Phonics is crucial to successful reading and to ensure that students can sound out new words. However, phonics and sounding out new words is useless if the result is not tied to meaning.

	Emphasize comprehension with phonics from the very beginning.
	Vocabulary is a first step toward comprehension, but it is not the whole story in comprehension.
	Remember that some vocabulary items will be easier than others, for example, -- explaining the meaning of "amortization" requires first explaining many related concepts children may not be familiar with or interested in -- A word that names a word or concept they are familiar with and interested in will be much easier (try "regurgitation"...)
	Children often learn whole groups of words together, so try focusing on vocabulary groups (see the Net Link) and related words (plurals, other forms of verbs, compounds, etc.).