Common Core Standard For English Language Arts Page 12
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43Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtS
upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom
had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever.
It was heard in every sound, and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense
of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and
felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every
wind, and moved in every storm.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
an American Slave. Written by Himself.
Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.
Figure 5: Annotation of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Qualitative Measures
Quantitative Measures
Levels of Meaning
Various readability measures of the Narrative are largely
in agreement that it is of appropriate complexity for
While the apparent aim of the text is to convince readers
grades 6–8. A Coh-Metrix analysis calls attention to this
of the day of the evils of slavery, there are other aims as
excerpt’s complex syntax and the abstractness of some
well; among the latter, not fully revealed in the excerpt,
of the language (e.g., hard-to-define concepts such
are Douglass’s efforts to assert his own manhood (and
as slavery and freedom). Helping to balance out that
that of other black men) and to create an extended
challenge are the text’s storylike structure and the way
analogy between his own literal rise to freedom and a
the text draws clear connections between words and
spiritual awakening.
sentences. Readers will still have to make many infer-
ences to interpret and connect the text’s central ideas,
however.
Structure
The Narrative uses a fairly simple, explicit, and conven-
Reader-Task Considerations
tional story structure, with events largely related chrono-
logically by a narrator recounting his past. There are
These are to be determined locally with reference to
some philosophical discussions that may, to the reader
such variables as a student’s motivation, knowledge, and
just looking for a story, seem like digressions.
experiences as well as purpose and the complexity of
the task assigned and the questions posed.
Language Conventionality and Clarity
Recommended Placement
Douglass’s language is largely clear and meant to be ac-
cessible. He does, however, use some figurative language
Both the qualitative and quantitative measures support
(e.g., juxtaposing literal bread with the metaphorical
the Standards’ inclusion of the Narrative in the grades
bread of knowledge) and literary devices (e.g., personi-
6–8 text complexity band, with the understanding that
fying freedom). There are also some now-archaic and
the text sits at the high end of the range and that it
unusual words and phrasings (e.g., choice documents).
can be reread profitably in later years by more mature
students capable of appreciating the deeper messages
embedded in the story
Knowledge Demands
.
The Narrative discusses moderately sophisticated
themes. The experiences of slavery Douglass describes
are obviously outside students’ own experiences, but
Douglass renders them vivid. The text is bound by Dou-
glass’s authoritative perspective. General background
knowledge about slavery and race in mid-nineteenth-
century America is helpful, as is knowledge of Christiani-
ty, to which Douglass makes frequent reference through-
out the excerpt and the work as a whole.
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