Some TPCASTT
BACKGROUND/CONTEXT
POEM ELEMENTS
POEM CONTENT
DIFFICULT (double points)
100

A literary device the poet uses.

What is diction?

What is imagery?

What is selection of detail?

100

The year the poem was written in.

When is 1994?

100

The speaker.

Who is unknown third party?

100

The teacher's way of protecting students.

What is lying/misleading?

100
The change if the poem was written in the POV of the students.

What is a more immersive vision of how the teacher is affecting them?

200

The poet's attitude.

What is reflective?


What is cautionary


What is critical?

200

The poem's author.

Who is William "Billy" Collins?

200

The audience.

Who is everyone/universal?

200
The teacher's version of the Ice Age.

What is The Chilly Age?

200

The change if the poem was written in POV of teacher.

What is more insight on the teacher’s direct motives for lying?

300

The poems theme.

What is "don't trade honesty for innocence"?

300

The president when the poem was written.

Who is Bill Clinton?

300

The climax.

What is the students bullying the weaker.

300

The teacher's version of the Stone Age.

What is The Gravel Age?

300

The change if this poem was written in present or future tense.

What is more evidence on if the lies continued, and if it continued to affect the students?

400

The location the poet was born in.

Where is New York?

400

Poem's genre.

What is satire?

400

The teacher's version of the Spanish Inquisition.

What is an outbreak of questions?

400
The result of the author's imagination.

What is all the ways the teacher could possibly twist the truth?

What is a whole situation between parties who are at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge?

500

The college the poet graduated from.

What is Lehman College?

500

Things that define the poem's inner structure.

What is agent changes?

What is sentence length changes?

What is no tense change?

What is more sensual words?

500

The teacher's version of Enola Gay.

What is one tiny atom dropped on Japan.

500

The reason the poem is ironic.

What is how teacher’s attempts are actually harming the kids in the long run rather than protecting them categorizes this as satire?