6th to 8th Grade - Gateway 3

The myPerspectives program includes Home Connection letters for each unit to inform students, parents, and caregivers about the ELA program. These letters provide an overview of the unit’s content, including the essential question, texts of study, and major assignments. They also offer suggested discussion questions to help families support learning at home. To promote accessibility, these materials are available in both English and Spanish.

• Materials contain strategies for informing students, parents, or caregivers about the ELA program. Materials contain suggestions for how parents or caregivers can help support student progress and achievement.

  • Each unit in the program includes a Home Connection letter for families. Each letter includes a summary of what students will learn in each unit, the unit’s essential question, a list of the texts of study, and a list of the larger assignments in the unit, including Performance Tasks, the Performance-Based Assessment, and the Unit Project. Each letter also includes suggestions for questions to discuss at home with students to reinforce learning from the unit. 

• Materials for parents (like letters home) have been translated into languages other than English.

  • The Home Connection letter for each unit is available in English and Spanish. 

The myPerspectives program offers varied approaches to learning tasks and multiple ways for students to demonstrate their understanding over time. Students engage in various activities—such as annotations, discussions, writing assignments, research projects, speaking and listening tasks, and assessments—to deepen and apply their learning. Throughout each unit, students revisit the essential question, culminating in a Performance-Based Assessment that synthesizes their thinking and growth. The materials provide opportunities for ongoing review, self-reflection, and feedback, including checklists, rubrics, and quick conference questions to guide revision and improvement. Students also monitor their learning by self-assessing progress on unit goals at the beginning and end of each unit, supporting greater ownership of their growth. Overall, the program leverages a variety of formats and consistent feedback loops to promote deeper literacy learning and self-directed progress.

• Materials provide varied tasks for students to show their thinking and make meaning. 

  • Throughout the materials, students show their thinking and make meaning in various ways. As they read, students answer questions and complete annotations. After reading, students complete assignments that deepen their understanding of the text and literacy concepts. Throughout each unit, students engage in discussions, short research projects, short and long form writing assignments, vocabulary, word study, group projects, and varied assessments. Each task deepens students’ understanding and/or allows them to show their thinking. 

• Students have opportunities to share their thinking, to demonstrate changes in their thinking over time, and to apply their understanding in new contexts.

  • Each unit in the myPerspectives program is focused on a topic/theme and an essential question. Students interrogate different facets of the essential question throughout different unit components (Whole-Class Learning and Peer-Group Learning). In the Performance-Based Assessment at the end of each unit, students use all they learned throughout the unit to revisit the essential question and synthesize their thinking from the entire unit, in a longer writing piece. 

• Materials leverage the use of a variety of formats over time to deepen student understanding and ability to explain and apply literacy ideas.

  • Throughout each unit, students deepen their knowledge and understanding of the unit’s topic/theme and essential question by reading various core texts and completing varied tasks. In each unit’s component, students read several texts and complete assignments to deepen their knowledge. These assignments include: close reading assignments, analysis of texts,  language and craft study assignments, writing assignments, speaking and listening assignments, vocabulary assignments, and Performance Tasks.

• Materials provide for ongoing review, practice, self-reflection, and feedback. Materials provide multiple strategies, such as oral and/or written feedback, peer or teacher feedback, and self-reflection.

  • Throughout each unit, students have several opportunities to receive teacher feedback. The materials include many formative assessments, where teachers can progress monitor student learning. The Peer-Group Learning component of each unit provides students with opportunities to work in groups and learn from their peers. When working on their written Performance Tasks, students can refer to a checklist to help ensure they have all of the necessary components, and teachers can use the quick conference questions to give students feedback as they write. Teachers also have access to a rubric to score student writing. 

• Materials provide a clear path for students to monitor and move their own learning.

  • At the start of each unit, students review the unit goals and use a 1 to 5 scale to rate how they meet them. At the end of each unit, students reflect on the unit goals and reassess how they meet them. Then, they reflect on which goals they were more successful at versus less successful. 

The myPerspectives program provides multiple grouping strategies and interaction formats to support student collaboration. Units are structured to include Whole-Class, Peer-Group, and Independent Learning, ensuring students work in various settings. Peer-Group Learning emphasizes collaborative skill-building, with routines for group discussions and activities, and students engage in icebreakers, paired discussions, and group-based Speaking and Listening tasks. The Teacher Edition offers guidance on grouping for specific activities, such as Inquiry and Research or performance tasks, and the program suggests grouping strategies based on student needs (e.g., homogeneous or heterogeneous groups) for the Peer-Group Learning component of each unit. However, not all activities include explicit guidance on how to group students effectively, limiting support for differentiated grouping decisions beyond the initial unit setup.

• Materials provide grouping strategies for students. Materials provide guidance for varied types of interaction among students.

