Teachers & Writers Collaborative
I have found, as a teaching artist serving District 75 [special education] schools in New York City, that introducing short poetic forms to students with special needs has many benefits. For many emerging readers and writers and students with autism, poetic structure offers definable freedom, obtainable goals, and the opportunity to use other learning strengths, such as math.
The quintet, popularly known as the cinquain, is an American poetry form developed by Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1914). The form was influenced by the Japanese tanka and haiku, and consists of five lines with twenty-two syllables (distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2).
Here is the outline for a typical class that integrates interpersonal skills, reading, writing, vocabulary, musicality, and movement:
1. Ask each student to raise his/her palm. If this is confusing for some students, say, “Pretend you are showing the sign for stop.”
2. Once every hand is up, say the word quin-tet, using the same inflection as ding-dong. Ask them to move their hand forward for the first syllable (“quin-”), then back again for the second syllable (”-tet”). Repeat this several times.
3. Ask, “What type of poem are we going to write today?” Then help them answer, as you repeat the gesture and now tonal word: “Quintet.”
4. Ask, “How many fingers am I holding up?” The answer (“five”) sometimes requires para-assistance, depending on the class.
5. Ask, “How many lines are in a quintet?” The students, detecting the pattern, usually answer “Five.” Explain that the reason we hold up our hand and gesture with the word “quintet” is that our five fingers can help us remember how many lines are in this form.
6a. For the special-needs classroom, construct the quintet with word-counts instead of syllable-requirements, and emphasize specific parts of speech. One way of generating a quintet is to follow this recipe:
Line One: Decide on a one-word title. (Noun) Line Two: Choose two words that describe your title. (Adjectives) Line Three: Choose three words that tell something that your subject can do. (Verbs) Line Four: Choose a four-word phrase that describes a feeling about your title. (Simple sentence) Line Five: Think of one word that refers back to your title. (Synonym)
6b. Go over how many words are in each line. Hold up one finger and ask, “How many words are in the first line?” They answer, or are helped to answer or gesture, “One.” Continue counting until you get to the fifth line, which has only one word. This can become a bit of a trick line; warn the students that this one is different and depends on memory, not pattern. Somehow, if it’s done with humor, the students often think this is funny because it goes against expectation.
7. Accompany the exercise with the following anonymous quintet:
Nanna
Round, soft
Humming, baking, loving
Her lap is for me
Grandma
–Anonymous
Write it on the board and act it out as much as possible with the students, asking them to use gestures for words such as “round” and touching their laps when they read or hear the word “lap.” This makes it more sensory and involves students at every learning level.
8. Write the first quintet collaboratively. Take careful dictation, asking the students to spell and count words as you go. With the help of the teacher, reinforce the parts of speech. For example, when I taught at PS811 @ 184 in the Bronx, the school’s theme was “safety.” In one classroom, we decided to write about fire. When I asked the class to help me find an adjective about fire, I mimed touching something that burnt my finger. They immediately yelled, “Hot!” The teacher can also point out work on the wall, remind students about lessons they have done in the past, or contribute definitions.
9. Next, as a class, brainstorm subjects to write about. Write these on the board or on a piece of chart paper.
10. For emerging readers and writer classrooms, I created a basic worksheet (see below). The teacher can also use it for future lessons.
11. Help each student, along with the teacher and the paras, according to their needs.
The following are quintets from Magaly Claudio’s and Vidalina Soto’s class at PS811 @ I84:
Snake
poisonous, dangerous
bite, rattle, climb
Snakes can be dangerous
reptile
–Christian
War is evil
is destroy, hurt
smelly guns–fire
I hate war
It’s sticky
–Emmanuel
Mother
Black eyes, beautiful
Smiling, cooking, loving
I love her very much
Parlett
–Kemar
War
Bad, painful
Shooting, pain, suffering
I feel sad
Killing
–Stephanie
Poetry
happy, sad
sing, dance, write
It makes me happy
words
–Michael
One (1) word title–subject you are writing about (NOUN)
Two (2) words that describe the subject (ADJECTIVES)
Three (3) action words (VERBS)
Four (4) words expressing feeling or desire (SIMPLE SENTENCE)
One (1) word that is another word for title– (SYNONYM)
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