In Mrs Tilscher's Class

Question 1

You

Answer 1

Word Choice - use of second person “you” creates a chatty tone and draws the reader into the poem

Question 2

Chanted

Answer 2

Word Choice - suggests she is singing/a comforting rhythm, primary teachers often use a sing-song voice

Question 3

That for an hour

Answer 3

Informal Tone - tells you pupils days were arranged into chunks of time, sense of routine, felt safe and secure

Question 4

The laugh of a bell

Answer 4

Personification - the sounds of the bell is being compared to someone laughing. People laugh when they’re happy so this helps create a happy, carefree atmosphere

Question 5

This was better than home

Answer 5

Informal Tone - tells you how much the pupils enjoy being in Mrs Tilscher’s class

Question 6

The classroom glowed like a sweetshop

Answer 6

Simile - compares the classroom to a sweetshop. Children love being in sweet shops and there is a wide variety of tempting things on offer in them, so this makes the classroom sound like an exciting place

Question 7

Sugar paper. Coloured shapes

Answer 7

Short Sentence - help the reader to imagine the simple coloured shapes

Question 8

Brady and Hindley faded, like a faint uneasy smudge of a mistake

Answer 8

Juxtaposition - of positive, safe, secure classroom and the terrifying and dangerous murderers Brady and Hindley. Black and white pictures which appeared in the newspapers contrast to starkly with the colourful sweetshop classroom

Question 9

dunce

Answer 9

Word Choice - the word was specific to a school setting/is not in common use anymore

Question 10

croaking

Answer 10

Word Choice - echoes the sound of the boys’ voices breaking

Question 11

, appalled,

Answer 11

Parenthesis/Word Choice - emphasises the strong feelings of disgust felt by the speaker at the realisation that his/her parents must have had sex

Question 12

the inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks

Answer 12

Metaphor - represents the children getting better/growing older

Question 13

untidy, hot, fractious

Answer 13

List - suggests that the speaker feels uncomfortable

Question 14

heavy sexy sky

Answer 14

Personification - the sky cannot be sexy. Represents the speaker’s emerging sexuality

Question 15

impatient to be grown

Answer 15

Parenthesis - emphasises the stage in life where children are eager to grow up.

Question 16

You

Answer 16

Word Choice - creates an informal tone, also universalised the poem’s theme of growing up

Question 17

As the sky spits open into a thunderstorm

Answer 17

Metaphor - represents the dramatic feeling of growing up. Thunder is powerful and scary. The word “split” also suggests something breaking that can never be fixed (loss of innocence)