Perspective of the balanced approach / Dixie Lee Spiegel -- Balancing vocabulary instruction with teacher-directed and student-centered activities / Richard A. Thompson -- Comprehension instruction in a balanced reading classroom / Susan M. Blair-Larsen and Kerry M. Vallance -- Literature in a balanced reading program / Eileen M. Burke -- Assessing literacy learners : a tale of two children / Delores E. Heiden -- Achieving a balance in first-grade instruction / E. Jo Ann Belk -- Implementing a balanced beginning reading program in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms / Jan E. Hasbrouck and Milly Schrader -- Balanced literacy instruction in the elementary school : the West Hanover story / Barbara A. Marinak and William A. Henk -- Balancing act : balanced reading instruction in action / Kathryn A. Williams.