The purpose of this article is to question the amount of time that beginning readers should spend reading connected text in school. Based on a study of 66 children in 26 classrooms, the authors found that children in first-grade classrooms with "less" reading of connected text achieved more in their phonics learning than children in classrooms with "much" reading of connected text. There were no significant differences on broader measures of reading achievement. Yet, because the participants in the study were first-grade "struggling" readers, they may have been developmentally ripe for the phonics instruction they received, making blanket statements calling for more systematic phonics programs misleading when consideration of children's development is not taken into account. Further, the authors argue that in the earliest stages of beginning reading, time spent reading might be best spent mediated by the classroom teacher, such as through repeated readings, choral or echo reading, paired reading, or assisted oral reading. (Contains 2 figures.)