A reading program developed to teach the minimum set of skills which enable children to recognize words as rapidly as possible through direct instruction in left-to-right orientation, blending, rhyming, and sounds is described. The materials for the program consist of teacher presentation notebooks used by the teachers in working with small groups and take-home materials which children complete in class and take home. These materials were first used with four groups of culturally disadvantaged kindergarten children at the University School, University of Illinois, who had IQ's ranging from 75 to 100. The materials were revised and reproduced for tryout by 30 teachers of 1,200 middle-class and disadvantaged children aged 3 to 14 who were mentally and educationally handicapped. To evaluate the program, the teachers were asked to complete objective and subjective evaluation sheets for each lesson and test. (NS)