Comparing Poems, Plays, and Prose

Comparing Prose, Poetry, and Drama

Prose

• Stories written in paragraphs

• Written in complete sentences

• Purpose: Persuade, inform, entertain

• Dialogue in "quotations marks"

• Series of events: beginning, middle, and end

• Follows grammar rules

Poetry

• Stories that are written as a verse

• Purpose: express a mood or entertain

• Written in lines and stanzas

• Can have rhyme, rhythm, and meter

• Doesn't follow grammar rules

• Uses figurative language

Drama

• Stories written as a script

• Purpose: Express a mood or entertain

• Meant to be performed

• Has a cast of characters

• Starts with a description and setting

• Written in lines of dialogue (no "quotations marks")

• Actions are written as stage directions

Read Angie's Solo

Then, answer the questions on the next slide.

Multiple Choice

What type of writing is this?

• Drama

• Prose

• Poetry

Open Ended

What elements makes Angie's Solo a prose?

Read At the Concert

Then, answer the question on the next slide.

Multiple Choice

What type of writing is this?

• Drama

• Prose

• Poetry

Open Ended

What elements makes At the Concert a poem?

Now, compare and contrast the elements of a prose and poem on the following slides.

Choose Prose, poem or both if the detail comes from them. Think about the elements of a prose and poem.

Multiple Choice

The night of his sister's solo (setting).

• Poem

• Prose

• Both

Multiple Choice

Dialogue between two characters

• Prose

• Poem

• Both

Multiple Choice

Rhyming words that help describe events

• Prose

• Poem

• Both

Multiple Choice

Ideas grouped as stanzas

• Prose

• Poem

• Both

Multiple Choice

Thoughts and feelings of the narrator.

• Prose

• Poem

• Both

Multiple Choice

Ideas grouped as paragraphs.

• Prose

• Poem

• Both

Let's practice some more!

Read the excert from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Then, answer the following questions.

Multiple Choice

The sentences below are from paragraph 14 of the story.

She put her plate down carefully on the floor and stood up, straightening her skirts. Then she went to the kitchen and opened the door.

What element in the text of a play would most likely give this information to the reader?

• cast of characters

• setting

• dialogue

• stage directions

Multiple Choice

The setting is the time and place where the story happens. How does the reader know the setting in the story?

• The author states the setting in the first paragraph.

• The reader must infer the setting from clues in the text.

• The author reveals the setting through the dialogue in paragraph 6.

• The author doesn’t provide enough clues for the reader to know the setting.

Part 1: Read part 1 of the drama

Part 2: Read part 2 of the drama

Multiple Choice

Below is a line from the play of “Tuck Everlasting.”

JESSE: [looks at MILES] Oh? Where’s the fish, then? How come we got nothing but flapjacks?

What two features of a play does this line include?

• cast of characters and stage directions

• setting and dialogue

• stage directions and dialogue

• cast of characters and dialogue

Multiple Choice

Look at the table below. Which of the following correctly completes the table?

• paragraphs, narration, and dialogue

• cast of characters, paragraphs, and rhyme

• stanzas, dialogue, and meter

• verse, meter, and rhythm

Read A poem adapted from the book, Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbit

Then, answer the following questions

Multiple Choice

How does the mood of the poem change from the beginning to the end?

• It changes from happiness to sadness.

• It changes from anger to contentment.

• It changes from calm to worry.

• It changes from boredom to anger.

Multiple Choice

Look at the table. Which of the following completed the table?

• stage directions, rhyme, and meter

• narration, dialogue, and meter

• description, stage directions, and dialogue

• verse, meter, and rhythm