Title of Strategy: Elkonin Boxes
Description: Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes. Each box in an Elkonin box represents one phoneme, or sound. So the word sheep, which is spelled with five letters, has only 3 phonemes: /sh/ /ee/ /p/. Segmenting words is one of the more difficult skills children acquire. It is also one of the best predictors of future success in reading. Elkonin boxes are a physical segmentation of words into phonemes.
Procedure:
1. Pronounce a target word slowly, stretching it out by sound.
2. Ask the child to repeat the word.
3. Draw "boxes" or squares on a piece of paper, chalkboard, or dry erase board with one box for each phoneme.
4. Have the child count the number of phonemes in the word, not the number of letters. For example, wish has three phonemes and will use three boxes. /w/, /i/, /sh/
5. Direct the child to slide one (1) colored chip, unifix cube, or other small token in each box of the Elkonin table as he/she repeats the word.
Description: Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes. Each box in an Elkonin box represents one phoneme, or sound. So the word sheep, which is spelled with five letters, has only 3 phonemes: /sh/ /ee/ /p/. Segmenting words is one of the more difficult skills children acquire. It is also one of the best predictors of future success in reading. Elkonin boxes are a physical segmentation of words into phonemes.
Procedure:
1. Pronounce a target word slowly, stretching it out by sound.
2. Ask the child to repeat the word.
3. Draw "boxes" or squares on a piece of paper, chalkboard, or dry erase board with one box for each phoneme.
4. Have the child count the number of phonemes in the word, not the number of letters. For example, wish has three phonemes and will use three boxes. /w/, /i/, /sh/
5. Direct the child to slide one (1) colored chip, unifix cube, or other small token in each box of the Elkonin table as he/she repeats the word.
Option:
Letter tiles in place of markers (chips, cubes, etc.) can be used with the Elkonin boxes, utilizing tiles which contain individual letters as well as blends (i.e. st, sl, pr, br), digraphs (i.e. th, wh,), and vowel teams (i.e. oo, oy, oi, oa) on a single tile.
Please note: For activities in blending sounds, see the multisensory activity.
Letter tiles in place of markers (chips, cubes, etc.) can be used with the Elkonin boxes, utilizing tiles which contain individual letters as well as blends (i.e. st, sl, pr, br), digraphs (i.e. th, wh,), and vowel teams (i.e. oo, oy, oi, oa) on a single tile.
Please note: For activities in blending sounds, see the multisensory activity.