This text for middle school classroom teachers provides a solid core of essential knowledge about middle schools.  Balancing the practical and the theoretical, it has a strong research base, as well as a focus on teaching methods, strategies, materials, resources, and technology that are linked to the standards of the National Middle School Association.  The author’s objectives are to tell readers about middle schools today, describe adolescents and their developmental period, identify essential middle school concepts that have potential for their age group and educational experiences that are developmentally responsive for young adolescents.