The single most important task facing elementary school teachers today is teaching students to read by the end of third grade. Learning to read in those formative years is essential to develop the higher order thinking skills demanded in the older grades, when students are reading to learn. Beginning readers must be engaged in highly purposeful and strategic techniques implemented by their teachers. First phonological awareness and knowledge of letters must be introduced. Activities centered around building an understanding of phonemes are essential to learning how to read an alphabetic language. With a systematic approach such as "Zoo-phonics," children learn the names and sounds of letters and are soon able to recognize and form their corresponding shapes. In kindergarten and first grade an integral part of any curriculum is reading aloud, which provides students with the opportunity to hear and see an enthusiastic teacher demonstrating good reading on a regular basis. Shared reading with a great deal of repetition is probably one of the most effective strategies for extending students' involvement in the literacy process and developing more proficient readers. Research indicates that reading can be taught most effectively with a balanced approach that incorporates the best of both phonics instruction and whole language. (Contains eight references.) (CR)