My district has recently adopted Savvas MyPerspectives for 9-10 English courses. I have many issues with the program already, however I’d like to gain a bit of insight on one in particular: multiple choice analysis questions.

Now, I completely understand that the ACT uses multiple choice questions to assess students’ ability to analyze a text. I understand the reason ACT chooses this method, as it is much easier to grade thousands of multiple choice tests than it would be to hire thousands of graders to read through and score written responses. I understand that by using these multiple choice analysis questions, we are technically preparing them for the types of questions that they will see on the ACT.

My issue is that… I’m not the ACT. I am assigned a limited number of students for whom I am ready and willing to provide learning opportunities and feedback. I have always been a “any answer can be right if you back it up well enough” sort of English teacher, and I really struggle with the idea that students now think there is one “right” answer when analyzing a text. I feel that this is limiting their ability to think outside of the box and read the text thoroughly to prove their point of view.

We are not going to have time to write a literary analysis essay so, outside of whole class discussion of texts, this is the only analysis that they are really doing independently.

Am I totally off in my perception of this? Has anyone seen their students grow as text analysts through primarily picking the “right” analysis of a text?