When it comes to early literacy, letter sounds, or phonemes, reign supreme, but what happens afterward? How do we connect the phonemic awareness we so strategically built to phonics instruction? Well, the answer to that question is Elkonin boxes, which are sometimes referred to as sound boxes.
In my last post, we discussed the differences between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, as well as ways to combine both into one literacy block. In today’s post, we will discover ways to use sound boxes to connect phonemic awareness to phonics.
Setting Up
First, let’s talk supplies. The good news is that Elkonin boxes require very few supplies: Elkonin mats (printed and laminated if possible), markers (i.e. mini erasers, plastic disks or manipulatives, counting bears, paper circles, etc.), and dry-erase markers/erasers.
What I recommend doing is gathering all these supplies, laminating anything printed, and placing them in plastic pencil boxes. That way these pencil boxes can be kept at your small group table or wherever you will be working with students. If you want to keep the Elkonin sheets in the student boxes, I would recommend only placing them in 2-3 sheets at a time. Typically, in a 20-minute lesson, you will only get through 2 or 3 CVC words (depending on the levels of your students). If you begin with short A CVC words, perhaps you will give students 2-3 sheets but keep the rest in a teacher folder. Another resource that should be included in your teacher folder is a set of word lists. This is absolutely necessary, as it is easier to have well-crafted lists ready to go. It’s one less thing to think about while teaching your young learners.
Looking for CVC word lists and sound boxes? Check these out.
Please note that I highly recommend these sound boxes be taught in small groups. I do not believe they are as effective as a whole group lesson.
What now? How can I transition to phonics?
Isolation / Segmentation
I would teach both these skills at the same time. Isolation refers to identifying various phonemes in individual words, such as the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in CVC words. Segmentation is essentially breaking apart a word into phonemes. In my class, we call this “chopping up the word”.
Start with CVC words and teach students how to break apart the word into sounds (phonemes). Note that there will always be three sounds in CVC words, but in other non-CVC words, there will be more. That’s why it is important to teach this skill from the beginning. Since there are three sounds in CVC words, you will use three boxes and three markers.
Students slide each marker as they say each phoneme. After practicing this a few times (make sure to model it as the teacher first), ask students to point to the marker that represents each sound. For instance, in the word CAT, ask students which marker makes the /k/, which marker makes the /a/, and which marker makes the /t/. As students get more comfortable with this process, make sure to ask them to identify the sounds out of order. Perhaps you can start with the middle sound first!
Tips and Tricks: Before beginning this process, go over expectations with the students. I like to have specific phrases that tell the students what to do. For example, I start every lesson by saying, “Set-up your mat!” Students know that they must place their sound boxes in front of them, their dry erase marker (caps on) and eraser to the side of the board, and the dots (or manipulatives) directly underneath the boxes. The second phrase I like to teach them is “Hands down, eyes up!” (You can also say dots or markers instead of hands. Your choice!) This signals that you will be modeling something that the students need to watch. You can use whatever reward system you choose, whether it is stickers or a simple high five. Regardless, these phrases must be practiced, practiced, practiced. For me, I start every single lesson with a review of these phrases. Trust me, the more you practice, the smoother your lessons will be.
Differentiation Tip: For an additional challenge, after this process has been mastered, it’s time to start transitioning to graphemes, or visual letters to represent these sounds! Have students remove each marker one at a time and using a dry-erase marker, write the letter that makes that sound. After practicing several words like this, you can have students turn their mats over and practice writing the words without the sound boxes.
Blending
With blending, students are stretching each sound out to make the word. I would recommend having students point to each marker while they say each sound initially. The difference is that this time they will not stop between each sound. Have them stretch the sounds a couple of times and then use the arrow below the sound boxes to blend the word. After blending, ask students what the word is.
Addition / Deletion
These two skills will set up students for the final step in phonemic awareness, which is substitution. Before students can change a sound, they need to be able to delete and add a sound. I would recommend starting by teaching students to add sounds rather than delete them. This may seem counterintuitive, as when substituting, we delete before we add, but I have found that for most learners, addition comes more naturally than deletion.