  • myPerspectives units are structured so that the first third is based on Whole-Class Learning, the second third is based on Peer-Group Learning, and the final third is based on Independent Learning. This unit structure allows students to work in different types of groupings. 

    • For the Peer-Group Learning component of the curriculum, students start by discussing peer-group learning strategies, learning how to work as a group, and making a group schedule. 

  • Students complete an icebreaker activity in small groups at the beginning of each unit. For these activities, students consider a statement, record their position, explain their thinking, discuss it, and answer a few questions with their group. Then, they write a summary of the points covered in the discussion. The Teacher Edition provides teachers with guidance on circulating as students discuss and reminding students that there is no right or wrong answer. Additional guidance states, “Encourage students to keep an open mind and to listen to their classmates.”

  • After reading every text in each unit’s Whole-Class and Peer-Group Learning components, students complete a First Thoughts activity. Then, students discuss their thoughts in pairs for Whole-Class Learning and groups for Peer-Group Learning. The Teacher Edition includes guidance on the discussion routine that students should follow during these conversations, including: 

    • “Expand on each other’s comments, building on their ideas.

    • Summarize peers’ comments to clarify ideas.

    • Ask questions to deepen the discussion or to transition into another aspect of the topic.”

  • The Savvas Realize platform includes a Learning Strategies Videos section. In this section, the materials include one Whole-Class learning video, two Peer-Group learning videos, and one Independent Learning video that teachers can present to students. The topics of the videos are Whole Class Learning Strategies (Student Modeling Video), Peer-Group Learning Strategies: How to Work in Groups, Peer-Group Learning Strategies: Unspoken Rules of Teamwork, and Independent Learning Strategies (Student Modeling Video). These videos are the same for all grade levels. 

  • The Teacher Edition includes grouping guidance for Inquiry and Research activities, which students complete after reading some texts in the program. This guidance allows teachers to group students in small groups, pairs, or independently, based on how challenging the activity might be for their students. 

  • The Teacher Edition includes grouping guidance for Speaking and Listening activities, which students complete after reading some texts in the program. The Student and Teacher Editions include strategies and skills students should apply while completing the activity.

  • Students work in their Peer-Group Learning groups for each unit’s Speaking and Listening Performance Task. The materials provide guidance for students and teachers on completing these activities successfully together. 

• Materials provide guidance for the teacher on grouping students in a variety of grouping formats, but not for all grouped activities. 

  • For the Peer-Group component of the first unit of each grade level, the materials include the following teacher guidance for grouping students:

    • “If you need to provide extra support to some students, group them together so you can spend more time with them.

    • If your class is more or less on level, consider creating heterogeneous groups. That way, more perspectives can be shared. 

    • Toward the end of the year, once students are used to collaborative learning, allow students to create their own groups.”

  • A few units include additional guidance for the Peer-Group Learning component, such as “You may wish to form groups for Peer-Group Learning so that each consists of students with different learning abilities. Some students may be adept at organizing information, whereas others may have strengths related to generating or synthesizing information. A good mix of abilities can make the experience of Peer-Group Learning dynamic and productive.” 

  • The materials include guidance on what type of grouping to use for grouping activities in other parts of the units. Still, they do not provide guidance on how to group students effectively. 

The myPerspectives program offers limited accommodations to support student access to assessments. When assessments are administered digitally via the Savvas Realize platform, students can listen to the initial directions, but no additional accessibility features, such as text-to-speech, adjustable font size, or alternative formats, are available. The materials do not include modified assessments that alter grade-level expectations. Additionally, there is no guidance provided to teachers on how to implement accommodations or identify which students may benefit from them.

• Materials offer limited accommodations that ensure all students can access the assessment (e.g., text-to-speech, increased font size) without changing its content. Materials do not include modifications to assessments that alter grade level/expectations.

  • Teachers can administer the assessments in print or via the Savvas Realize platform for the Unit, Beginning-of-Year, Middle-of-Year, and End-of-Year Tests. If administered on the platform, students can choose to listen to the initial directions for the assessment, which state, “Answer each question carefully. After you submit your assignment, you won’t be able to change your answers.” No other accommodations are available. 

• Materials include guidance for teachers on the use of provided accommodations.

  • No evidence found. 

• Materials include guidance for teachers about who can benefit from these accommodations.

  • No evidence found. 

The myPerspectives program provides a broad and authentic representation of different backgrounds through varied texts and visual content. The literature selections and images in the Student Edition reflect a wide range of identities and experiences, avoiding stereotypes and encouraging student connection to the material. The program offers some teacher support for incorporating students’ cultural, social, and community backgrounds into instruction. Tools like text complexity charts and embedded prompts in the Teacher Edition help teachers anticipate knowledge demands and encourage students to connect texts to their own experiences. However, these opportunities are not consistently provided across all lessons, limiting their overall impact. 

