Based on proven research, this booklet summarizes essential information of how children learn to read and how to teach beginning reading skills. After a foreword, the booklet discusses the Illinois Right to Read Initiative (a blueprint for significantly improving reading and literacy among students over the next five years) and summarizes the components of the Initiative. It then presents research-based core abilities that work together to create strong reading skills: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, sound-spelling correspondence, decoding ability, spelling skills, and comprehension skills. It then discusses 12 essential components of research-based programs for beginning reading instruction, and presents eight features of classrooms and schools that support effective beginning reading instruction. Contains the Illinois Learning Standards for reading and 12 references. (RS)