Elkonin Boxes | Paperless Classroom

Phonology is a part of linguistic studies which determines the systematic sound organization in dialects or languages.

Phonology depicts the sound system available in any language variety.

The word “phonemes” refers to the smallest speech unit that separates one word from the others.

These individual phenomes might carry over a single variant known as an allophone.

The allophone functions like a single sound.     

The elkonin boxes contribute to the build-up of phonological awareness skills.

They divide the words into single phonemes or sounds.

The child pays heed to a word and has to put a token in the box to listen to the individual phoneme or sound.

Some tokens of varying colours are available at certain times that differ with vowels and consonants or with the individual phonemes.

The Purpose of Elkonin Boxes

Elkonin boxes serve some of the essential functions for phonology purposes. Some of them are - 

a. The elkonin boxes can enable students to understand the decoding and spelling of the alphabets.

b. Students develop phonological awareness as they divide words into syllables and sounds.

c. The elkonin boxes help students learn to count the number of phonemes in a word.

The Use of Elkonin Boxes

Elkonin boxes can be used in the following ways - 

a. The student has to pronounce a particular word and stretch it out as it sounds.

b. The child must repeat that word.

c. Draw squares or boxes on a chalkboard; dry erase board or paper that contains a box for each syllable.

d. The child should then count the number of phonemes present in the word. As an example, the word “wish” contains three phonemes like “w”, “i”, “s” and “h”. 

e. Adults should direct the child to keep repeating the word as he/she slides a single coloured circle, corresponding alphabet, or unifix cube in the individual cell of the drawn Elkonin box.

Differentiated Instruction

Younger learners, students carrying different reading skills, or second language learners can benefit from the differentiated instruction technique.

The process involves – 

a. Use of Elkonin Boxes for students who speak Spanish.

b. Advanced students can write letters inside the boxes during word dictation.

c. The teachers can use this strategy to meet each student's requirement - Four boxes without any pictures.

d. Three boxes involving words with pictures

e. Two boxes and words with pictures.

The benefits of using elkonin boxes

These elkonin boxes can play a crucial role in the development of skills that pertain to phonology.

These boxes also help the students when they count the different number of phonemes inside a single word.

The elkonin boxes have several real-life applications, including dictation.

Students can even learn the number of phonemes present in a word with the help of such elkonin boxes.

They can learn to spell alphabets with the proper division of sounds and syllables.

Students who struggle with phonological issues can use these elkonin boxes to sharpen their vocabulary.

These elkonin boxes can help to improve their vocational and linguistic abilities.