• Materials provide a range of representation of people, ensuring a broad range of cultural, racial, gender, and ability backgrounds are accurately and authentically represented.

  • The texts in myPerspectives provide a wide range of authors and characters, allowing students to see themselves reflected not only in the student-facing materials but also within the texts’ stories and topics.

  • The Student Edition includes many images of a wide range of people, allowing students to see themselves and others reflected in the materials. Most of the images are photographs, while some are art pieces. The materials reflect a wide range of cultures, races, and genders, and the people represented engage in a wide range of activities that do not perpetuate stereotypes about any group of people.

• Materials provide some detailed instructions and support for teachers on incorporating and drawing upon students’ different cultural, social, and community backgrounds to enrich learning experiences.

  • myPerspectives text complexity charts describe different supports that students may need to fully comprehend various aspects of each text and complete the tasks required. The pre-reading differentiation for these charts guides teachers based on the qualitative features of the texts, including knowledge demands based on the author, characters, or topic. The Teacher Edition provides additional guidance embedded at the point of use for each text, as needed. Overall, the guidance found throughout the Teacher Edition supports teachers in helping students learn about different cultural, social, and community backgrounds—some suggestions prompt students to connect to their own lived experiences. These connections support the teacher in incorporating and drawing upon students’ experiences in class. While there is some guidance in the program for teachers to prompt students to integrate their own experiences into learning, these types of opportunities are infrequent, especially regarding bringing in their different cultural, social, and community backgrounds to enrich learning. 

    • In Grade 6, Unit 1, Whole-Class Learning, students read “My Achilles’ Meal” by Firoozeh Dumas. As students read, the Teacher Edition includes a Sharing Perspectives section, which includes optional discussion prompts for the text. One of the questions states, “Different Worlds: This story presents interactions between adults and children that show their different worries, understandings, and feelings. How do you think a child’s world and an adult’s world are different? What effect does this have on you?” To answer these questions, students can bring their ideas based on their experiences. Because all Sharing Perspectives activities are optional, it is up to the teacher’s discretion to facilitate this discussion. 

The myPerspectives program includes digital technology and interactive tools that support student engagement in ELA. Through the Savvas Realize platform, students can access a digital Student Edition with features such as highlighting, annotating, listening to texts, viewing vocabulary support, and completing assignments online. Teachers can use the Teacher Assist Panel on the platform to display student materials while viewing Teacher-Facing Notes privately. Teachers can assess students digitally, with results automatically populating in a Data section for quick access to progress by standard. The platform also offers customization tools, allowing educators to rearrange content, hide materials, upload files, edit Google Docs, and modify assessments, supporting local and student-specific needs. Additional digital resources include bridge texts, podcasts, mini-lessons, and book clubs, enhancing instructional flexibility and student engagement.

• Digital technology and interactive tools, such as data collection tools and/or modeling tools are available to students. Digital tools support student engagement in ELA.

  • Teachers may use the Savvas Realize platform’s Teacher Assist Panel to project the material in the Student Edition. This mode allows teachers to view both the Student Edition with their students and privately view the Teacher-Facing Notes found in the materials. 

  • The front matter of the Teacher Edition includes a summary of all digital resources, including bridge texts, “Listenwise” podcasts, hook & inspire texts, mini-lessons, and book clubs (found in the digital library). 

  • The Savvas Realize platform includes a digital Student Edition that allows them to highlight, annotate, listen to the text, review language coach notes, hear and learn vocabulary words, answer questions, and complete all assignments. 

  • Teachers have the option of assessing students digitally or on paper. If teachers use the online platform, the materials include a Data section that populates student results by assessment and standards progress. This feature gives teachers quick access to student data. 

• Digital materials can be customized for local use (i.e., student and/or community interests).

  • The Savvas Realize platform allows teachers and schools to assign content digitally or in hard copy, providing flexibility to meet students’ needs. If using the digital platform, teachers can customize assignments, including: 

    • “Upload a file.

    • Hide content that you don’t need.

    • Rearrange and sort content to suit your teaching style.

    • Edit Google Docs directly in Realize.

    • Customize assessments by removing, rearranging, or adding questions.” 

The myPerspectives program supports teacher-student collaboration through the Savvas Realize platform, where students can highlight, annotate, and complete assignments digitally. Teachers can assign, review, and grade student work and access student annotations anytime, allowing for ongoing feedback and monitoring. Discussion Boards on the platform allow students to collaborate. During Peer-Group Learning, students collaborate in small groups to complete tasks. Still, each student is responsible for submitting their work in the digital platform, ensuring collaboration and individual accountability. Additionally, Google Classroom integration allows for collaborative work using shared Google Docs, enhancing opportunities for interaction and feedback within digital assignments.

