouns
Basic Pronoun Use
Pronouns seem like a simple subject – another one of those elementary concepts like we discussed in the previous article; unfortunately, when sentences get syntactically advanced or when we want to get fancy and start using the word “whom,” pronouns can get quite tricky. It is one of those annoying cases in the English language where the usage of a pronoun may “sound right,” but it isn’t quite correct. Let's look at an example:
Global warming has had a significant impact on the polar bear — primarily on the destruction of their natural habitat.
- No Change
- There
- It’s
- Its
Now this is a particularly nasty question! Any of the options sounds correct, and because of the odd wording of this first part of the sentence “impact on the polar bear” the reader is almost tricked into using the incorrect pronoun. While the reader understands that “the polar bear” is referring to all polar bears everywhere, that phrase is still in the singular form and requires a singular pronoun. So the correct answer is D. Note you also have to know the exception from the last article about the word “Its” in order to choose correctly. You also have to be conscious of the difference between the homophone “their” and “there.” Again, pronouns are indeed a simple subject most of the time, but nasty little tricky questions like this do exist.
Who vs Whom
Now, here is an example of an English grammar rule that just needs to go ahead and die in a fire. No one uses “whom” anymore other than Grammar Nazis that are very proud of displaying their perfect grammar for all to see. Oh yea, and you can totally blame this rule on the Germans because that's where we get it from.
In German, the word for “who” is “wer” … unless it’s in the accusative case because it changes to “wen” … unless it's in the dative case, then it’s “wem.”
English is a Germanic language. A long time ago these conjugations of nouns and pronouns – or more accurately, declensions – once existed in our language when it was what we now call Old English. Here is an example using the Old English word for “queen”: cwen.
Nominative (subject case): cwen
Example: "Sēo cwen rīxaþ" ("The queen rules").
Accusative (direct object case): cwene
Example: "Ic sēo þā cwene" ("I see the queen").
Dative (indirect object case): cwēn
Example: "Ic giefu þǣre cwēn gold" ("I give gold to the queen").
Today, we no longer even have an accusative and dative case; they have merged into what we now call an objective case. The Who vs. Whom Rule is one of the last remaining remnants of a time when our language sounded nothing like it does today.
And unfortunately, this rule is still tested. So here it goes:
“Who” is a subject.
“Whom” is an object.
Who = he, she, they
Whom = him, her, them (notice the “m” on “whom” matches the “m” on “him, them”)
Let’s see an example question from the ACT:
"Now that he’s a nationally recognized artist of who has rejuvenated the art of basketry, Frey feels his role is to inspire."
- A. NO CHANGE
- B. being whom ***
- C. whom
- D. who
Now, this sentence can be grammatically confusing, but the rule remains the same. The word in question has the preposition “of” in front of it. That makes the word in question the object of a preposition; therefore, the correct answer can only be “whom.”
*** This option will be the subject of my next article. For now, remember this explanation of why B is not the correct answer. NEVER add a linking verb (also referred to as a be verb) when you don’t have to; that is relevant to more than this type of question. This can also fall under the purview of a rule that I mentioned in the article about Clear/Concise Questions: never add a word that is not necessary / the shortest answer is the right one.
AI Prompt to create practice examples:
"You are an AI designed to help create educational content. Your task is to generate 10 unique multiple-choice questions that focus on pronoun usage, specifically targeting basic pronoun use (e.g., its/it’s/their/there) and the distinction between who and whom, based on the following lesson excerpt from an ACT Prep class. Each question should mimic the style and difficulty of the ACT English section, featuring a sentence with a pronoun-related issue and four answer choices. Alternate the answer labels between ABCD and FGHJ for each question (e.g., Question 1 uses ABCD, Question 2 uses FGHJ, and so on), with the first option (A or F) always being 'No Change.' Ensure that the correct answers are evenly distributed across the different positions (A/F, B/G, C/H, D/J), with approximately 2-3 correct answers in each position across the 10 questions. After generating the questions, provide a simple answer key (e.g., 1. B, 2. G, etc.) at the end, followed by brief explanations for each correct answer, focusing on the pronoun rule being tested.
**Lesson Excerpt:**
Pronoun usage is a key component of the ACT English section. Basic pronoun use often involves distinguishing between homophones and ensuring agreement, such as:
- Its (possessive) vs. it’s (contraction for 'it is') vs. their (plural possessive) vs. there (location). Example: 'The team celebrated [its/it’s/their/there] victory after a long season.' Correct answer: 'its' (singular possessive for 'team').
- Who (subject) vs. whom (object), often determined by its role in the sentence or relation to prepositions. Example: 'She’s the candidate [who/whom] the voters chose.' Correct answer: 'whom' (object of 'chose').
**Additional Instructions:**
- Include a variety of question types, such as Pronoun Substitution (e.g., its/it’s), Sentence Correction (e.g., their/there), and Who/Whom Distinction.
- Vary the context, sentence structure, and subject matter (e.g., science, history, daily life) while adhering to the pronoun rules outlined in the lesson excerpt.
- For each question, provide four answer choices, ensuring the first option (A or F) is 'No Change' and reflects the original wording of the sentence.
- Avoid overly complex sentences; keep them concise yet challenging enough to reflect ACT-style questions.
- After the 10 questions, provide a simple answer key listing the correct answer for each question (e.g., 1. B, 2. G, etc.).
- Following the answer key, include brief explanations for each correct answer, explaining the pronoun rule or reasoning (e.g., 'Its is the singular possessive pronoun matching the subject team')."
