Kendall Stevens

Language Arts Methods

Mini Lesson plan

Type of mini lesson: Students discover the characteristics of cinquain poems through reading a sample
poem and creating their own.

Materials: poem examples, paper for each students, worksheet for each student, pencils, crayons, and
markers.

Grade Level: Second grade Language Arts/Poetry

Utah Common Core:

Reading: Literature Standard 4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration,
rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

Essential Question: What is a Cinquain poem?

Personal Objectives: Students will be able to write a cinquain poem about him or herself or a topic they
love by completing a graphic organizer.

Pre-Assessment: Previous lessons

Introduce the lesson:

Share and introduce cinquain poems by reading and showing examples.
You or the students might read the poems aloud. Try reading some of the cinquain more than once
to show how different words can be emphasized and to talk about line breaks.

Discuss the process:

Outline the cinquain poem for students on the board or using the graphic organizer:
To begin, choose a person, place, or thing to write your cinquain about.

Line 1: One word that tells what the poem is about (noun)
Line 2: Two words that describe the subject (adjective)
Line 3: Three words that describe something the subject does/action
 Line 4: Four to six words describing the subject further
Line 5: One or two words that rename what the poem is about (synonym)
As a class write one together. Example:

party
happy, cheerful
singing, eating, playing
my eighth birthday party
perfect

Apply the Process: Once again I tell them the parts of the poem. I tell them to get and idea in their head.
Pass out the graphic organizer and send them to their seats to get working. I will walk around and help
those who need help with and idea, vocab etc.

Independent writing/conferences: This is the time the students will be working independently on their
poem and once they are done writing they can color a picture/illustrate their poem.

Share: We will come back together as a class and students will/could share their work. We will also post
our poems on the wall so other students can read them and be inspired by them.

Accommodations: For English language learners I will ask them prior to the lesson what they are
interested writing about and create a word bank with visuals next to each word so they know what each
word is. We will also as a class reading many examples and writing one of our own as a class. The
students are more than welcome to use the one we did as a class or come up with one on their own. I also
have colored coordinated posters so they know how many words are on each line and what kind of word
they need to be. I will also have plenty of examples that we can read together as a class so they can get a
better understanding. I also have a space that students can draw what their poem is about so they can
show what their poem is as well.
For accelerated students I will challenge them to write about something they are learning about in
another subject or have them so the same thing just with syllables.
Poet : ________________________________________________________________

My Cinquain Poem

2015 Teachers Take-Out

 Name______________________

Date_______________________

Cinquain Graphic Organizer

A cinquain is a five-line poem that describes a person, place, or thing.

Apple Manzana
Red, Shiny Rojo, Brillante
Biting, Chewing, Picking Mordiendo, Masticando, Recogiendo
Do Not Eat the Seeds No comes las semillas
Manzana Apple

Use this organizer to write your own cinquain.

One word that tells what

your poem is about (its
subject)

Two words that describe

your subject

Three action words that

describe something your
subject does

A phrase that describes

something else about
your subject

One or two words that

rename what your poem
is about (a synonym)