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Cousins at the Reunion: Dialects and Formal Talk

Read an original play about two cousins from different states and compare their dialects with the formal and informal ways they speak.

Grade 5ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toL.5.3.b

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
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Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 5
Subject: ELA
Question types: Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compare the regional dialect words two characters use in a play.
Students tell formal language from informal language in a drama.
Students explain why a character changes the way he speaks for a new audience.

How to use

Read the play aloud with students taking the parts, then talk about how each character sounds before students answer the questions on their own.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

L.5.3.b

Compare and contrast the varieties of English, such as dialects and registers, used in stories, dramas, or poems.

Preview

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Name Date

Cousins at the Reunion: Dialects and Formal Talk

Compare the different kinds of English the characters use in a play.

Read the play

Read the play. Notice the words each character uses and how each one speaks.

The Watermelon Contest

1Characters: MAYA, age 11, who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; CODY, her cousin, age 11, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee; AUNT DENISE, who is running the family reunion

2[A grassy park on a hot July afternoon. Relatives from all over the country have come to the Brooks family reunion. Long tables are covered with food. MAYA and CODY sit on a bench in the shade.]

3CODY: Whew! I'm fixing to go find something cold to drink. You want to come?

4MAYA: Sure, I'll come with. Is there a bubbler around here? I'm so thirsty.

5CODY: (scratching his head) A bubbler? What in the world is that?

6MAYA: You know, the thing at school where you push a button and water shoots up so you can drink.

7CODY: Oh, a water fountain! That's what we call it back home. I reckon there's one by the playground. And look, there's a whole mess of watermelon on that table. There must be fifty slices!

8[They walk toward the playground. MAYA trips over a tree root.]

9MAYA: Ope! Sorry, tree. (She laughs and turns around.) Hey, did you guys hear about the watermelon contest?

10CODY: It's just the two of us, so who are "you guys"? But yes, I heard. Y'all up north sure have some funny words.

11MAYA: Funny? You're "fixing to" get a drink, and you "reckon" there's a fountain!

12CODY: (grinning) Fair enough. I guess we both talk like home.

13[AUNT DENISE steps up to a microphone near the tables.]

14AUNT DENISE: Good afternoon, family members and friends. May I please have your attention? The annual watermelon-eating contest will begin in five minutes. All contestants should report to the long table beside the oak tree. Please remember that your hands must remain behind your back at all times. Thank you.

15CODY: That's us! Come on, let's get a move on.

16[Later. Juice drips from CODY's chin. AUNT DENISE hands him a blue ribbon.]

17AUNT DENISE: Congratulations, Cody. Would you like to say a few words to the family?

18CODY: (standing up straight) Thank you very much, Aunt Denise. I would like to thank my cousin Maya for her excellent advice. She told me to begin in the middle of the slice.

19MAYA: (whispering) Since when do you talk like that?

20CODY: (whispering back) Since there's a microphone and forty relatives watching. I can talk fancy when I need to!

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