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4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 14

Poems and Plays

Stanzas, rhythm, meter, dialogue and stage directions.

What your child practices

Your child names the parts of poems and plays (verse, stanza, rhythm, meter, cast, scene, dialogue, stage directions) and explains how they differ from stories.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.25; 4.26 · the parts of poems and plays, rhythm and rhyme

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Poems have lines grouped into stanzas, with rhythm and sometimes meter.
  2. Plays have a cast, scenes, dialogue and stage directions. The speaker’s name comes before each line.
  3. Prose is stories and articles in ordinary sentences and paragraphs.

Example: Which feature is found in plays but usually not in poems? Both can have lines and rhythm. Only plays tell actors how to move. Answer: Stage directions

Poems and Plays in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 12 of 14 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Tall Tales, Myths & Plays and before Media and Sources.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is writing that is arranged in lines with rhythm called?

    • An index
    • A glossary
    • Verse
    • Prose

  2. Question 2

    What is the main difference between a play and a story?

    • A play has stanzas instead of scenes
    • A play is written to be acted out, with dialogue and stage directions
    • A play has no characters
    • A play always rhymes

  3. Question 3

    In a play, what tells the actors how to move, where to stand or how to speak?

    • Stage directions
    • A stanza
    • Dialogue
    • Rhyme

  4. Question 4

    "SAM: Did anyone see my blue backpack?" What is this line from a play?

    • A stanza
    • Dialogue
    • The cast list
    • A stage direction

  5. Question 5

    Stories and articles written in ordinary sentences and paragraphs are called…

    • Verse
    • Stage directions
    • Prose
    • Stanzas

  6. Question 6

    A poem that does not rhyme and has no regular rhythm is called…

    • Free verse
    • A scene
    • A stanza
    • A stage direction

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