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. This 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, including mainstream and minority, native speakers of English and English-language learners, and special needs and gifted; to become able and eager readers.