Diamond Poems Across the Curriculum

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Students build vocabulary skills, teach parts of speech, and have fun with diamond poems.

Subjects: Language Arts, Visual Arts

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

Objectives
Students will:

• make lists of words related to a subject of interest;
• learn about parts of speech -- including nouns, verbs, and adjectives;
• follow directions to create a diamond poem; and,
• cut out and mount their diamond poems on brightly colored paper.

Keywords
adjective, community, diamante, diamond, integrate, interdisciplinary, math, noun, poem, poetry, shape, sports, verb, weather

Materials Needed

• colored paper (optional)

Procedure
Diamond poems, also called diamantes, are a fun exercise to include in your poetry unit or do anytime! They can be used to integrate poetry into almost any teaching theme -- for example, students might write weather diamond poems, My Community diamond poems, or favorite sports diamond poems. The diamond poem format could be a tool students use to express feelings about math too -- their love of math or their fear of it.

The diamond poem's format is simple, but it challenges students to expand their vocabulary and learn about the parts of speech. Explain to students that diamond poems are seven-line poems that take on the shape of a diamond because of the way they are created. For purposes of this lesson, the first line and the last line of the poem are the same word:

• Line 1 of a diamond poem is the poem's subject; it is usually a single word -- a noun.
• Line 2 is made up of two adjectives, which describe the subject in Line 1. (How does it look or feel? How does it make you feel?)
• Line 3 is made up of three participles -- verbs that end in the -ing suffix -- that convey actions related to the subject of the poem.
• Line 4 has four nouns related to the subject of the poem in Line 1.
• Line 5 comprises three more participles.
• Line 6 is made up of two more adjectives.
• Line 7 is the subject (as in Line 1) repeated.

Example

tornado
forceful, powerful
whipping, churning, whirling
thunderstorm, whirlwind, funnel, cyclone,
destroying, wrecking, killing
violent, uncontrollable
tornado

Lesson Notes:

• See some sample diamond poems written by third graders.
• If you think it will be beneficial, allow students to use dictionaries or thesauruses to help them write their poems.
• Some teachers use a different diamond poem format; the words (subjects) in lines 1 and 7 are direct opposites of each other. Lines 2 and 3 relate to the subject in line 1. Lines 5 and 6 relate to the subject in line 7. The nouns in Line 4 are nouns that relate to both subjects. See a How to Write a Diamond Poem of this type.
• Students might cut colored paper into diamond shapes and glue their poems to the cutouts. Display the diamond poems on a bulletin board or hang from the ceiling.

Assessment
Students should use the correct parts of speech in each line of their poems.

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