The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards.

Students will:

• Understand the following:


• Complex elements of plot development (e.g., cause-and-effect relationships; use of subplots, parallel episodes, and climax; development of conflict and resolution).
• The use of specific literary devices (e.g., foreshadowing, flashback, progressive and digressive time, suspense).
• Inferred and recurring themes in literary works (e.g., bravery; loyalty; friendship; good v. evil; historical, cultural, and social themes).
• Relationships between literature and its historical period, culture, and society (e.g., influence of historical context on form, style, and point of view; influence of literature on political events; social influences on author's description of characters, plot, and setting; ways writers represent and reveal their cultures and traditions).


• Make connections between the motives of characters or the causes for complex events in texts and those in their own lives.



• Use a variety of pre-writing strategies (e.g., make outlines, use published pieces as writing models, construct critical standards, brainstorm, build background knowledge).