Instructor: Brittany Crabtree
Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher: 4th/Cook
Lesson Title: Literary Elements of Drama Date: April 9, 2014
Curriculum Area: Language Arts
Estimated Time: 30-45 minutes
Standards Connection:
5.) Explain major differences among 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.
[RL.4.5]
Learning Objective(s):
Students will create the opening scene of their own play by using the literary elements of
drama.
Learning Objective(s) stated in “kid-friendly” language:
Today we are going to learn about the elements of drama and you are going to have the
opportunity to begin writing your own play.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):
The students will begin to write their own play. They will be given a “Write Your Own
Play” worksheet (attached) to complete. This worksheet includes sections for the students
to record the theme, characters, setting, and conflict of their play. It also has a section for
the students to write the first scene of their play. To be considered proficient, the students
must complete the worksheet and address each of the following elements of drama:
theme, characters, setting, conflict, plot (exposition), stage directions, and dialogue.
Engagement:
The class will begin to complete a KWL chart on the board together. The students will
answer the questions “What do you already know about the elements of plays or
dramas?” and “ What do you want to know about the elements of drama?”. The teacher
will record the students’ responses on the board. Class, today we are going to learn about
drama or plays because the reading that you all are about to do as a class, “The King in
the Kitchen” is a play. We are going to begin by working on a KWL chart. First, I want
you all to tell me everything that you know about dramas and plays? What elements of
drama do you know? (Students respond and the teacher records their responses on the
board) Great! I am glad you already know so many things about drama, but I hope for us
to learn more throughout our lesson today. So tell me what you all want to know about
drama and the elements of a play? (Students respond and the teacher records their
responses on the board) Thank you for sharing so many things you want to learn today! I
believe we are going to have the opportunity to learn about a lot of these things. Once we
finish our lesson we will come back and complete the KWL chart with what we have
learned.
Learning Design:
I. Teaching:
The teacher will use a PowerPoint to teach the elements of drama. She will provide each
student with a note-taking guide (attached). Okay class, now we are going to continue
learning about the elements of drama. The teacher opens the PowerPoint to slide 1. Who
can tell me what a drama is? (Students respond) That’s right! A drama or a play is a
story that is acted out on stage in front of an audience. The teacher goes to slide 2.
Dramas have many similar elements to stories but when reading a drama, remember that
plays are written to be performed for an audience. The teacher goes to slide 3. The first
element we are going to talk about is theme. Who knows what theme is? (Students
respond) Right, theme is the main idea or what the play is all about. Some examples of
theme are friendship, courage, love, family, and honesty. Theme is very important
because plays always have a theme to teach the audience a life lesson. The teacher goes
to slide 4. Our next element is characters. A character is an imaginary person in a
literary work. The way the author or the playwright creates the character is called
characterization. It is very important for the characters to be described so the audience
can relate to them and understand the play. One way that the characters can be
described is through what they say. The teacher goes to slide 5. Who can tell me what a
conversation between characters is called? Students respond. Yes, a conversation
between 2 or more characters is called a dialogue. A dialogue is how characters
communicate and like I just mentioned dialogues can tell the audience a lot about the
characters like what they are going to do or what they think about a certain situation.
The next element of drama we will discuss is setting. The teacher goes to slide 6. What is
setting? (Students respond) Correct! Setting is the time and place the drama takes place
in. For example, a play might take place in a castle in medieval times or on an island
somewhere during our time period. The setting is the context in which the play takes
place. Our next element is conflict. The teacher goes to slide 7. Who would like to tell me
what conflict is? (Students respond) Right, conflict is the struggle between opposing
characters or forces. In a drama, conflict may develop between characters because they
want different things or even the same thing. Also conflict can develop within a character
if the character is struggling with a decision or with something they have done. Conflict
plays a very important role in our next element plot. The teacher goes to slide 8. Just like
the plot of a story, the plot of a drama follows a rising and falling structure. The plot of a
drama begins with the exposition or the introduction. This introduces the setting,
characters, and conflict. The plot then moves to the rising action, which is when the
conflict begins to increase. The plot of the play then hits the climax. Who knows what the
climax is? (Students respond) Yes, the climax is the highest point of tension in the
conflict. The plot then moves to the falling action, which is when the conflict begins to
decrease. This results in the last part of plot the resolution. What happens during the
resolution? (Students respond) Right, the conflict is settled and the play ends. Most
dramas and other pieces of literature follow this pattern of plot. Now let’s move on to our
last elements of drama. The teacher goes to slide 9. These elements are a couple that are
special to the drama genre and do not appear in other literary works. The first one is
stage directions. These often occur multiple times throughout a play and are normally
written in brackets. Have you all noticed stage directions while reading a play before?
