English Language Arts and Reading.5.9.C

The student is expected to

explain structure in drama such as character tags, acts, scenes, and stage directions;

multiple genres TEKS talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Multiple genres: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts--genres. The student recognizes and analyzes genre-specific characteristics, structures, and purposes within and across increasingly complex traditional, contemporary, classical, and diverse texts.

Provide small groups of students with a play that has multiple scenes. Task students with reading the play and discussing the significance of a change in scene.


Further Explanation

This SE requires students to understand that, much like a novel’s use of paragraphs or chapters to group a plot’s related moments of action, dramas rely on acts and scenes to signal major transitions within the text.

one of the main divisions of a play An act may consist of several scenes and can run for brief or long periods of time in a performance.
a literary work written in a stage play format which generally includes dialogue and stage directions and is intended to be performed
Students should have the ability to recognize not only the presence of a structure in drama but also its function within a dramatic work. Unlike other prose-based literary genres that use paragraphs or transitions to organize development, drama relies on specific structural elements such as scenes and acts to indicate major transitions within the text. Students should be able to explain how a play is organized by these structures.
a subdivision of an act in a play with continuous action in the same setting
descriptions or instructions in a play that provide information about characters’ dialogue, actions, and tone, the setting, including sound effects, and details regarding the set, such as lighting, that are usually presented in italics, brackets, or parentheses before a section of dialogue