Implicit and Explicit Meaning: The Farmer's Wife Poem

In this poem Julie Ann, the farmer’s wife, is a ferocious were-wolf, but we only really find out at the end. Teach your students to look for the clues that are sprinkled throughout this anonymous poem that Julie Ann is not quite what she seems. A thirty-slide Powerpoint guides students through the text after they have had chance to look for the clues in a Word copy of the poem. Three choices of follow-up writing activity are included. By the end of the lesson, students will learn how writers often prefer to drop hints and suggestions, rather than use explicit information.