The purpose of this article is to investigate the concept of "texts" and how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) affords teachers opportunities to implement media literacy education, in turn providing developmentally and culturally responsive middle level practice and promoting 21st century skills. This has implications for middle…

This article provides an overview of the Writers Matter program, which allows adolescents to use their life stories as a vehicle for self-expression and writing skill development. Evaluations of the program have show increased writing skills among participating students in the areas of focus, content, organization, and grammar. Additional benefits…

Advocates of the middle school concept have long espoused the importance of being developmentally responsive to the unique nature and needs of young adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2010). As middle level schools strive to respond to the developmental needs of young adolescents, they should view students' technologies as an…

Explicitly communicating objectives is a tenet of effective instruction for students with learning difficulties, yet the practice is often overlooked in research. This case study of a novice middle school geography teacher illustrates how the qualitative and quantitative differences in the ways a teacher communicates the learner expectation can…

The middle grades are a time of transitions for teenagers. Attending a new school, developing new friendships, meeting new teachers, and becoming more independent are all part of the middle school experience. This article is a case report of a school district's experience using interactive video-conferencing technology to educate and socialize a…

This article discusses the pedagogical practices of a middle level English teacher who teaches reading and writing skills creatively and recursively. By providing varied ways for students to construct knowledge and repeatedly grapple with difficult concepts, this teacher sustains an environment of collaborative inquiry whereby students internalize…

The author describes the use of one-word poetry and traveling scrawled walls as forms of community-engaged public writing that can help urban young adolescents express their lived experiences. Teachers can engage in critical-multicultural questioning and simple content analysis of these student-generated texts to hear what students have to say…

Multimodal learning clubs link principles of motivation and engagement with 21st century technological tools and texts to support content area learning. The author describes how a sixth grade health teacher and his class incorporated multimodal learning clubs into a unit of study on human body systems. The students worked collaboratively online…

This article shares thoughts about motivating young adolescents from the perspective of middle level students. The most compelling thread to emerge from the interviews with students was the fact that teachers matter. Teachers have a direct and significant impact on students' motivation to achieve. This article identifies three ways in which…

Educators can implement strategies to build positive relationships with students that will help them become more autonomous and less anonymous in school. These strategies allow young adolescents to become more self aware, to take greater responsibility for their actions, to reflect on their own lives and actions, and to have choices regarding…

Middle school is a time of many changes for young adolescents. They are "searching for individual identity, struggling with society's norms, and grappling with moral issues." They are changing and maturing physically, cognitively, socially, and psychologically as they develop their identities; establish, maintain, and end friendships and social…

The National Middle School Association (NMSA) has long offered excellent guidance on the education of young adolescents in the "This We Believe" series, and by extension, for the education of educators of young adolescents. With many districts facing shortages of qualified teachers, having difficulty retaining those they have, and with an…

Jennifer's first years as a middle school principal occurred during a time of transformation initiated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act and further intensified by demographic changes within her Midwest suburban district of 25,000 students. In the context of national educational reform during this time period, Tom Erb asked, "Who will…

In 2000, Gayle Andrews and this author published "Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents in the 21st Century," in which they summarized their analysis of the conditions of middle grades education at the turn of the century. Now, nearly a decade later, what is the state of middle grades education? On the one hand, federal mandates under No…

In this article, the author provides a historical perspective on the middle level movement, examines its past successes and failures, and envisions future improvements. The middle school movement has been a prime target for those forces that do not share the belief middle level advocates hold about the importance of a democratic, student-centered…