‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ by Carol Ann Duffy - Annotated

Alternative transcript:

home. Enthralling books. The classroom glowed like a sweet shop. Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake. Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found she'd left a good gold star by your name The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved. A xylophone's nonsense heard from another form. Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce, followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking away from the lunch queue. A rough boy told you how you were born. You kicked him, but stared at your parents, appalled, when you got back home. That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity. A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot, fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away. Reports were handed out. You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown, as the sky split open into a thunderstorm. S: "Heavy Sexy Sky" -personification the sky cannot be sexy representing the speakers emerging sexualtity M: Shows the stages of The transition from primary to secondary and the growing up aspect of life itself 1: "as the sky split open into a thunderstorm" -metaphor present the dramatic feelings of growing up thunder can be scary and exciting the word choice of split may also suggests cannot be fixed just like their innocence T : Growing up Conflict Betrayal Love 1: "Skittle of milk" just as is a shaped like a bottle and suggests joy and games so too does the child feel when drinking the milk as it feels fun L: "chanted" Connotations of - Singing, Melody, Tunetells the reader the the teacher is singing 1: "The classroom glowed like a sweetshop" - Simile just as a sweetshop is a bright colourful place that brings excitement especially to kids so too does the classroom feel like a privilege and a treat to be in L: "Good Gold Star" alliteration suggests simplicity and words that primary school would use for kids 1: "inky tadpoles changed from commas to exclamation marks" - Metaphor- Suggests that the children are growing up comparing this to their punctuation skills growing too L: "turned" connotations of betrayal, disappointment, failure Shows that Mrs Tilscher never really loved the children and the children felt a bit disappointed when leaving