Using Cinquain to Summarize Reading: THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Their Eyes

Remember the Cinquain Poem? These–like haiku have our young writers flicking out their fingers or rapping on desks as they count the syllabic invitation for each line. It’s fun to watch, no? To review, the cinquain poem is set up like this:

2 syllables

4 syllables

6 syllables

8 syllables

2 syllables

You might have students think of this like a phone number. Rattled off like 2-4-6-8-2. . .

A “Crown Cinquain” is a poem with a singular subject or focus that has five of these cinquain stanzas as the body.

Wait. . .it gets better.

A “GARLAND Cinquain” is a poem with a singular subject or focus that has six of these cinquains, but the sixth is comprised of lines from the other five. So the first line comes from the first, the second line comes from the second. . .

The garland cinquain can be a little tricky for those new to the form, but it can encourage revision during the writing process as students attempt to create that sixth stanza as a summary while revising the other stanzas to fit the overall idea. Now. . .we can parse out together how this encourages new words and experiences for the summary of reading experience, or I can just show you a couple from my own attempts today.

I’d like to encourage you to give students a chance to play with this poetic form as a means of summary as it might lead to new insights into their take-away from the reading. If we look at each stanza as a paragraph, what we really have here is a poetry to prose connection that can provide students with an elementary scaffolding to a piece that would need a little stucco and paint to bring it around to a fully-constructed summary (whew. . .National Poetry Month has me equating early drafts of essays to little houses being built upon the foundations of understanding).

Chapter Two of Their Eyes Were Watching God:

 

Tender

kisses with boys

can lead to big trouble;

it must mean you’re a woman now,

changing.

 

Married?

It’s too early.

She knows nothing of it.

Couldn’t she wait just a bit more?

Too young.

 

To want

to be a tree–

want what nature promised,

waiting for pollen–bumblebees.

Marriage.

 

Unknown.

How she got here–

the mysteries of she–

born of another tree and time:

Nanny.

 

Needful

for saftety now,

alone in the world

without a father or mother.

Girl.

 

Tender.

It’s too early

want what nature promised

born of another tree and time

Girl.

 

Now, this rough-draft stuff that I created up on the board while writing with students. But look a little more closely at the poetic accident that came of the drafting (and this is what I am excited to see you find with your students should you choose to do this activity). There are little mini poems within the poem. More than the “garland” here, what I found when I look at the first and last lines of each stanza is this “Found Poem”:

 

Tender.

Changing.

 

Married?

 

Too young

to want

marriage.

 

Unknown

Nanny.

 

Needful girl.

 

Tender girl.

 

This is where I might ask myself, “Do I see summary in these stanzas?” and “Do I see how the culling of my own words in this format pulled something entirely-other from my having read this chapter?”

This is where I touch my chin to my chest repetitively.

Later in the day, in a completely-separate block, I was able to draft this “garland cinquain”:

 

Chapter Five of Their Eyes Were Watching God

 

Big Train

south to Maitland,

with Jody by her side,

ready to go rule the world.

Moving.

 

Carry

her brand new dreams.

There’s a new town waiting,

everything she’s dreamed of inside.

New chances.

 

Arrive

to find little

more than roots and dirt roads–

less than what she expected.

Dismayed.

 

The speech

she wants to give

is quieted, quickly,

a voice as big as the world

building.

 

Ready

to speak out now.

She’s aching to be heard.

This is what a woman sounds like

silenced.

 

Big Train:

her brand new dreams–

more than roots in dirt roads–

a voice as big as the world

silenced.

 

Found poem? Yep. Two poetic accidents in one afternoon of playing around with a poetic form. Let’s see if  our found poem speaks to Chapter 5 of Zora Neale Hurston’s book.

 

Big Train

moving.

 

Carry

new chance.

Arrive

dismayed.

 

Ready.

 

Silenced.

 

Big Train:

 

Silenced.

 

I don’t want this post to go too long. I want you to have a chance to go out and play with some piece of text that you are sharing with students to see if this type of summary may lead to new breakthroughs with your students. I think we are all going to be surprised.

And if the stanzas lead to scaffolding for an extended prose response? From where did the words come? Inspired by the reading, yes? But the words come from within our readers.

Can you think of a better point of origin?

Happy reading and writing, friends! Thank you for visiting the blog.

One thought on “Using Cinquain to Summarize Reading: THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

  1. This is incredibly brilliant on about five different levels.

    I borrowed this idea…only the thinnest skin of it, really…with my 5th graders. And I’d like to do a Choice Literacy article on my students’ writing and reference your posts.

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