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Common Core ELA4th GradeReading: Literature

RL.4.7: Connect a Story or Play to Its Performance

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.

All 43 4th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.4.7 Means in Plain English

Fourth graders hold a story or play beside a film, audio or stage version of it and match them up. Where does the performance follow the text’s descriptions and stage directions, and where does it change them? Students name the exact line each time.

In 3rd grade (RL.3.7) students explained how a book’s illustrations add to the words, setting a mood or showing a character. Fourth grade moves to filmed, recorded and staged versions. In 5th grade (RL.5.7) students analyze what visual and multimedia elements add to a text’s meaning, tone or beauty.

RL.4.7 I Can Statements

  • I can find where a performance follows the text exactly.
  • I can point to the stage direction or description behind it.
  • I can explain what changes when a performance departs from the text.

RL.4.7 Worked Example

A short play script and a class performance of the same moment. Most of the stage directions made it onto the stage. One did not.

Read the Story
From the script: (The gray surface of the moon. The sky is black. Earth hangs low, small and blue. CORA, an astronaut, plants a flag, then bounces in slow motion to pick up a rock.)CORA (whispering, almost to herself): Hi, Mom. You’re on that little blue dot somewhere.From the class’s stage version: Gray blankets cover the stage floor. A blue balloon hangs on a string at the back, low and small. Cora takes big, slow, floating steps to reach the rock.When Cora says her line, she shouts it toward the audience and waves both arms over her head.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: Where does the class’s stage version follow the script’s directions, and where does it change them? What does the change do to Cora’s line?
Not Yet“The play is about an astronaut on the moon. In the stage version Cora walks slowly and talks to her mom.”It retells both versions without connecting them. It never names a stage direction, so it can’t say where the performance follows the script or where it departs.
Meets the Standard“The stage version follows most of the directions. The gray blankets match ‘the gray surface of the moon,’ the balloon hanging low matches ‘Earth hangs low, small and blue,’ and Cora’s floating steps match ‘bounces in slow motion.’ But the script says she speaks ‘whispering, almost to herself,’ and on stage she shouts and waves. The whisper makes the line private and a little homesick. Shouted, it turns into a joke for the audience.”It pairs each choice on stage with the exact description or direction behind it, then explains what changes when the performance departs from the script.
Question Stems to Use
Which stage direction tells the actors where the scene takes place?What did the performance use to show that?Which direction tells an actor how to say a line?Did the performance follow that direction? What did the actor do instead?How does the change make the moment feel different?

Common Mistakes with RL.4.7

Retelling both versions

“In the play she’s on the moon, and on stage she’s on the moon too.”

Try this: Give students a two-column chart, script line on the left and what the performance did on the right, and fill one row per direction.

Skipping the stage directions

“The script just says ‘Hi, Mom,’ so the actor got it right.”

Try this: Have students read the parentheses first and underline every word that tells an actor how to move or speak before they watch.

Calling every change a mistake

“The actor did it wrong because she shouted.”

Try this: Ask what the change does to the moment instead of whether it is right, so students explain the effect rather than grading the actor.

Where RL.4.7 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.3.7Explain how a book’s illustrations add to what the words say about mood, setting and characters.
AlongsideRL.4.5Name the parts of a play, like the cast, the settings and the stage directions.SL.4.2Restate in your own words a text read aloud or information from a video or a speaker.
Comes NextRL.5.7Analyze how visual and multimedia elements add to the meaning, tone or beauty of a text.

Practice RL.4.7

Quick Check

  1. What does the class use to show Earth on stage?
  2. How does the script say Cora should speak her line?
  3. Name one stage direction the class performance follows.

RL.4.7: Other Names

RL.4.7CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.