(Students respond) Good, I hope all of you have. Stage directions often include the
description of setting and character actions throughout the script. Another important part
of drama is scenes. Scenes are simply the parts of the play. Scenes can be looked at as
similar to chapters in other reading passages. Writers normally go to a new scene when
the setting, characters, or actions change just like when authors start a new chapter in a
book. Now that we have discussed all of the elements of drama, I am going to give you all
a chance to do an activity with them.
II. Opportunity for Practice:
Students will work in table groups on this practice activity. Each group will receive a
copy of a short drama passage. They will also be assigned an element of drama and
receive a paper with questions (attached) about their element. They will read the passage
as a group and discuss how their assigned element is used in the passage. After they have
discussed as a group, they will share with the class. Students, I am now going to let you
work with your table groups. Each table group will receive a copy of a short play. You
will read the play as a group. I am also going to assign each group an element of drama
we just discussed. I will give you all a short paper that has your table’s element and a
few questions on it. Once you read the play, you will discuss how your element is used in
the play and talk through the questions with your table group. Once everyone has had a
time to discuss, we will share what you talked about with the group.
III. Assessment
The students will begin to write their own play. They will be given a “Write Your Own
Play” worksheet (attached) to complete. This worksheet includes sections for the students
to record the theme, characters, setting, and conflict of their play. It also has a section for
the students to write the first scene of their play. To be considered proficient, the students
must complete the worksheet and address each of the following elements of drama:
theme, characters, setting, conflict, plot (exposition), stage directions, and dialogue.
Class, you all did a great job working in your groups and finding the elements of drama
in the play I gave you. Now I am going to give you the opportunity to begin writing your
own play. I am going to pass out a worksheet, which includes a section for you to record
your theme, characters, setting and conflict in your play. It also has a section you for to
write the first scene of your play. Since this is the first part or exposition of your play,
remember you are only introducing the characters and the conflict. Also, don’t forget to
add stage directions and plenty of dialogue. Once you get the worksheet, you may begin.
Once you finish, turn in the worksheets to me.
IV. Closure:
To close the lesson, we will return to the KWL chart that was used at the beginning of the
lesson. The students will share what they learned and the teacher will record what they
share. Class, I am so excited to read all of your plays. I am sure they will be amazing! I
know we have learned a lot today, so let’s go back to our KWL chart and record what we
have learned. Please feel free to raise your hand and share what you have learned.
(Students share and teacher records) Wow! I am so impressed with all you have learned. I
know you are ready to begin reading your play “The King in the Kitchen”.
Materials and Resources:
“Write Your Own Play” worksheet
White Board
Markers
Computer and Projector
Elements of Drama PowerPoint
Note taking sheet
“The Rocking Chair” Drama Passage
Element Question sheets
Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):
High Level Learners-Students will write an entire play and will research the elements of
drama at a deeper level to apply to their play.
Low Level Learners-Students will review the elements of drama with the teacher. The
will write or verbally create one scene of a play. They will also receive assistance when
reading the passage during practice if needed.
Data Analysis: Approximately 75% of the class included each of the required elements
of drama on the “Write Your Own Play” worksheet. The students in the class did not
include anywhere from 1-3 elements, which could have been influenced because we were
short on time.
Reflection: Overall, I feel like this lesson went well, but there are several things I would
change. First, I would include more examples on my PowerPoint during the teaching
portion. The lack of examples did show an effect on the assessment piece. For example,
the students understood dialogue, but many did not realize that it was written differently
in plays than in books because I did not provide an example during my teaching portion.
For this reason, on the assessment many students wrote dialogue in paragraph form like a
story instead of dividing lines by characters like in an actual play. Since this was my
mistake, I could not hold that against them when looking at the formative assessments.
This is a great example of how formative assessment can guide future teaching. Another
thing that I would change would be to switch the practice and assessment activities. Since
writing a play is at a higher level in Bloom’s taxonomy and the concept being taught was
new, students might have performed better if they were able to work together on creating
the play and then completed the practice activity individually.
Name:
Write Your Own Play!
What is the theme of your play?
Who are the characters?
Describe the setting?
What is the main conflict in your play?
Scene 1: [Stage directions:
]
Name:
Note Sheet: Elements of
Drama
What is Drama?
Theme:
Characters:
Dialogue:
Setting:
Conflict:
Plot:
Stage Directions and
Scenes:
Theme
 What is the theme of this play?
 How did you know what the theme was?
 Why is the theme important?
Characters
 Who are the characters in this play?
 Who are the most important characters?
 How are the characters described?
Dialogue
 What characters have the most dialogue?
 Why is the dialogue important?
Setting
 Describe the setting of the play?
 Why is the setting important?
Conflict
 What conflict takes place in this play?
 What characters is the conflict between?
Stage Directions and Scenes
 Describe the stage directions?
 Why are the stage directions important to
the play?
 Why do you think the author split the play
into different scenes?