1. In Mrs Tilcher’s Class By Carol Ann Duffy

2. Task 1: before reading the poem 0 Task: With a partner write a list containing everything you can remember about your primary school. Include: what you learnt; what the classroom looked like; what your favourite teacher was like; the atmosphere in the classroom. 0 Now join with another pair and compare your list.

3. Task 2: now read the poem 0 Questions: From memory what do you think the poem is about? 0 What tone is the poem? (Think about the Close Reading work we have been doing in class on tone) 0 Underline any words you do not understand and look up their meanings in a dictionary. 0 Write the meanings in the back of your Close Reading jotter.

4. Task 3: now we are going to do a detailed study of the poem. 0 Firstly you are going to annotate the poem but this time it will differ slightly than before. 0 You are going to be underlining specific words and phrases but this time your focus will be on word choice, imagery & structure. 0 These are the main techniques used by the poet in the poem. 0 Draw a key at the top of your poem. An example is below. 0 Structure (underline in green), imagery (underline in blue) and word choice (underline in red) 0 We are going to do this together as a whole class.

5. Task 4: questions on the poem. 0 You are going to be given a hand out with a variety of questions on it that need completed. 0 You may use your poem and notes to help you answer these questions.

6. Task 5: the senses used in the poem. 0 Carol Ann Duffy uses senses to help the reader imagine the classroom. You are going to be given a grid and you need to fill in the correct senses box with a quote that matches. 0 We will do the first example together and then the rest will be filled in with a partner.

7. Task 6: the essay 0 The overall outcome of this unit is to understand a poem well enough to write a critical essay on it. 0 You will be provided with an essay question and plan to do this. 0 You will need to follow the plan in order to write an essay that will pass at Intermediate 1 level. 0 This essay will be graded and will be something for you to put into your good work folder. Good Luck