Book excerpt: Shows teachers how to meet the challenges of teaching literacy in today's classroom This book provides educators with the historical and theoretical foundations necessary for becoming a reading, writing, and literacy teacher and helps them understand the broader, more complete picture of the reading process and what it means to be a teacher of readers. It covers the major theories and application strategies of the reading process, and teaches how to organize for literary instruction in a classroom. As educators learn to recognize and draw upon the multiple literacies that children bring to the classroom, they will: become skilled problem-solvers as they work through real-world examples and study the classroom experiences of others; discover how to dig deeper into literacy instruction and decide on what actions to take; and explore ways to drive and teach literacy with such tools as children's toys and familiar characters.