This report describes phonics programs that will increase students' fluency and independent reading skills. The targeted population consisted of second grade students in a growing affluent community and first grade students in a large metropolitan city. The first and second grade students demonstrated a lack of awareness between phonemes and their corresponding graphemes, which made it difficult for them to be independent and fluent readers. Evidence for the existence of the problem was presented in anecdotal records, teacher observations, and surveys. Faculty reported students' inability to sound out alphabet letters and the sounds blends and digraphs make. Third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers reported that struggling students were almost one grade level behind in reading and could not make the transfer of reading skills into the other subject areas. Review of curricular content and instructional strategies revealed a lack of phonetic instruction. A review of solution strategies combined with an analysis of the problem setting resulted in the selection of two major categories of intervention: using "Month-by-Month Phonics" by Patricia Cunningham and the "Saxon Phonics" program by Lorna Simmons. Post intervention data indicated an increase in students' use of phonics skills, an improvement in reading fluently and independently, and an increase in reading for pleasure and enjoyment. (Contains 27 references and 19 figures. Six appendixes contain: the teacher survey; the parent letter; a phoneme/grapheme checklist; Alphabet Letters; a blend/digraph checklist; a Reading Inventory; and a daily log.) (Author/PM)