In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

Summary Summarise this poem in 25 words The speaker discusses their excitement and love for Mrs Tilscher’s class. Illustrates their growing up and maturing and their change of focus as they feel excitement to leave Mrs T.

Speaker/Structure of the poem List 3 things we learn about the speaker of this poem: Feel safe in Mrs T’s class, naïve, excited to move on to next stage of life How do the speaker’s feelings change?: They feel safe in Mrs T’s class and feel love and excitement for this place, feel anger towards the rough boy, disgust towards parents, fear and excitement about the future Why is this important?: They are illustrating the changes involved in growing up and the impact it has on people.

Themes Pick 3 themes: memory, growing up, nostalgia, emotion, transitions How are they developed in the poem? Pick at least 1 quotation for each theme

Quotations Pick 5 quotations: “inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks” Identify 2 techniques used in each quotation: word choice, metaphor Explain literal and deeper meaning of the technique: Literally means that the speaker has grown up a bit. Just as a tadpole develops into a frog so too the speaker is growing up and changing physically, emotionally and mentally. The speaker is developing and maturing as they prepared to leave school. The word choice of “commas to exclamation marks” suggests that the speaker is increasing their knowledge and is able to deal with more complex ideas, they are becoming excited for the next stage of their life and also that as they grow they are becoming more complex personally. What effect does it create? This creates the effect that the speaker is growing up and developing and that they are embarking on a change and transition as they are not the same as they were before the holidays.