Which term describes an instructional approach that blends phonics instruction with opportunities for meaning-bearing reading?

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The main idea is blending decoding instruction with reading for meaning. A balanced literacy approach teaches phonics and word study to build accurate decoding, while also providing abundant opportunities to read aloud, read with guidance, and read independently for comprehension. This combination helps students not only recognize words but also understand and enjoy what they read, using decoding skills as they engage with real texts and write about them. Other terms don’t fit as well: assessment refers to measuring learning, deep orthography is a linguistic concept about spelling systems, and blending is a specific decoding skill, not an instructional framework. So the term that best captures this integrated approach is balanced literacy.