This digest summarizes what is known about teaching the processes of phonological awareness and word recognition. It finds unequivocal research evidence that students who enter first grade with phonological awareness skills are more successful readers and urges explicit instruction in these skills. Examples of phonological awareness activities and teaching tips on developing phonological awareness and alphabetic understanding are provided. Research evidence on word recognition is reported which clearly shows that reading comprehension and other higher-order reading activities depend on strong word recognition skills, including phonological decoding skills. Several teaching tips for helping students learn to read words are presented, such as the importance of explicit instruction in the connection between sounds and letters and sounds and words. (DB)