What is active learning and what does it look like in the classroom? If students are participating in active learning, they are playing a more engaged role in the learning process and are not overly reliant on the teacher (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2003; Petress, 2008). The purpose of this article is to propose a framework to describe and plan for different types of active learning instruction in middle grades classrooms. All of the teachers highlighted in this article were able to meet the standards that they are responsible for teaching. In some cases these were Common Core Standards, and in some cases these were state standards.