The book is a brief, practical guide for teachers who want or have to teach phonics. Phonological awareness and phonics are integrated so that the foundation of phonological awareness prepares students for phonics and makes the 2 areas reciprocal. In work with struggling readers, Dr. Gunning developed a system to build on what students know and teach them to analyze words independently. He also found that students need a lot of practice to become effective readers.

Phonological Awareness and Primary Phonics is a practical resource manual designed to provide step by step suggestions for assessing and instructing students in grades K-2 in phonological or phonemic awareness and phonics skills and strategies. This book provides an overview of phonological awareness and phonics, but goes far beyond that to present virtually everything a teacher might need in order to implement a high-quality, effective word analysis program.