KS2 English textbook

Chapter 8: Reading poetry and plays

Strand Reading
Level Year 3
Practice 94 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 3. Content: Recognise some different forms of poetry, including free verse, narrative poetry and rhyming poems, Discuss words and phrases that capture the reader's interest and imagination, Identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning in a poem or a play, Prepare poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, using intonation, tone, volume and action, Understand rhyme, rhythm, verse and stanzas; name the cast list, speakers and stage directions in a play, Take on a role in a play script and read it aloud in role (spoken language: drama).

Open Year 3 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

Name the lines, verse and stanzas of a poem, and count them
Find rhymes by looking at the endings, and count the strong beats in a line
Find an image or a simile, and explain what it makes the reader picture or feel
Tell a rhyming poem, free verse and a narrative poem apart
Plan how to read a poem aloud, with pauses, tone and action
Read a play script: the cast list, the speakers and the stage directions, and read a part in role

You should already know

Retelling and discussing stories, and using evidence from the text (Chapter 7)
Word classes, and inverted commas for speech (Chapters 3 and 5)
Reading and joining in with simple poems and rhymes (Year 2)

Where this leads

Reading non-fiction and retrieving facts (Chapter 9)
Writing stories with characters, setting and plot (Chapter 10)
Writing poems and scripts of your own in Year 4

Lessons in this chapter

Read the whole chapter on one page (good for printing).

Practise with real exam questions

The DfE publishes every past KS2 test, with mark schemes, for free.

KS2 English past papers