Performing play scripts and poetry
A poem or script only comes fully alive when it's spoken aloud — performance reveals meanings a silent read can miss.
Part of your national curriculum
- Spoken English: Improvise, rehearse and perform play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Improvise, rehearse and perform play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact
Key learning points
- • Intonation and tone
- • Silence, stillness and volume
- • Improvisation as exploration
This lesson at a glance
- 28 minutes
- 14 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 14
Watch first
Performing play scripts and poetry
An English teaching video on this topic from CPD College. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Improvise, rehearse and perform play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 14
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Intonation and tone
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 14
Learn
Intonation and tone
Saying Lady Macbeth's line 'Out, damned spot!' as a whisper of despair versus a furious shout completely changes what the audience understands about her state of mind. Intonation and tone are choices that create meaning, not just decoration.
Explore the idea
Part 4 of 14
Learn
Silence, stillness and volume
A deliberate pause before a character's final line can build tension more than any word could; standing completely still after a shocking moment focuses the audience's attention. Volume shifts — a sudden drop to a whisper — can be more powerful than shouting.
Quick check
Part 5 of 14
Quick check
How can intonation change meaning in performance?
Reset break
Part 6 of 14
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 7 of 14
Quick check
What effect can a deliberate pause before a line create?
Learning cycle
Part 8 of 14
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Improvisation as exploration
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 9 of 14
Learn
Improvisation as exploration
Improvising a scene not in the original script — like a character's private thoughts after leaving the stage — helps you understand their motivation, which then feeds back into how you perform the actual written lines.
Quick check
Part 10 of 14
Quick check
Why might an actor improvise a scene not in the script?
Challenge round
Part 11 of 14
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 12 of 14
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Improvising a scene not in the original script — like a character's private thoughts after leaving the stage — helps you understand their motivation, which then feeds back into how you ____ the actual written lines.
Mastery quiz
Part 13 of 14
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Performing play scripts and poetry
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. How can intonation change meaning in performance?
2. What effect can a deliberate pause before a line create?
3. Why might an actor improvise a scene not in the script?
Lesson round-up
Part 14 of 14
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Points this lesson
0
Best run
0 in a row
Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
The last bus
The bus shelter smelled of wet coats. Mira pressed her timetable flat against the glass, as though staring at the numbers might make the 9:42 appear. Rain tapped the roof in small, impatient fingers. Somewhere behind her, a shop shutter came down with a sound like a full stop.
She had been brave all day. She had been brave in the corridor, brave at lunch, brave when the register reached her name and nobody looked up. Being brave, she decided, was mostly a matter of keeping your face still.
Headlights swung around the corner and lit the puddles gold. Mira picked up her bag. Tomorrow she would say something. Tonight she would simply go home.
Original extract written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- Find two words or phrases that show how Mira is feeling, and explain what each one suggests.
- How does the writer use the weather and the sounds to build the mood? Use a short quotation.
- Write the next paragraph in the same style, keeping the writer's short sentences at the moments that matter.
Reading response
ReadingRead the extract again, then write about how the writer makes you feel that way. Use a short quotation and explain your choice of words.
2 paragraphs (PEE)
Extended writing
WritingWrite your piece in full, then redraft the opening so it hooks the reader.
250–350 words
Reading log
ReadingNote the book, the pages you read and one thing you noticed about the writing.
20 minutes' reading
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 14 · Watch & discover
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Improvise, rehearse and perform play scripts and poetry in order to generate language and discuss language use and meaning, using role, intonation, tone, volume, mood, silence, stillness and action to add impact