When you gradate college, you ‘re sure you know what to teach. Your head spins with borders and stickers and all the loveliness that comes with being an educator. Maybe you are a lateral entry teacher, who, after years in corporate America, has decided to change gears and try your hand in the classroom. Again, you are dreaming about what it will be like the first day you take the podium. Wherever you are, if you are reading this book it is probably your first or maybe second year in the classroom or you’ve made a dramatic shift, like moving from 8th grade to kindergarten. But, after you have all your stickers and fanciness up, your kids labeled and happy in their little seats, your songs and rules and procedures learned, you’re actually going to have to teach these strange little people. And you have to teach them well. Even the most educated, well prepared teacher has faced the issue of what to teach when. Working with emergent readers, readers anywhere from k-3rd grade, can be overwhelming. Because you have the task of teaching them HOW TO READ, probably the most important thing they will ever need to know, you must do it effectively and for your own sanity, efficiently. And let’s face it, even when you know what to do, finding/making/stealing the materials takes a ton of time and paper. All this activity takes time away from what you really should be doing-- what you love to do, the reason you get up every morning--teaching your kids. I am a literacy facilitator with way too much education and a background teaching stinky middle schoolers. I developed this book really out of necessity. I found myself running from website to website trying to find materials for my teachers. I felt as if I was showering them with foldables, printables, worksheets and spinners and when I went into their rooms, all my hard work was piled in a corner because they really didn’t know how to use it. Meanwhile, their kids were sitting in rows working out of workbooks; definitely NOT best practices. So I developed a plan and created all the materials to go with it, as a kit for my emergent teachers. It helped them organize their long term plans and showed them the explicit steps of reading instruction. What surprised me was that pretty soon all my teachers were using it because it saved so much time and hassle. The one book soon became two as we concentrated on a balanced approach to literacy instruction. The first book focuses on phonics and word families; the second on fluency and comprehension. Taken together they really do provide what you need to teach a sold, but balanced literacy program.