In Mrs Tilcher’s Class

By Carol Ann Duffy

Task 1: before reading the poem

0Task: 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.

0Now join with another pair and compare your list.

Task 2: now read the poem

0Questions: From memory what do you think the poem is about?

0What tone is the poem? (Think about the Close Reading work we have been doing in class on tone)

0Underline any words you do not understand and look up their meanings in a dictionary.

0Write the meanings in the back of your Close Reading jotter.

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.

Task 4: questions on the poem.

0You are going to be given a hand out with a variety of questions on it that need completed.

0You may use your poem and notes to help you answer these questions.

Task 5: the senses used in the poem.

0Carol 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.

0We will do the first example together and then the rest will be filled in with a partner.

Task 6: the essay

0The overall outcome of this unit is to understand a poem well enough to write a critical essay on it.

0You will be provided with an essay question and plan to do this.

0You will need to follow the plan in order to write an essay that will pass at Intermediate 1 level.

0This essay will be graded and will be something for you to put into your good work folder.

Good Luck