Unit Plan 22 (Grade 6 ELA): Poetry, Drama, and Prose Structures
Grade 6 structure and media unit: students explore how poetry, drama, and prose use structural elements to shape meaning. They analyze line breaks, scenes, and chapters, then compare how reading differs from viewing performances to see how visuals and sound transform interpretation.
Focus: Structural elements; staging/visual adaptations; media comparisons
Grade Level: 6
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Literature; Speaking & Listening)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Stories look different on the page depending on form—poetry, drama, or prose—and those forms shape how meaning lands. This week, students will identify structural elements in each form, experiment with staging/visual choices to see how structure becomes performance, and compare the experience of reading versus watching or listening to a version of the same text.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Identify and explain how structural elements (poetry: lines/stanzas/refrain; drama: scenes/acts/stage directions; prose: chapters/paragraphs/scene-breaks) contribute to meaning (RL.6.5).
- Compare and contrast reading a text with viewing or listening to a performance/adaptation, citing what is seen and heard that changes understanding (RL.6.7).
- Engage in collaborative discussions to build interpretations, ask questions, and use textual/visual evidence (SL.6.1).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 6
- Reading Literature 6.5 (RL.6.5): Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot/meaning.
- Reading Literature 6.7 (RL.6.7): Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio/video/live version, noting what is seen and heard versus understood when reading.
- Speaking & Listening 6.1 (SL.6.1): Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions, building on others’ ideas and expressing one’s own clearly.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can name a structural element and explain how it helps meaning.
- I can describe what I saw/heard in a performance and how it changed my understanding compared with reading.
- I can work in a group, refer to evidence, and build on peers’ ideas to reach a clearer interpretation.