This text is designed specifically to meet the needs of preservice teachers who have had little experience working in middle-grade classrooms. Three ideas are central:
* teaching language arts at the middle level is a complex activity that demands expertise in the use of a variety of strategies,
* reading and writing are key processes of language arts study, but so are speaking, listening, and viewing/visually representing, and
* teaching the processes of effective communication is crucial, but middle school students must also begin to learn the content of the...