An expert guide to the development of the middle school model as the best educational environment designed to address students' developmental and social needs as well as educational needs. Middle Grades Education: A Reference Handbook explores the distinctive middle school approach to helping adolescents develop as human beings and citizens as well as students, with coverage that ranges from the conceptual foundations of the middle school model, to research-based best practices, to sample lesson plans and activities. Edited by Pat Williams-Boyd, with contributions from experienced, frontline educators, the book showcases a number of places where the ideal middle school has become reality, where individual talents are nurtured, families are involved, teachers serve as role models and advocates, and crucial health and developmental needs are met. Readers will experience classrooms where students dance their math, sing their science, and breathe the winds of history, and where the joy of learning is bounded only by the educator's imagination. * Learning activities for all instructional strategies including differentiated instruction, inquiry-based and concept-based education, critical thinking and problem-solving strategies, the use of multiple intelligences, learning styles and cultural congruence, and cooperative learning * Planning guides and step-by-step presentations of academic service-learning, which connects the classroom to the community