Educators respect and value young adolescents.
Middle grades teachers’ relationships with students have a profound impact on young adolescents’ sense of belonging in school.14 Positive student-teacher relationships are created when students feel valued, respected, cared for, encouraged, and listened to by their teachers.15 Middle school students’ sense of belonging is linked to many important outcomes, including increased engagement, motivation, academic achievement, positive attitudes toward school, and a decrease in absenteeism and at-risk behaviors.16 Young adolescents voice that caring teachers value them both as learners and as individuals.17
Effective middle school educators engage in developmentally responsive practices that also respond to young adolescents’ multiple identities. While age represents an important shared identity across middle schoolers, other social identities such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender, dis/ability, and religion equally contribute to who young adolescents are and to their experiences in and outside of school.18 Middle grades educators who value young adolescents acknowledge these multiple and intersecting identities and seek to cultivate relationships, design curriculum, and establish learning environments that support, affirm, and honor youth holistically.19
Middle grades educators enjoy being with young adolescents, think positively about them, and appreciate the dynamics of the ever-changing youth culture. They pay attention to and learn about the beliefs, values, and norms of their students. Not trivializing youth culture, middle grades educators examine young adolescents’ participation in popular trends and their choices in language, music, and fashion to understand what youth are trying to convey through these and other forms of expressions.20 They seek to understand aspects of students’ digital worlds, such as social media and gaming. They then support, accept, and meet students where they are currently, while also encouraging their continuous identity development.21
Middle grades educators demonstrate that they value students by listening intensively to their students’ words, observing their actions, and being attuned to their silences in order to actively respond to their needs.22 These educators support students' social-emotional learning in school and in partnership with students’ families. They rec
