"Use the Essentials Reader to build fluency, develop higher-order thinking skills, and increase students' background knowledge!From acorn hunting to the history of chocolate, Essentials Reader contains high-interest texts that target students' comprehension and critical thinking skills. This reader grows in complexity as new phonograms, spelling rules, and high-frequency words are taught. Stories range from text using only single-letter phonograms to poems to full articles.At the beginning of each story, teachers and students will find a list of “challenging” words to decode before reading the text. Decoding these words prior to reading the text helps students focus on comprehending the content rather than sounding out words. The Essentials Reader is 100% decodable - without guessing and without sight word memorization - when introduced as directed in the Essentials Teacher’s Guides" --