1.6
Nouns as Subjects and Subject Complements
OBJECTIVE • To identify and use nouns that function as subjects or subject complements
DAILY MAINTENANCE Assign Practice Book page 3, Section 1.6. After students finish, 1. Give immediate feedback. 2. Review concepts as needed. 3. Model the correct answer. Pages 4–5 of the Answer Key contain tips for Daily Maintenance.
WARM-UP Write on sentence strips sentence starters that have subjects and linking verbs. Write on separate sentence strips subject complements that would complete each sentence starter. Place the sentence starters in a stack facedown on a table. Spread out the subject complements faceup on the table. Have students choose a sentence starter, read it aloud, and find a subject complement to complete the sentence. Ask students to write their sentence on the board.
Ask a volunteer to read aloud about nouns used as subjects. Tell students that they can find the subject by asking who or what before the verb. Read aloud the example sentence. Then ask Who was born on January 15, 1929? (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Invite a volunteer to read aloud the definition and example of a subject complement. Point out that students should look for linking verbs such as am, is, are, was, or were when identifying subject complements. Remind students 12 • Section 1.6
EXERCISE 2 Review the role of the subject. Encourage students to ask who or what before each verb. Have students complete the exercise independently.
PRACTICE
EXERCISE 3 Have small groups complete the exercise. Suggest that students first identify the linking verb in each sentence. Remind them that a subject complement follows
EXERCISE 1 Have students scan the sentences to understand the general topic. Tell them to select the word that
1.6
Nouns as Subjects and Subject Complements A noun can be the subject of a verb. The subject tells what a sentence is about. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.
The subject of this sentence is Martin Luther King Jr. To find the subject, ask who or what before the verb. Who was born? The answer is Martin Luther King Jr. A noun can be a subject complement. A subject complement follows a linking verb, such as am, is, are, was, or were. It renames the subject.
Read from a piece of writing that the class is currently reading. Emphasize the nouns used as subjects and subject complements.
TEACH
makes the most sense in each sentence. Encourage volunteers to read aloud their sentences as the rest of the class checks their answers.
that a subject complement renames the subject. Then ask volunteers to underline the subjects and circle the subject complements from the Warm-Up examples on the board. Point out that some sentences are incomplete without a word after the verb, and when the verb is a linking verb, the word following it is a subject complement.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister. (Martin Luther King Jr. = minister)
The subject complement in this sentence is minister. Can you find the subject and subject complement in this sentence? Nelson Mandela was a leader in South Africa.
Martin Luther King Jr.
You are correct if you said the subject is Nelson Mandela. The subject complement is leader. It renames the subject (Nelson Mandela = leader).
EXERCISE 1 Complete each sentence with a subject noun from the list. country
hometown
King
laws
marches
monument
people
speech
1. King’s childhood was Atlanta, Georgia. 2. His helped Americans understand the existence of inequality in the country.
3. 4. 5. New
used words, not violence, to win fights. crowded his church for his powerful sermons. in the 1960s helped African Americans
gain their rights.
Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
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Section 1.6