Creative Bag of Tricks #6.1 - Short forms

A supportive structure helps learners to enjoy writing cinquains.

Short poetry forms are particularly appealing to learners because of their length, use of repetition and easy to follow structures. In this post, we look at cinquains.

Cinquains

Traditionally, cinquains are one stanza poems of a specified number of lines, syllables and stresses. 

This version has been adapted so that instead of syllables and stresses, the number and classification of words in each line is specified. 

Here is a suggested structure for a cinquain poem. However, the rules can be tweaked to suit your learners! (Click image to enlarge)

• Verbs may be written in their infinitive form
• A cinquain organiser like this one might be useful
• Examples of cinquains in French
• Examples of cinquains in Spanish
• Example of cinquain in German