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Text and Visual or Oral Presentation

A 40-minute Grade 4 lesson on connecting a written story or drama to a visual or oral presentation of the same text.

Text and Visual or Oral Presentation is a free 40-minute Grade 4 English lesson plan for Common Core standard RL.4.7 — match a film or performance back to the lines of the text it came from. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the meaning, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.

Grade:
Grade 4
Length:
40 minutes
Standard:
RL.4.7

Grade 4 · Reading: Literature

RL.4.7

Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

Objective

Students will be able to identify where an oral or visual presentation of a story matches the text and where it departs from it, and explain what each departure does to the meaning.

Students are successful when they can

  • Quotes one moment where the presentation matches the text.
  • Finds one change — a cut, an addition or a different tone — and quotes the text it changed.
  • Says what the change does to the meaning, not only whether it is faithful.

What you need

  • "The High Board" text (below) and the teacher's script for its audio version, with sound effects
  • A three-column sheet per pair: "The text says" / "The version does" / "What that changes"
  • A drum or table to tap for the heartbeat
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — picture it first

5 min
  1. Read "The High Board" aloud, plainly, with no expression: "Owen stood at the edge of the diving board. Below him the pool glittered, very far away. 'You don't have to,' called his sister from the steps. Owen looked back at the ladder, then at the water. He counted to three under his breath. On three, he stepped off — not a dive, just a step — and the water closed over his head like a door."
  2. Ask everyone to close their eyes and picture the scene. Then they jot two things about their own picture: how loud it is, and who is watching.
  3. Take three answers. They will differ, which shows that even reading is a kind of performance in your own head.

Teach — every choice is a reading

13 min
  1. Perform the audio version from the script: a long silence; tap a slow heartbeat on the table; Owen's voice counting aloud and shaking, "One... two..."; a huge splash; then loud cheering from a crowd. The sister's line is not performed at all.
  2. Fill the three columns for the matching moment together. Text: "he stepped off." Version: a splash. Change: none — this moment matches.
  3. Now find a departure. Text: "counted to three under his breath." Version: counts aloud, shaking. Change: we now hear his fear, where the text kept it private.
  4. Find a second: the sister's line, "You don't have to," is cut. Ask what it did in the text — it gave Owen permission to back down, so stepping off was his own choice. Without it, the jump is just about being scared. Something was lost.
  5. Find an addition: the cheering crowd. Ask: "Is there a crowd in the text?" No. The text ends privately, underwater, "like a door." The cheering turns a quiet personal moment into a public victory. Ask whether that is a gain or a loss, and accept either if it is argued from the text.
  6. Write on the board: "Adapting is interpreting. Every change is the maker's argument about what the story means."
“They cut the sister's line. What did the scene lose, and what did it gain? I am not asking whether it is wrong — I am asking what it does.”

Guided practice — three moments

12 min
  1. Describe a picture-book version of the same story, page by page: "Page 1: Owen tiny at the top of a huge ladder, the pool a blue dot. Page 2: a close-up of Owen's face, eyes squeezed shut. Page 3: Owen underwater, smiling, bubbles rising."
  2. Pairs fill the three-column sheet for three moments. At least one must be a departure.
  3. Expected departures: page 1 exaggerates the height (the text says "very far away" — the picture makes it enormous, adding to the fear); page 3 adds a smile, where the text gives no feeling at all after the water closes — the picture decides for the reader that it ended happily.
  4. Pairs choose one departure and judge it a gain or a loss, with a reason that quotes the text.
“Quote the text first, then describe the picture. You cannot say what changed until you know what was there.”

Independent practice

8 min
  1. Students complete the presentation page. It gives a text and a described version.
  2. They complete one row of the three-column table for a matching moment and two for departures.

Close

2 min
  1. Take one departure from the audio or picture version and its effect, in one sentence beginning "This changes the story because ___".

What goes wrong, and why

Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.

Judges only faithfulness: "The audio is bad because it's not the same."

Why: Matching the book is the most obvious standard and the easiest to check. The student has not yet seen that a version can change something on purpose and gain from it.

Fix: Keep the verdict for later. Ask first what the change does: "Without the sister's line, whose choice is the jump?" Faithful and good are different questions.

Notices only cuts and misses additions such as the heartbeat or crowd.

Why: Something missing is easy to spot against a text you can check line by line. An addition, or a moment stretched out, has nothing in the text to compare it with.

Fix: Give the sheet a fourth row headed "Added or made longer." Ask: "Is there a heartbeat in the text? A crowd?" Emphasis and additions are changes too.

Calls a departure a mistake: "They got the ending wrong."

Why: The text came first, so it feels like the right answer, and a different version feels like a wrong one.

Fix: Ask: "What did the maker think this story was about, to add a cheering crowd?" A version is a reading with its own argument — here, that the jump was a triumph.

If they are not there yet

  • Fill one moment rather than three, and give the departure ("the sister's line is cut") so the student explains only the effect.
  • Provide sentence starters for the third column: "This makes Owen seem ___" and "Now the reader feels ___".
  • Replay the audio version with the text in front of the student, pausing at each departure.

If they finish early

  • Compare the audio and picture-book versions with each other, and decide which one argues the jump was a victory and which one argues it was a private moment.
  • Write a director's note for a short film of "The High Board": choose one line to cut and one thing to add, and explain what each does to the meaning.
  • Find a departure only a reader of the text would notice (the sister's line) and explain what a listener who never read the text would believe about Owen.

Exit ticket

In the text, Owen counts "under his breath." In the audio version, he counts out loud and his voice shakes. What does that change do?

What to look for: An effect: the listener now hears Owen's fear, which the text kept private. "It's wrong" means ask what the change does; "it's louder" means describing the change without its effect, so model the third column again.

Printable practice for RL.4.7

Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.

Questions about Text and Visual or Oral Presentation

How long does the Text and Visual or Oral Presentation lesson take?

40 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 13 min, guided practice 12 min, independent practice 8 min, close 2 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.

Which standard does Text and Visual or Oral Presentation teach?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7 — RL.4.7, Reading: Literature for Grade 4: “Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.” In plain terms, match a film or performance back to the lines of the text it came from.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

"The High Board" text (below) and the teacher's script for its audio version, with sound effects, a three-column sheet per pair: "The text says" / "The version does" / "What that changes", a drum or table to tap for the heartbeat and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.

What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?

Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: judges only faithfulness: "The audio is bad because it's not the same."; notices only cuts and misses additions such as the heartbeat or crowd and calls a departure a mistake: "They got the ending wrong.". The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.

How do I know whether the lesson worked?

The exit ticket asks: “In the text, Owen counts "under his breath." In the audio version, he counts out loud and his voice shakes. What does that change do?.” An effect: the listener now hears Owen's fear, which the text kept private. "It's wrong" means ask what the change does; "it's louder" means describing the change without its effect, so model the third column again. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.

Is there a worksheet to go with Text and Visual or Oral Presentation?

Yes — 1 printable RL.4.7 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.

Is Text and Visual or Oral Presentation free to use?

Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on October 8, 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-10-08. Aligned to RL.4.7 of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.