Savvas myWorld Geography Program for Grades 6-8

myStory

Engage students and help them make personal connections to people and places all over the world with the myStory features in the Student Edition and online. These stories are told by real teens from all over the world and have been collected by Financial Times journalists, allowing your students to connect to different cultures and regions from the classroom!

Author Kathleen Krull

Savvas has engaged author Kathleen Krull and esteemed Financial Times journalists to provide high-interest stories with an "on location" feel. These real-life stories are told by teens from around the world and begin each digital and print chapter in the geography program. These richly illustrated stories provide students with a way to make emotional and enduring connections to the content.

• Download the Chapter 21 sample from the Eastern Edition
• Download the Chapter 6 sample from the Western Edition

Understanding by Design®

Leverage the Understanding by Design® instructional approach, developed by program consultant Grant Wiggins, to enable students to develop a deeper understanding of the geography and history of their world.

Academic research, in particular the Understanding by Design research of author Grant Wiggins, has informed the Magruder’s instructional design and pedagogy. Understanding by Design® is a groundbreaking but commonsense approach to building curriculum, instruction, and assessment centered around Essential Questions and “big ideas.”

Savvas is committed to this approach and has entered into an exclusive partnership with Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, coauthors of Understanding by Design.

• •Visit the Savvas UBD Website
• •Download UbD Research Support
• •Download ASCD Article about Wiggins and UbD
• •Download Professional Development article on UbD
• •Listen to the Grant Wiggins Podcast on UbD

myWorld in Numbers

myWorld in Numbers helps students comprehend global statistics by simplifying them—similar to the popular book, If the World Were a Village. For example, "If there were one hundred people in the world, 22 would speak Chinese and 9 would speak English."

Every chapter of myWorld Geography employs the philosophy of making often abstract and difficult geography statistics accessible to middle graders. Using myWorld in Numbers, your students will make connections to data and develop the skills associated with using data to make decisions.

Student Edition

Every chapter is framed around an Essential Question and the real-life myStories of the people your students will "meet" on their journey. Students connect personally to the content and develop a deeper understanding of the world's geography and its history. Innovative online resources, project-based activities, and unmatched support for all learners take your students beyond the printed page and into active experiences of the world in which they live.

Online Travel Assignment

The Online Virtual Travel Assignment is an exciting way for students to experience world geography and world history by "taking them there" through virtual travel, storytelling, and colorful, intriguing design.

Today's students are immersed in a world of media and gadgets. They are most motivated to learn when they can interact with and create their own digital content.

The Online Travel Assignment has students travel through regions or time periods and complete a game-like assignment based on an Essential Question. Students gather information to complete the assignment by watching video interviews and stories, working through simulations, completing animated activities, and analyzing and examining maps, data, artifacts, and primary sources. They capture their thoughts and record their observations in a PDA "tracker" and send their "assignment" directly to their teachers.

Activity-Based Learning

Hands-on activities are embedded in the student materials and extended through the ProGuide and the Activity Cards, Essential Question posters, and myWorld Geography wall maps.

In myWorld Geography the opportunities to actively learn and collaborate with classmates are endless. Active learning inspires students to obtain an enduring understanding of the content they're studying. In addition, students regularly engaged in active learning, develop confidence and self-direction as they move through both team-based and independent work.

Activity Cards

Six cards accompany the activity-based lesson plan and provide students with insight into the most influential factors on life in South America. The cards feature facts, graphs, and trends on healthcare, education, communication, industry, poverty, and deforestation in South America, all of which contribute to the region’s successes and struggles.

Activity-Based Lesson Plan

Activity-Based lesson plans embedded within the Teacher's Edition aim to achieve long-term understanding of Essential Questions for all students through individual and small-group activities. In this chapter on diversity in South America, the lesson plan recommends students divide into groups with one country in mind, read the information presented on Activity Cards, and assess a country’s need for a financial improvement to better the social structure. The lesson ensures students achieve an enduring understanding of the effects of geography and history on a country’s social and economic problems.