P I Z ZA Z
People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling

PIZZAZ has been an Online Resource since 1995 from Leslie Opp-Beckman
For Scribblers and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

Warm-Up Activities

Link the diamante poems to events or experiences such as a nature walk just off campus, closure for a certain class activity/unit,an end-of-term remembrance, etc.

Briefly examine structured forms of poetry from students' native languages as an introduction, e.g. Haiku poetry from Japanese.

Make up your own examples, using simpler or more complex vocabulary/topics, to tailor this activity to your particular students' level.

Instructions

1. Students work in small groups of 3-5. Each group has one example poem, and the tasks:
   a) Identify the structure / form of the poem (what are the parts of speech in each line); and,
   b) Report orally and informally to the rest of the class on the feeling / tone of the poem.
   c) Answer the questions: What is the relationship between the first and last lines? What is the "middle" of the poem (the transition point), and how can you tell?
   Students can use dictionaries, as necessary, to figure out unfamiliar words. Example diamante poem:
   
   

Title of Poem: Author of Poem:	Seasons All-Class Poem, AEI-Creative Writing I
		Parts of Speech:
Line 1:	Winter	= 1 noun. The topic or theme of the poem (and, the opposite of line 8).
Line 2:	Rainy, cold	= 2 adjectives. They describe the noun in line 1.
Line 3:	Skiing, skating, sledding	= 3 gerunds (verb + ing). They describe the noun in line 1.
Line 4:	Mountains, wind, breeze, ocean	= 4 nouns: two nouns related to line 1 and two nounsrelated to line 8.
Line 5:	Swimming, surfing, scuba diving	= 3 gerunds (verb + ing). They describe the noun in line 8..
Line 6:	Sunny, hot	= 2 adjectives. They describe the noun in line 8.
Line 7:	Summer	= 1 noun. This is an antonym (opposite) for the noun in line 1.



2. Students report on their assigned poems. Optional: students can practice with the instructor orally beforehand and then read and/or act out their assigned poem to the class.
   
   
3. Individual groups then "brainstorm" as many possible pairs of antonyms as they can create. The teacher puts the pairs up on the board / overhead screen as suggestions (e.g. school days-holidays, woman-man, student-teacher, love-hatred, peace-war, divorce-marriage...). Students can use a dictionary and/or thesaurus.
   
   
4. Students and the instructor choose one of the brainstormed topics and write a diamante poem together on the board / overhead screen. Optional: copy it down and add it to the class collection if a class anthology is in the works.
   
   
5. Working individually with a template (see example below), students write one or more diamantes on the subject(s) of their choice.

More Example Poems

Adult intermediate-level ESOL students at University of Oregon authored the example cinquain poems below. Instructors can make their own examples as well, using simpler or more complex vocabulary and topics, to tailor this activity to students' language proficiency level and interests.

Template

Title of Poem     Author's Name           ______________________   = 1 noun ("top") ______________________, ______________________   = 2 adjectivesfor top noun __________________, __________________, __________________   = 3 gerunds for top noun __________________, __________________, __________________ , __________________   = 4 synonyms: 2 for top noun + 2 for bottom noun __________________, __________________, __________________   = 3 gerunds for bottom noun ______________________, ______________________   = 2 adjectives for bottom noun ______________________   = 1 noun ("bottom")

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

1. Students' work can be compiled into a class anthology for reading, autographing, souvenirs, and so on.
   
2. Illustrate poems with handrawn or computer-generated images.