Slipping, Sliding, Tumbling: Reinforcing Cause and Effect Through Diamante Poems

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Combine higher order thinking with creativity in this lesson that uses diamante poems to illustrate the phenomenon of cause and effect. Students define and identify instances of cause and effect to help them generate their own examples. After practicing the diamante format in a shared writing experience, students construct their own diamante poems illustrating cause-and-effect scenarios of their choice. The diamante poem will start with the cause and transition to the effect.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

• Diamante Poems: This interactive tool helps students get their poems in shape.
  
  
• Cause and Effect Diamante Writer’s Checklist: Students can use this checklist to make sure their poems fit the diamante format.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Zwiers, J. (2004). Developing academic thinking skills in grades 6–12: A handbook of multiple intelligence activities. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

• Teaching concepts of cause and effect helps students to think logically and draw conclusions based on evidence.
  
  
• Cause and effect is an important jumping-off point that allows students to move beyond memorizing answers or facts and consider alternative possibilities and underlying concepts.
  
  
• In addition to modeling cause and effect questions, the teacher can "scaffold the process of figuring out cause and effect with activities that support content and language learning."

   

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