Poems, Plays, and Prose
Aligned to RL.4.5 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
What this lesson teaches
Writing comes in different shapes. A poem is built from lines and stanzas and often rhymes. A drama, or play, is written with characters' names and their lines to be acted out. Prose is regular sentences and paragraphs, like most storybooks.
Worked examples
Example 1
The same rainy day could appear as a short rhyming poem in four lines, as a play with 'GIRL: I forgot my umbrella!' printed before the words, or as a paragraph in a chapter book.
Example 2
A poem uses line breaks and rhythm; a play uses character names and stage directions; prose runs in paragraphs. The form changes how you read it.
Example 3
Stage directions are in italics or brackets and are never spoken. Reading them aloud is a classic mistake in a first play reading.
Practice questions
- Name one thing you would see in a poem that you would not see in a normal paragraph.
- Explain how you can tell a play apart from a storybook just by looking at the page.
- Describe the same small moment two ways: once as prose and once as two lines of a poem.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Poemas, Obras y Prosa
La escritura viene en distintas formas. Un poema se construye con versos y estrofas y muchas veces rima. Un drama, u obra de teatro, se escribe con los nombres de los personajes y sus líneas para actuarlas. La prosa son oraciones y párrafos normales, como en la mayoría de los cuentos.
Ejemplo 1: El mismo día de lluvia podría aparecer como un poema corto de cuatro versos que riman, como una obra con 'NIÑA: ¡Olvidé mi paraguas!' antes de las palabras, o como un párrafo en un libro de capítulos.
Ejemplo 2: Un poema usa cortes de verso y ritmo; una obra usa nombres de personaje y acotaciones; la prosa va en párrafos. La forma cambia cómo lo lees.
Ejemplo 3: Las acotaciones van en cursiva o entre corchetes y nunca se dicen en voz alta. Leerlas es el error clásico en la primera lectura de una obra.
More Reading: Literature lessons
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