A team of former middle school teachers have been hosting weeklong professional development workshops with students as the stars. The results have made great--and lasting--change in schools.

Realizing that many teachers at her middle school struggled with classroom management--especially rather at sea with how to reach and motivate students of color--the author formed a teacher working group open to any colleague wanting to learn how to better reach the school's kids of color. This group reflected and learned together about working…

For professional learning to "stick," teachers need to connect what they learn to their practice--and particularly to their work with their current students. The authors describe a PD program they've developed for math teachers with emergent multilingual students (English language learners) in their classes. Teachers choose "focus…

What if teachers not only made clear the learning expectations at the start of each unit, but also helped students see where they stand in relation to those expectations? Students would realize what specific skills and understandings they most needed to work on and would clearly see the need for differentiation in the class. Dobbertin describes…

Too many middle school students struggle to comprehend their textbooks in science and other content areas. Thus, many adolescent learners lag behind in developing scientific literacy, which the National Research Council has defined as sufficient understanding of the scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making,…