There are many thoughts on how to teach reading, I'm not going to go into all the different ideas and theories on how to teach reading. While they all work in some capacity I can guarantee that teaching reading by first teaching phonics is the best way! Give me a 3 year old with no knowledge of English and by the end of the year I'll have them reading simple phonics books.
Okay, teach phonics first you say, but how? Once again there are many different ideas, but they're all wrong! Many will tell you to first teach the sounds b,p,t,d. I can understand why, they're the easiest sounds, but that means they need the least amount of practice.
I heavily encourage you to first teach the five vowels. They're difficult to say and difficult to differentiate between some of the sounds. Then as you teach consonants you can pair them with a vowel and make simple two letter sounds. Allowing you to continue practicing the vowels the entire time and practicing combining sounds. About halfway through and I start to combine a beginning consonant with a vowel and a ending consonant to make "words".
This system is so good that by the time you finish the alphabet your students will be able to start reading simple phonics books.
