Designing Curriculum That Matters: Awakening Middle School Minds

Middle school students are awakening to a more powerful and empathetic consciousness to the world around them. They have a new interest in important, complex, and sophisticated issues and topics. Teachers can tap into this young adolescent energy by designing curriculum around topics that truly matter to the students and to people across the planet. One way teachers can shape this curriculum is by using middle grade and young adult literature as "anchor texts" for project-based inquiry.