Beyond Consensus—beyond Balance: Toward a Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum

Literacy scholars appear to have reached consensus that a balanced approach to reading instruction holds the greatest promise for improving reading achievement among students. Following the lead of the National Reading Panel (2000) 2000. National Reading Panel Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read, Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. [Google Scholar], curricular manifestations of a balanced reading program include instructional components in phonics or word decoding, fluency, and comprehension. While agreeing with the concept of a balanced approach to literacy instruction, we feel that the issue of balance in literacy is considerably more complex than the current models may suggest. In this article, we argue that a more comprehensive consideration of literacy instruction is needed, and we present examples of issues that need to be considered in the development of a comprehensive approach to literacy education.