• Materials include or reference digital technology that provides opportunities for teachers and/or students to collaborate with each other, when applicable.

  • The Savvas Realize platform includes a digital Student Edition where students can highlight, annotate, and complete all their assignments. For reading assignments, the platform states, “Student annotations are saved and teachers may review student work at any time.” For all other assignments, the platform states, “Teachers may assign, review, and grade student work at any time.” 

  • For the Peer-Group Learning component of each unit, students work in small groups. While they collaborate to complete assignments, each student has their own digital Student Edition and is responsible for showing their thinking on assignments, even if their answers are shared. 

  • The Savvas Realize platform includes Discussion Boards, which teachers can assign to students for peer-to-peer collaboration.

  • The Savvas Realize platform integrates with Google Classroom, allowing teachers to use integrated Google Docs with the materials. 

The myPerspectives program uses images, graphics, and models that support learning and engagement without being visually distracting. Print and digital materials follow a consistent color scheme and unit structure (Whole-Class, Peer-Group, Independent Learning) to help orient users. The Student Edition includes purposeful photographs, illustrations, and graphic organizers, with clear headings and ample annotation space. Materials across the Teacher and Student Editions maintain a consistent layout and structure, and organizational features are clear, accurate, and error-free, promoting ease of navigation and instructional clarity.

• Images, graphics, and models support student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. They also clearly communicate information or support student understanding of topics, texts, or concepts. Teacher and student materials are consistent in layout and structure across lessons/modules/units.

  • The digital and print versions of myPerspectives support student learning and engagement without being visually distracting. The materials use a consistent color scheme to help orient users to the unit sections (Whole-Class, Peer-Group, and Independent) in both the teacher-facing and student-facing materials. 

  • The Student Edition includes graphics that are not distracting and related to the learning. These include: photographs, illustrations, and graphic organizers. All tasks and activities are labeled with headings and directions for completion. For reading assignments, there is ample space for students to highlight and annotate. 

  • myPerspectives materials follow a consistent structure across lessons and units, which is reflected in both the Teacher and Student Editions. 

• Materials’ organizational features (table of contents, glossary, index, internal references, table headers, captions, etc.) are clear, accurate, and error-free.

  • The Teacher Edition includes a pacing plan for each unit and lesson, objectives for each lesson, and headers that support the teacher in distinguishing assignments. The Savvas Realize platform includes a Lesson Overview and Lesson Planner document for each lesson. 

  • The digital Student Edition is organized by assignments in consecutive order with headings that match the Teacher Edition for clarity. 

The myPerspectives program provides teacher guidance for using embedded technology through resources available in the Savvas Realize platform’s Getting Started with myPerspectives section. A Digital Resources document offers a comprehensive platform walkthrough, including instructions for navigating content, assigning work, reviewing and scoring student submissions, monitoring student data, and accessing additional digital tools and support services. This document helps teachers effectively integrate technology to enhance and support student learning. Additional support is available through mySavvas Training, which offers on-demand videos, such as the “myPerspectives Tech Talk,” focused on high-impact digital tools for engagement and instruction. Teachers can access a 24/7 training website with self-paced learning, webinars, certification tracking, and direct support. The platform’s built-in help feature provides quick access to page-specific assistance, training resources, technical support, and contact with program specialists, ensuring comprehensive support for technology integration.

• Teacher guidance is provided for the use of embedded technology to support and enhance student learning, when applicable.

  • The Getting Started with MyPerspectives section of the Savvas Realize platform includes a link to a Digital Resources document, a walkthrough document of the program and the digital platform. This document contains guidance on navigating the Savvas Realize platform, accessing content, assigning content, reviewing student work, evaluating student performance, scoring student work, student data,  the student experience of the platform, available integrations, support services, and additional digital resources. Teachers should use this document to orient themselves to the technological components of the program. 

  • The Getting Started with myPerspectives section includes a mySavvas Training section. This section includes a video training titled “myPerspectives Tech Talk,” which is a “brief professional learning experience, [that] will focus on these four High-Impact myPerspectives Digital Tools that can bring more engagement, representation, and expression to your myPerspectives instruction.” 

  • Savvas provides a “My Savvas Training” website, which is a “full-service 24/7 training website for using [the] Savvas curriculum. Learn the basics, brush up on the specific topics, or take a deep dive into pedagogy.” This training website includes “on-demand, self-paced Savvas program training, virtual workshops and webinars, progress monitoring, including training records and certificates,” and “chat and email support with Savvas specialists.”

  • On the upper right-hand corner of the Savvas Realize platform, materials include a question mark icon (?), which teachers can use to troubleshoot. Once they click on this icon, teachers can get “Help for this Page,” “Program Training,” Technical Support,” “Contact a Program Specialist,” and “Request an Enhancement.”