Georgina M.

Perez
09/29/2014
EDUC 453
Poetry Lesson
Teaching Poetry
Grade level: Third grade
Main purpose of Poetry: Finding nouns, verbs and adjectives
Materials: Paper, Pencil, Eraser, Markers, Dictionary, Sample poems, Handout
Lesson time: 1 (50 Minute period)
Type of poetry: Diamond Poem - a poem consisting of seven lines that take the shape of a
diamond. Its a poem about opposites where the first and last lines are nouns that convey
different meanings.
Common Core State Standard:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.1.A
Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and
their functions in particular sentences.

Steps:
1. - The students will look and examine several examples of diamond poems and
discuss what they find interesting about this type of poem.
2. We will then work on the poem together line by line.
3. Warm up: To make this process easier and to get some ideas, we will brain storm
as a class nouns that are opposite
4. The students will work on a blank sheet of paper their rough draft.
5. Line #1: The students will chose a topic that needs to be summarized in one noun.
In this time students will have in mind a second topic noun for the end of the
poem, something opposite from the first.
6. Line #2: Chose two adjectives that describe the noun in line #1.
7. Line #3: Come up with three verbs that end in ing that describe their topic noun or tells
what is does.
8. Stop and write down on the side of the paper the second topic noun.
9. Line # 4: Write two nouns about topic #1 and two nouns about topic #2, which will go on
the last line.
10. Line # 5: Write three verbs that en in ing that describe topic #2.
11. Line # 6: Come up with two adjectives that describe topic #2.
12. Line #7: This is the last step; write down the noun that you had chosen for topic #2. The
students will then grab their handout and write their final poem. The students will chose
two different colors for topic 1 and 2.
Revising: Students will exchange poems with the classmate next to them. Each student will have a
poem to read and to check that the words are nouns, adjectives and verbs.

The students will then share their poems and thoughts about why they chose their two topics.
Example question: How can they relate that to their lives?

Idea from: http://www.k12reader.com/poetry-activity-for-reviewing-parts-of-speech%E2%80%93-designing-diamantes/

Handout from: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/Diamante%20Poem.pdf