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.