Rather than treating phonics as an end in itself, this brief text shows how phonics fits into the overall process of a child's learning to read. It helps students understand how phonics can be integrated successfully into an effective classroom reading program. While it includes a wealth of suggestions for practical classroom applications, the book has a solid research base so that students will understand what they are doing and why they are doing it in the classroom. The text includes information about all types of phonics programs and the different approaches to teaching phonics for reading and spelling. This book contains a Preface, a Pretest of Phonics Knowledge, and the following six chapters: (1) The Place of Phonics in Learning to Read and Write; (2) Getting Started: Phonemic Awareness and Alphabet Knowledge; (3) Teaching and Learning Discrete Phonics Elements; (4) Approaches to Teaching Phonics: Embedded and Direct Instruction; (5) Phonics and Learning to Spell; and (6) Phonics in a Comprehensive Reading Program. This book concludes with a Posttest of Phonics Knowledge, and A Mini-Glossary of Phonics Terms.