Read the story The Maligned Wolf to the class. Ask what they think about this version of events and if they know of any other books which tell Fairytales or stories from other characters’ points of view. Ask what point they think the wolf (the author) is trying to make through this retelling of events.
Give out the Student Sheet and ask students to complete the first table on the sheet in relation to the story of “The Maligned Wolf”. Before they begin, discuss the meaning of the terms ‘bias’ and ‘reliability’, posing the discussing question, ‘Can something be reliable if it is biased?’
Now look at the summary table on the Student Sheet and work through this as a class.
PLENARY
Ask students if this story makes them think differently about wolves. Wolves tend to get a ‘bad press’ in stories, which influences how we think of them – can this apply to people or groups of people?
Conclude by sharing that a source of any kind can be useful – in that it can tell us about the author, what they thought and their opinions, maybe even why they thought in certain ways. It can tell us about the time or place they lived in as well – even though it is one-sided and maybe could be construed as unreliable.