Maintaining and strengthening its commitment to a rich and balanced reading program, this edition deals with each of the topics emphasized by the National Reading Panel (NRP) and Reading First and goes well beyond those topics to present a truly comprehensive program of reading instruction. Informed by the latest research on topics ranging from phonemic awareness and phonics to teaching comprehension strategies and reader response, the book provides teachers with the knowledge, skills, and assessment strategies to successfully guide elementary students toward literacy for the 21st Century--the use of reading and writing for thinking, problem solving, and communicating. The text is rich in first-person accounts, classroom vignettes, and hands-on literacy activities. Some principal themes include balancing skills and more holistic approaches; fostering the love of reading; and successfully teaching all students--mainstream and minority, native speakers of English and English-language learners, and special needs and gifted--to become able and eager readers.