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Reading a Play or Poem is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on reading drama and poetry closely enough to explain them, aligned to Common Core standard RL.3.10. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 15 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Reading a Play or Poem

RL.3.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Conker

First stanza: Inside the green and spiny case, packed in a lining soft as silk, it waits all summer in the dark and grows the colour of stained milk. Second stanza: Then autumn cracks the case in two. It falls. It hits the path and shines so hard and bright and newly made you cannot walk past it. Nobody can. Third stanza: By Sunday it is dull and cracked and lighter than it was before — a small brown stone inside a pocket, and no one wants it any more.

  1. 1. What does "spiny" mean?
  2. 2. Which words show how the conker looks when it first falls?
  3. 3. What does "dull" mean here?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Museum Key (a scene from a play)

SCENE TWO. The museum store room. Night. Boxes everywhere. A single desk lamp. PRIYA: (whispering) It was here on Tuesday. On this shelf. JON: You are sure it was this shelf? PRIYA: I dusted it. I am sure. JON: (lifting a lid) Then somebody moved it after Tuesday. PRIYA: Or before Tuesday, and I dusted the empty space. (Pause. JON puts the lid down slowly.) JON: That is worse. PRIYA: I know.

  1. 1. Why is it "worse" if the object went before Tuesday?
  2. 2. What is a "stage direction"?
  3. 3. Quote the stage direction that tells you Jon is shaken.

LessonPrint · RL.3.10 · Set 15 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Play or Poem

Set 15. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Spiny means covered in sharp points, like the conker's green case. 2. "so hard and bright and newly made". 3. Not shiny any more.
  2. 2.1. Because the museum object would have been missing for longer without anyone noticing. 2. A stage direction is an instruction in brackets telling the actors what to do, like JON putting the lid down slowly. 3. "(Pause. JON puts the lid down slowly.)"

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.3.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.