Each set of Standards raises the linguistic ante for a reader at the same time that it adds cognitive complexity.  In other words, the cognitive strategies needed to apply the world of the text to different reader objectives dictate the linguistic usage projected by those strategies.

     As the discussion of the distinctions in cognitive task identified in the Standards implied, applying first three sets of Standards involves asking students to reproduce the language of the text: either by borrowing language to express oneself, by describing others, or by identifying the values and behaviors suggested by those descriptions.  When the last two sets of Standards are applied, students must engage in a significantly greater style of cognitive complexity: managing the world of the text and the world of their native language.  Such tasks necessitate significantly increased linguistic sophistication as well.  Thus, the comparisons and communities standards are, from both a linguistic and cognitive point of view, built on the cognitive and linguistic work of the initial three Standards.  Unless approached as a group task (discussion, projects outside of class), these last two sets of Standards in the sequence ask students to use texts to express their own ideas in extended conversation or longer essays (at least two or three paragraphs).

     Click on the buttons that follow to see examples of the relationship between the Standards and linguistic difficulty; the examples draw on Gone with the Wind.

The Communication Standard and Linguistic Difficulty
The Connections Standards and Linguistic Difficulty
The Culture Standards and Linguistic Difficulty
The Comparison and Communities Standards and Linguistic Difficulty

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