myPerspectives English Language Arts FAQs

(formerly Pearson myPerspectives)

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What is myPerspectives ELA and what are the components?

myPerspectives™ English Language Arts for grades 6–12 is a next generation program designed to support teachers and focuses on a connected and consistent approach to student learning. Students take ownership of their learning through focused instruction that develops independent reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in the context of meaningful projects. The program embraces the social nature of learning and uses the power of collaboration within learning environments that mimic real life learning as part of a larger team, a smaller group, and as individuals. The program provides support and a framework for the evolving role of the student as well as the teacher.

Students will use technology to interact with text and activities, and they can write directly in their digital Student Edition to make interaction with text more meaningful. Students will engage in activities that will inspire thoughtful conversation, discussion, and debate, and they will listen to the perspectives of their peers through discourse and collaborative activities and learn to formulate and defend their own opinions. Take an Interactive Tour of myPerspectives English Language Arts.

The program is made up of:

• Teacher’s Edition - Available in digital or print, the Teacher’s Edition includes wrap-around pages that provide direct instruction and teaching suggestions to engage students. Easy-to-use Teaching-Learning Cycles, which include Lesson Planning pages, make implementation easy for teachers. The Interactive Teacher’s Edition online features annotation models and downloadable lesson resources.
• Student Edition - Interactive Student Edition—available in digital or print write-in format—provides multi-genre readings; standards-based instruction; performance task practice for each unit that culminates in an end-of-unit performance-based assessment; and access to background, author, and standards information.
• myPerspectives Digital - myPerspectives digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation.

Is the myPerspectives instruction model research based?

The myPerspectives instructional model is based on scientific research that constitutes best practices for delivering the 21st century skills and independent learning habits needed for college and career success. The program helps teachers create a learning environment that allows students at all levels to read texts and engage in activities that inspire thoughtful conversations, high-level discussions, and lively debate. Writing activities throughout the program ask students to cite text and use research to support their ideas. Digital exercises engage students and provide opportunities for personalization to support and enhance instruction.

myPerspectives was designed to drive student-centered learning; foster student engagement and ownership; and facilitate the mastery of independent reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills by integrating the following research-based concepts:

• Student-Centered Learning. The myPerspectives Interactive Student Edition allows for self-guided exploration of each unit. Students have easy access to background, author, and standards information, and they can download interactive resources on Realize including additional selections for over 140+ full length novels.
• Supporting the Role of Collaborative Educators. Teachers receive the tools they need to support student learning while allowing students to maintain a level of choice and freedom in their literary pursuits.
• Generative Vocabulary. Close reading activities at the end of each selection ask students to analyze the author’s craft and structure. Language development activities provide a foundation that promotes students’ ability to comprehend increasingly complex texts.
• Integrated Writing. Text selections are accompanied by one or more writing assignments, the majority of which are text-dependent and require students to draw evidence from the text.
• Differentiated Support. Teachers have access to strategies and tools for differentiated instruction throughout the myPerspectives curriculum, including formative assessments, remediation opportunities, and reading support for each text. Support suggestions, based on the complexity of rubrics, give teachers appropriate differentiation options for all levels of learners, including ELLs, below-level readers, and advanced students.

What is the program authorship of myPerspectives?

The authorship team is made up of respected educational experts and researchers whose experiences working with students and study of instructional best practices have positively influenced education. Contributing to the myPerspectives evolving role of the teacher, to providing insights on how students learn in a digital age, these authors bring new ideas, innovations, and strategies that transform teaching and learning in today’s competitive and interconnected world.

• Jim Cummins, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning of the University of Toronto. His research focuses on literacy development in multilingual school contexts as well as on the potential roles of technology in promoting language and literacy development.
• Kelly Gallagher, M.Ed. teaches at Magnolia High School in Anaheim, California, where he is in his 33rd year. He is the former co-director of the South Basin Writing Project at California State University, Long Beach and the former president of the Secondary Reading Group for the International Literacy Association.
• Elfrieda Hiebert, Ph.D., is President and CEO of TextProject, a nonprofit that provides resources to support higher reading levels, and a research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has worked in the field of early reading acquisition for 45 years, first as a teacher’s aide and teacher of primary-level students in California and as a teacher and researcher.
• Ernest Morrell, Ph.D., is the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education, with appointments in the departments of English and Africana Studies, as well as the inaugural director of the Center for Literacy Education in the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives. He is an award-winning published author and in his spare time he coaches youth sports and writes poems and plays.

Explore the myPerspectives authors.

How do I sign up for a myPerspectives digital demo?

myPerspectives digital courseware on Savvas Realize™ includes robust digital tools that give teachers flexibility to use a digital, print, or blended format in their classrooms. Teachers can customize the program to rearrange content, upload their own content, add links to online media, and edit resources and assessments. Program-specific resources, flexible agnostic resources, and assessments are available in one location for easy lesson planning and presentation. Click here to sign up for a demo.

How were the texts selected and is there a balance of informational and literary texts?

Texts in myPerspectives provide students with a wide and rich range of literary and informational texts, including narrative fiction, graphic novel excerpts, poetry, drama, functional and foundational texts, and documents. Texts were chosen based on criteria such as literary merit, author’s craft, themes, gender and cultural representations and experiences, insights, readability, and diversity.

myPerspectives supports an increasing focus on informational texts as students progress through the grades. Text selections in myPerspectives provide a balance of both informational and literary texts. Informational selections focus on vocabulary, syntactical and structural devices, levels of meaning or purpose and additional content knowledge required to lead students to success in reading informational texts of increasing complexity to prepare students for the demands of college and career. At Grades 6 through 12, informational texts include news and academic/scholarly articles, science and social studies selections, historical and foundational documents, speeches, essays, legal and functional workplace documents, and more. In addition, in the upper grade levels, informational texts are given prominence throughout the units, and they are treated equally with literary texts. Many of the informative texts build on students' knowledge of the historical, scientific, and philosophical issues of a specific time period. Also, check out our Hook & Inspire feature - a curated collection of hyperlinked resources connected to myPerspectives texts that help extend learning and engage students.