A diamante (Inventor: American poet Iris McClellan Tiedt - 1969) is an un-rhymed seven-line diamond shape rhythmic pattern poem. Many educators have used this poetic form to build vocabulary, develop concept acquisition, compare, summarize and develop working memory by making use of 'synonym diamante' and 'antonym diamante'.
In a synonym diamante, the nouns in the 1st and 7th lines are two words are synonyms to describe a concept. On the other hand, in an antonym diamante, the two nouns in the 1st and the 7th lines are opposites which promotes the higher order thinking skill of comparing and contrasting.
A diamante or a diamond poem, a part of seven-line pattern poetry has the following rules
1st line and 7th line: one word each (often noun)
2nd line and 6th line: two words each (often adjectives / qualifying words / attributes)
3rd line and 5th line: three words each ( often verbs)
4th line: four nouns /four words as a phrase or sentence
Teachers, educators, trainers and communicators can enliven their presentations by promoting verbal and rhythmic intelligences built into diamante poems. Students can be helped and supported to create such poems on topics and concepts for both cognitive and non-cognitive gains.
Here is an adapted diamante poem on the topic of 'force which has adapted for academic purposes
Force
Push, pull
Changing shape; changing speed; changing direction
Forces are vector quantities
Drawing line, fixing length; attaching arrowhead
Elastic, gravitational
Thrust
Comments