Book excerpt: Acknowledging that phonics is a necessary tool for helping children become independent readers, this practical, up-to-date book ensures readers learn strategies supported by current research-helps ready future teachers for today's standards-based educational system and the expectations of administrators, parents, and others. This book incorporates current best practices in phonemic awareness, word families, letter-sound patterns, and multi-letter groups into 96 practical, research-based activities. Coverage addresses the needs of children who have difficulty identifying words in context, as well as those whose first language is not English. By focusing on transferable teaching strategies rather than rote letter/sound learning, this book reshapes how future teachers will introduce this critical component of reading to tomorrow's classrooms. For prospective teachers of grades K-5.