To illustrate how the Standards prescribe different level of cognitive difficulty, let us now turn to a familiar American example. Consider the book or movie version of Gone with the Wind.  Both the romance novel and the romantic film about that novel offer several models for self expression (the communications standards): how to flirt (Scarlett), how to be cynical (Rhett), how to be idealistic (Ashley), how to be sweet (Melanie).  As historical romance, both film and novel can provide the reader with information about the pre- and post civil war era (the connections standards), enabling a reader to define one version of slavery, of what was involved in being a "Southern Belle," or how a plantation functioned.  That same information can be read in a significantly more complex way as a coherent pattern linking slavery and chivalry, pre- and postwar styles of social interaction.  Reading social patterns rather than simply describing instances of those patterns yields goals directed by the culture standards.

     The difference, then, between a connections reading of Gone with the Wind (whether the book or the reasonably faithful film adaptation) and reading for cultures is the difference between reading to find out what people in the text do (a purely informational or descriptive task) and reading to see how what they do creates distinct lifestyles.  Thus readers must analyze the information gleaned when they make connections and identify the norms and expectations that generate behavior toward slaves and toward social peers (an analytical task).  Assessing cultural values asks students to read the implications of individual behaviors or events.

     The comparisons standards add yet another dimension to the cultural pattern and an additional cognitive demand: students reading to compare their world with the world of the text.  For "Gone with the Wind," for example, they might compare their attitudes about how men and women should behave toward one another or their views about the institution of slavery with the attitudes expressed in the text.  Finally, the communities standards transpose the reader into the text's world, asking, "if you were Scarlett O'Hara or Rhett Butler what would you do in this situation?"  That stance is cognitively the most demanding of the standards because it asks students to enter into the world of the text fully aware that they belong to a different world and must alter their speech and affect to reflect altered systems of values, behaviors, and circumstances.

Standards and Linguistic Difficulty
Standards and Their Role in Developing a Curricular Sequence