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Lesson Plan: Poems vs. Drama

drama play lesson

Subject:  ELA- Reading

Grade: 4

Lesson Objective: To compare a poem and a drama about the same topic

Common Core Standard:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5- Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

Materials:

Starter:

Say:

  • Do you like listening to poems or watching plays?  Why?  (Allow the students to answer.)

Main:

Say:

  • There is a big difference between poems and plays.  A poem is a group of words that make you feel a certain way.  A play, or drama, is a story that is told by many people who act that story out.
  • Some of the characteristics of a play are that they often rhyme, they have different verses or stanzas and they have some type of rhythm to them.
  • Often, in poems, lines are grouped together in what is called a verse. 
  • Poems are meant to be shared.  Sometimes, people read poems to themselves.  Poems are also read out loud for others to enjoy.
  • Some of the characteristics of a drama are that they have a cast, characters, different settings and descriptions of what is happening.  A drama also has dialogue and stage directions.
  • The cast is the group of people who are acting or pretending to be the different characters. 
  • Dialogue is what each of the different characters is saying.
  • Stage directions are written into a script for a drama.  They are the instructions to the actors that tell them where to stand, what to do with their bodies, what expression they should have on their face and how they should say their lines.
  • Now, you are going to be reading a poem and part of a drama.  Then, you are going to answer questions about what you just read.
  • Does anyone have any questions?

Feedback:

Say:

  • Who would like to share your answers?  (Allow the students to share and go over the answers.)

Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer

Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.

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