Connect to SQL Server from ASP.NET MVC application

I am entirely new to ASP.NET MVC. I have one ASP.NET 2.0 Framework Web application with below architecture

• Web Based Application 3 - Tier Architecture
• Data Access Layer C#, ADO.NET
• Database – SQL Server 2008 R2
• Authentication - Forms

I am moving the application to an ASP.NET MVC 4 architecture; can anybody suggest the best practices to go with for data access layer, assume the connection string will be in web.config?

Code-first? Or data-first approach? What is the difference with the above approach and Entity Framework?

Also while adding a controller for a model, amongst the below template which I need to choose?

1. Empty ASP.NET MVC controller
2. ASP.NET MVC controller with read/write actions using Entity Framework
3. ASP.NET MVC controller with empty read/write actions
4. Empty API controller
5. API controller with read/write actions using Entity Framework
6. API controller with empty read/write actions

What is the difference between the above templates?