What a Reader is Asked to Know:
About Life:
- What a sheep is, what a wolf is, what a shepherd and his dogs are what they do, what a lamb is
- What the relationship between the wolves and different animals (sheep and lamb in particular) is
- What it means to wear a different skin of animal, especially that a wolf is clever enough to do so
- What it means to prey on animals
About Language:
- The importance of the capitalization of different character’s titles
- In what perspective the story is being told
- Vocabulary – certain words need to be understood to see the dynamic between wolves and sheep more clearly, such as “vigilance” and “deceiving”
About Literature:
- That certain texts will describe things in a fictional way in order to depict lessons that are applicable to our reality – a fable
- Reading and understanding the impossible, such as a wolf who is able to wear the skin of a sheep and effectively pass as a real one.
What a Reader is Asked to do:
- Understand that this is a fable in which the reader will learn a lesson about life through the characters in the story.
Who is the implied reader of the text? What reader might know these things? What reader might be moved to do what is asked of them to do?
The implied readers of his text are children, based on the brevity and simplicity of the story. The story itself exploits the inherent predator-prey interaction between wolves and lambs. The wolf cannot get close to the sheep because of the protection provided by the shepherd and his watchdogs, so the wolf deceives by wearing the skin of a sheep to get closer to his prey and ultimately eat it. The lesson that is imparted to the implied reader is “Appearances are deceptive”, but it is a lesson that doesn’t have to be given only to children, as adults who are reading it can understand and apply the lesson in everyday life as well.