Start with a base word, such as AT. Ask them to count how many sounds are in AT. Then, ask them to decide how many boxes and markers we will use. (It will be 2 of each.) Once students have set up their sound mats, ask them what we should do if we want to add /m/ to the beginning of our word. (Initially, they may need some guidance. Help them realize that they will need a third box and a third marker.)
After adding the third marker to the sound boxes, I would suggest briefly going through the process of isolation, segmenting, and blending. This will solidify that students recognize the addition of a phoneme. Once students have practiced adding sounds, have them practice deleting them too. I recommend starting with a word they already know. For example, after adding /m/ to AT, they should practice taking the /m/ away.
The process of addition and deletion should be practiced often. This will help students grasp the skill of substitution.
Differentiation Tip: Once students have mastered addition and deletion, substitute the markers for letters. Have them write the letters of the sounds and erase a letter or add a letter. For kids that need an extra challenge, have them turn their mats over and practice adding/deleting letters without the boxes. The beauty of differentiation is that you can adjust the pacing for each individual group. Maybe one of your groups doesn’t need the sound boxes at all! You can go straight to using letters. Whereas, another group that perhaps needs more support, will use the manipulatives for several lessons before moving on to letters. I actually have a set of dots that have the letters printed on them for groups that need extra assistance. (Check out the image in the next section to see a sample.)
Substitution
Substitution is the most challenging skill in phonemic awareness. During these lessons, students learn to change words in word lists by changing the beginning, middle, or ending sounds. I would recommend starting by changing the beginning sounds. Once students are comfortable doing that, practice changing the ending sounds. The middle sounds, which are vowels in CVC words, are the most difficult sounds to change. Once students are comfortable changing the middle sounds, it is time to start transitioning to phonics instruction.
After substitution has been mastered, it’s time to start transitioning to letters again. Students may not even need the markers anymore. Try having students use the sound boxes to write letters instead of using the markers. When prompted, they will erase the letter that needs to be switched before writing a new letter.
Differentiation Tip: For students who are not quite ready to abandon the markers, try using markers with letters on them to help with this transition. For students who need a challenge, have them turn their mats over and practice writing the words without the sound boxes. This would be great spelling practice!
What activities can I add to my literacy centers to help build phonological awareness?
I’m glad you asked! 😋 When building phonological awareness, especially phonemic awareness, consistency is key. That is why I like to include activities that target these skills in multiple formats. Of course, the most important format would be a small group lesson with a teacher, but there are so many other ways students can practice these skills when they are not in a lesson with you.
When I plan my phonics centers, I always plan an independent station with printable worksheets (i.e. cut/paste and decodable books), some kind of technology station, and a learning game (coming soon).
For me, I personally LOVE Nearpod because these activities can be done completely independently. I even recorded the instructions for you, so your students can work on these games while you are with another group! All you need to do is assign them using an online learning platform, such as Google Classroom.
If you are curious how Nearpod can effectively be used to teach phonics and phonemic awareness, check out this FREE webinar. (Fair warning: this was recorded during the pandemic, so you will hear me talk about virtual learning a lot. 🙃)
As far as the learning games, I have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT…drum roll please…
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: I am currently working on a brand new line of phonics learning games. In addition to the classic BINGO game, we are developing a new phonics board game equipped with cute characters, a colorful board, printable dice, cards, and so much more!!! Make sure to join our email list at the bottom of this page to be the first to hear about these new resources.
I hope you are now feeling confident in using Elkonin boxes, or sound boxes. If you have any questions or need some teacher tips to help you get started, please email me at melody@learning-n-progress.com. I am more than happy to help!
Next month, we will continue our deep dive into the Science of Reading and will focus primarily on phonics instruction. Whether you are a first-grade teacher and phonics is your entire world, or you are an upper-grade teacher who dreads the idea of teaching decoding, I will make sure to share some helpful tips you can use in your classroom. The blog post will go live on Saturday, February 10, and the podcast episode will air on Sunday, February 11. I cannot wait to chat with you again. Keep learning!
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Great ideas for organizing materials!