Written to help all teachers provide balanced literacy instruction for all students, this book provides strategies and sample lessons for both direct and indirect literacy instruction. Four complete pieces of literature are provided with updated sample lessons: "Jamaica Tag-Along"; "Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure"; "My Brown Bear Barney"; and "The Bicycle Man." The major thrusts of this fourth edition are balanced literacy instruction; technology; direct and indirect instruction; beginning literacy instruction; word skills; and spelling and grammar. After a preface and introduction, chapters in the book are (1) Understanding Literacy: Learning and Constructing Meaning; (2) Developing a Balanced Literacy Program; (3) Activating and Developing Prior Knowledge; (4) Beginning Literacy: Learning to Read and Spell Words and Construct Meaning; (5) Developing Vocabulary: Words and Meanings Beyond the Beginning Literacy Level; (6) Responding and the Construction of Meaning; (7) Writing and the Construction of Meaning; (8) Teaching Strategies for Constructing Meaning; (9) Constructing Meaning across the Curriculum; (10) Organizing and Managing the Balanced Literacy Classroom; and (11) Assessment and Evaluation in the Balanced Literacy Classroom. A handbook resource (Word Skills: Phonics and Structural Analysis for Teachers) and an epilogue (Success Centered Literacy Instruction) are attached. Contains approximately 400 references. (RS)