This textbook is designed to help beginning middle level teachers develop teaching philosophies, behaviors, and skills relevant to effective instruction. The eight chapters include the following: (1) Origins and Essential Elements of Middle Level Schools (junior high schools and middle schools); (2) Essential Characteristics of Middle Level Teachers (leadership skills, scholarship and reflective thinking skills, communication skills, awareness of cultural diversity, technological competency, and ability to self-evaluate); (3) The Middle School Student (transitions, physical changes, psychosocial development, intellectual development, and developmental appropriateness); (4) Creating a Positive Middle School Climate (positive climate and student developmental needs, schoolwide systems, classroom environmental systems, and school-community environmental systems); (5) Developing Appropriate Curriculum (philosophical and theoretical rationale, teaming, thematic units, and exploratory programs); (6) Providing Developmentally Appropriate Instruction (methodology based on constructivist principles, direct methods, indirect methods, technology and instruction, and team teaching); (7) Assessing and Reporting Progress (personalizing assessment, setting performance standards, learning as continuous progress, and reporting progress); and (8) Middle Schools: A View of the Future (establishing the research base, providing preservice education, setting societal goals for students, restructuring middle level school as a community of learners, developing a true K-12 curriculum, and establishing content trends for the future). (SM)