Beg. Word Reading	Introduction	-
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Society in the United States has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Computers and sophisticated technology are becoming commonplace. Reading is becoming even more important in today's technological society. Currently, there are more people who can be considered literate than at any other time in history; however, there are still millions of individuals who are having difficulty learning to read, or who simply have given up the dream that they too can learn to read. For the individuals who cannot read, the long-term prospects are not good. Poor reading is linked to poorer health, fewer job opportunities, and lower incomes (Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, 1998). Yet, we do know how to develop reading programs that will enable most individuals to become successful readers. And, we know that it is the development of early reading skills that makes the biggest difference in a student's success or failure in learning to read. Those students who continue to struggle with learning to read words in the third grade are at much greater risk of dropping out of school than are their successfully reading peers. The importance of providing effective beginning reading instruction cannot be overemphasized. It is essential that children receive excellent, systematic instruction in beginning reading skills to lay the foundation for future reading success. The purpose of this module on Beginning Word Reading is to introduce you to concepts related to the process of beginning reading. In addition, this module is designed to teach you a set of research-based instructional strategies and interventions that have been shown to help individuals at risk for or with reading disabilities become successful with beginning word reading and spelling. The first lesson in this module discusses what teachers should be thinking about as they plan for reading instruction and develop a rich literacy program. The second lesson focuses on what every teacher of reading needs to know about phonemes, which are the smallest meaningful speech sounds represented by letters in words. That lesson will give you the background knowledge you will need to be able to effectively use the research-based interventions or instructional strategies you will be learning about in other lessons. The third lesson presents several research-based interventions that can be used to teach phonological awareness. The fourth lesson presents interventions that you can use to teach students to begin to read and spell words. Upon completion of this module, you will have a much deeper understanding of the factors that can influence the ability of different individuals to learn to read. You also will have learned how to use a set of research-based reading interventions to help students become successful with beginning word reading.