"Teaching reading and writing effectively is a great responsibility. It's one of the most critical responsibilities teachers have because literacy makes a huge difference in students' lives-good readers and writers have many more opportunities afforded to them throughout their school years and beyond. Learning to read and write well closes the achievement gap among students, affecting not only their academic success but also their future. This text, Literacy for the 21st Century: Balancing Reading and Writing Instruction, 8e, provides a vision for reading and writing instruction. It covers the fundamental components of literacy, illustrates how to teach skills and strategies, supports digital teaching and learning, identifies how to differentiate instruction, and teaches you how to meet the diverse needs of students by scaffolding instruction so all students can be successful. More than ever, we need capable teachers to assure our students will become literate early on, grow as readers and writers, and quickly catch up when they fall behind their peers"--