More than 670,000 middle school teachers (grades 6-8) are responsible for educating nearly 13 million students in public and private schools. Thousands more teachers join these ranks annually, especially in the South and West, where ethnic populations are ballooning. Teachers and administrators seek practical, time-efficient ways of teaching language arts to 21st-century adolescents in increasingly multicultural, technologically diverse, socially networked communities. They seek sound understanding, practical advice, and proven strategies in order to connect diverse literature to 21st-century societies while meeting state and professional standards like the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. This book offers strategies and resources that work.