DIAMANTE POEM

Writing Lesson Plan

Grade 7/8 6o minutes Alaska Standard: Write Using a Variety of Forms W3.1 Write a Composition W3.2 Use a Variety of Forms Structures and Conventions of Writing W3.3 Use Conventions Revise W3.4 Revise Use Resources W3.6 Use Word Processing Use five step writing process to create diamante poems Writing Diamante Poetry Direct instruction, technology, writing, peer review

Goal: Topic: Methodology:

Objective(s): Students will: Define diamante poem style Write an diamante style poem Utilize technology to assist in brainstorming and formatting Use their knowledge of writing technique to peer-review a classmates poem and leave appropriate feedback

Student Assessment: Final draft of diamante poem Peer-review of anothers poem

Materials: List all materials used, including technology. Internet Diamante poetry (find some that is relevant to your class interests) Individual computers for students Pencil & Paper Poetry Portfolio (if using for unit)

Activities:

What will the teacher and children do to address the objectives?

Introduction Diamante poems are short and have a unique format; print some and have them hanging where students can see them, then read a few. Engage students in a short discussion about the similarities of the poems so they can identify the main aspects of what characteristics make up a diamante poem.

Learning Activities 1. Review the five step writing process. a. Let students know that as a group theyll be pre-writing or brainstorming. b. They will be creating a draft using a guided program online then peer reviewing and editing as time allows. c. Final drafts are due the next day in class. 2. Group Sharing: a. Brainstorm some good topics for poems. b. Have students write down ideas and words they like. This is the pre-writing. c. Poems should include poetic devices. 3. Extension Activity: If time allows or students need more guidance, create a group diamante where a small group dictates words and ideas to the teacher and the teacher can give suggestions and make corrections immediately during the learning process. This may be a good leveled activity for below level learners while at and above level learners begin drafting on the computer. 4. Individual work: Students will work online www.readthinkwrite.org/files/resources/interactives/diamante a. Have students log on to the website from an individual computer. The program will guide them in choosing a topic and words to create their poem. b. Students should print 3 copies of their draft. One they will keep for the draft section of their portfolio. One will go to the teacher for feedback & review and the last copy will go to a peer to be reviewed. 5. Peer Review a. Students will review one or more peers papers. b. They should comment on all aspects of the work, not just spelling or grammar correction. Closure Students who finish the peer review process should move on to editing and preparing their final draft. Differentiation for special learners: Below Level: The online resource is excellent for assisting learners in choosing words. If further assistance is needed, small group work with an adult may help. The teacher can also provide topics with suggested words. Above Level: Learners needing a challenge can do the work without the online tool. They can also be given a challenge topic to have to write about. Audio: Learners will enjoy hearing the poetry read aloud. There is also music and spoken words that accompany the online tool if the students use headphones. Visual: Learners will like to see the poems displayed and will enjoy the format structure and visuals of the online assistant. Classroom Organization: Students should be seated where they can get work accomplished and have quiet time without talking out of turn to peers. Individual computers and a quiet environment are necessary for this activity. If a small group needs assistance a table in the back of the room is very helpful. Assessment: Students may be graded on the process as much as the final product.

How is this lesson sensitive to cultural and language issues?: The poetry can be about any topic. If there is cultural variety in the classroom, the teacher may choose to share diamante poems that highlight these cultures or he or she may choose to use topics that have no cultural identity. The online resource is set up to be used for English speaking. If there are a lot of non-English speaking students, the teacher may wish to use the small group-writing format instead (see extension activity). Students may want to write the top half in English and the bottom in their first language, for example. Reflection: How did the lesson go? This lesson was a lot of fun and the students were able to write some great poetry. The shorter poem format was great for one class of writing. The online tool helped students know which words to pick like verb or -ing word. They still had to pre-write and decide on a topic. Some topics included winter/summer, sky/ocean, and night/day. Did the students meet the objective? How do you know? All of the students met the objective by creating a poem using the online resource and then peer reviewing. Both their draft poem, final draft and peer-edit were submitted in a portfolio at the end of the unit as well as drafts along the way for teacher-edit. Were there any unexpected events? How effectively did you respond? We lost some valuable time when several students could not find the website. I had written it on the board and a couple students went right to it and got to work. At first I thought the students were making up the issue to waste time so I had to work hard at keeping relaxed and not irritated. After helping a couple of the students I realized that it wasnt necessarily a time diversion, but that they lacked the skills to work independently by seeing what they needed to do and doing it. I dont think that I was overly effective because I just kept repeating myself and pointing to the board. At one point I stopped everyone, even the logged on students, and pointed out that the web address was on the board. It wasnt fair to the students who were going forward and it wasnt effective to the ones who werent getting logged on they kept saying it wont come up or where do we go? Finally, I had two students who had logged on successfully help the two that couldnt get logged on while I helped a student who had a different question. Again, not very effective because it drew those two away from their work and the other two didnt learn anything from it. Comment on one student who did particularly well and one who did not meet your expectations. Why did this happen? What can you do to follow up with the student who did not do well? Several students wrote outstanding poetry, using poetic devices like alliteration and imagery in their short diamante poem. I was very impressed. I cant name just one student because there were three who focused, wrote beautifully and creatively and gave excellent feedback on the peer edits. One student who didnt meet my expectations did so by wasting a lot of time. She was one of the students who couldnt get logged in. Then she kept moving to sit by her friend without permission. In the end she wrote a poem almost identical to her friend. Her peer review was vague and pointless. I followed up by having her rewrite her diamante. I gave her the topic so she

couldnt copy her friend. I also disciplined the talking and moving issue by seating her by herself across the room. I praised her draft of her new poem and took extra time teacher editing it, pointing out everything I liked and then adding a few suggestions. Are there any changes you would make in this lesson if you could do it again? Why? I added the extension activity to the lesson plan after I taught it because I would have liked to do it. As we were working I was thinking about it. There were a few below level learners that would have benefited but I honestly think everyone would have liked it. I really liked the website and it was fun to add in some technology to the poetry. Id like to add an additional day and incorporate artwork into the project. I think a unit that combined poetry (reading and writing), art and social studies would be fantastic!! This lesson is part of a unit that I created and taught that included learning about poetic devices, types of poetry, writing poetry, memorizing to perform and reading poetry. This lesson fell in the middle after students had read many forms and authors of poetry, had learned about poetic devices, had reviewed the five-step writing process and had been writing different styles of poetry. The unit itself represents many points from my personal philosophy of literacy. I believe that it is important for students to learn how to decode meaning from what they are reading. While especially important in things like textbooks and articles, it is especially challenging in poetry because of all the imagery and personalization that goes into it. Weaver supports this idea by stating that students approach to reading itself is guided by what they think reading is and that there is a significant correlation between teachers approach to reading instruction and childrens understanding of what reading is and what it involves (Weaver, 2009). My goal with this unit was to introduce a variety of authors, writing styles, types of poetry and the feeling that our interpretation of poetry is personal and unique. This particular lesson involves selecting a topic and writing poetry about it. This fits another point in my personal literacy philosophy that Students must learn to make their own relation to what theyre reading and writing or it is meaningless. Writing poetry gave these students the opportunity to write about whatever they wanted, allowing them to relate to it and give their work meaning.