Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 1

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box When Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Rondel Baraoidan

Courtney Gibo

Tennelle Quon

Lauren Temte

Laryce Visitacion

EDEE 492, Fall 2019

Abstract
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 2

Is the Elkonin sound box an effective strategy to use when teaching phonics? This study

examines the challenges and effectiveness while using the Elkonin sound box to teach phonics.

The participants are student teachers going through their final semester of undergraduate studies

at the University of Hawai’i at West O’ahu. The lesson study consists of research, planning,

collaboration, field-teaching, and discussing. The lesson takes place at Ka’imiloa Elementary in

a Kindergarten inclusion classroom. This study was conducted to focus on how effective the

Elkonin sound box is when teaching phonics by identifying, segmenting, and blending phonemes

to create words.

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box When Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 3

This lesson study was conducted to find successful strategies to help teach students

phonics. Phonics is one problem area that seems to be common in grades K-2; however, if this

problem is not addressed early, it could affect the students as they continue their education. If

students struggle with early literacy skills, they will struggle with reading and writing and will

not be able to perform at their expected academic levels. “The difficulty many students

experience with literacy is evident in schools today as 33% of fourth graders and 24% of eighth

graders read below the basic level, leaving these students unable to reach minimum academic

expectations” (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2011, p. 167). We decided to

conduct a lesson study that could help us find successful strategies to help teach students

phonics.

At the beginning of the school year, there was a trend in phonics assessments. This trend

showed that phonics would be a great area of opportunity for improvement for the students. Out

of 22 students, 82% tested at a weak level in phonics and 18% tested at a developing level in

phonics. A weak level consists of identifying 0-13 sounds. A developing level consists of

identifying 14-25 sounds. Since 100% of the students tested at a weak or developing level, it

became a topic of conversation. This lesson study focuses on a strategy that will help students in

phonics.

Since phonics is a common area that students struggle with, the research question focuses

on successful phonics strategies. We started researching strategies that are most successful when

teaching phonics, and found that we needed to narrow our focus down to one specific strategy

because the search topic was too broad. We also wanted to narrow down to one specific strategy

because we were conducting this lesson study on students who were already learning phonics

through different instructional strategies. If we kept our research question too open, it would be
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 4

difficult to determine which strategy would be the most effective or successful and cause our

study to be heavily flawed. Because of this, we decided to focus on one strategy and came up

with our research question: Is the Elkonin sound box effective when teaching phonics?

According to Greene, the Elkonin sound box is a phonological awareness strategy that

segments words into individual phonemes, or sounds. It can also help students with reading by

taking individual sounds and blending the phonemes together to create a word. This strategy can

help students understand and grasp the alphabetic principle in decoding and spelling. It is

implemented by moving a token into a box for each phoneme the students hears (Joseph, 2000).

This can teach students to count the number of phonemes in the word as well. Joseph (2000)

mentions that this is because the sound boxes are designed to teach children to segment sounds

sequentially.

Ka’imiloa Elementary School is a Title I school part of the Campbell-Kapolei complex

that is located in Ewa Beach. This means that the school receives financial assistance due to their

high numbers and percentage of low-income families. This also helps to aid with the children

who are struggling to meet the challenging state academic standards. At Ka’imiloa about 16% of

the students are English language learners, about 60% of students are eligible for free or reduced

lunch, about 7% of students receive special education services, and about 92% of students that

receive special education services are in general education classrooms for most of the day. The

class we conducted our lesson study in was a Kindergarten inclusion class which contained a

total of 22 students with 5 who are qualified as special education.

A Review of the Literature

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 5

Reading is an essential part of our everyday living, whether it be going to a restaurant and

ordering food or filling out a job application. However, studies often show that many of this

nation’s students struggle with basic literacy skills. Addressing this issue in the primary grades

allows students to be successful as they continue on their academic journey (Duke, 2012). An

instructional strategy that supports the development of phonemic awareness is the Elkonin sound

box. Although other strategies support phonemic awareness, the Elkonin sound box is an

effective instructional strategy. This literature review examines the effectiveness of the Elkonin

sound box in identifying, segmenting, and blending phonemes to create words.

Elkonin sound box

The Elkonin sound box is an effective instructional strategy when teaching phonemic

awareness. The sound box is used for building phonological awareness skills by segmenting

words into individual sounds or phonemes. To use the Elkonin sound box the student listens to a

word and then pushes up a token into the box when each sound is being spoken. In some cases,

each token maybe a different color to show consonants or vowels within a word. This is a

strategy found to be effective in the primary grades with reading and spelling, according to The

Effects of Word Box Instruction on Acquisition, Generalization, and Maintenance of decoding

and spelling skills for first graders. The research study found that when the Elkonin sound box is

effective when done in small groups with four to six students and students who were in the

general education classroom setting with no disabilities. This effectiveness was shown in the

results of those groups who were compared to other groups that had no sound box instruction.

The findings revealed that the students who received the word box instruction were able to

outperform those students who did not receive instruction (Alber-Morgan, 2016). In order for the
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 6

Elkonin sound box to be achievable the students would need to be able to identify the letter

names and letter sounds.

Identifying

Before segmenting and blending words, a student must first identify the letter names and

sounds of the twenty-six letters in the alphabet. When students have the knowledge of letter

names and sounds this helps aid in students’ foundational literacy skills. According to Clemens

(2017), with this skill it improves grammar and decoding unknown words. The starting point in

the process of phonological awareness is hearing the letter sound, identifying the letters and to be

able to manipulate phonemes. This is a process that becomes a necessary stepping stone to all

other literary endeavors, which assists in the instruction of the Elkonin sound box.

Failure to develop these two skills -- letter name and sound recognition -- early on in a

student’s education can prove detrimental to their growth in multiple areas of study. Having

knowledge of letter naming and letter sounds is necessary for the Elkonin sound box to be

effective. If a student does not have any basic knowledge of the alphabet, then the Elkonin sound

box will not be effective. The identification of the letter name and letter sound is a primary

aspect that provides essential material for decoding unknown words (Clemens, 2017). Thus, this

proves to be important foundational skills, which is letter-sound knowledge, when it comes to

learning to read. Without this there is no access to foundational reading knowledge in which

supports the higher order reading processes (Clemens, 2017). In addition to identifying letter

names and sounds, segmenting is also an important skill students need to be able to read and

write.

Segmenting
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 7

Segmenting sounds is a key part of learning to read and write. This skill requires readers

to break words into parts and identify the letter names and sounds that make up each section.

Students must understand that individual letters and different combinations of letters create

particular sounds and words. This process is also when students begin to hear and say sounds in

words, then learn to blend and separate sounds. Eventually students will learn to add, delete, and

substitute phonemes in words to create different words (New South Wales Dept. of Education

and Training, 2009). The Elkonin sound box is organized in a way that allows students to see the

segmented parts of the word that is being read. This is very important as students must be able to

identify onset and rime, word families, and digraphs.

Blending

According to Duke & Block (2012), when phonemic awareness instruction is paired with

teaching letter-sound relationships, it is said to be most beneficial. The students can benefit the

most when teachers teach not just the phonemic awareness skills but how to apply them. One

such application is teaching students to blend sounds. By doing so, students can apply the

blending skills to decode words and make that letter-sound connection more effectively (Duke &

Block, 2012). Phonics is learned through the modeling of the correct pronunciation of letters and

through the demonstration of how to blend phonemes in order from initial to medial to final

sounds. When blending words, it is important for the teacher and the students to emphasize the

initial, medial, and final sounds so students can “segment the sounds” which will help them learn

to write words (New South Wales Dept. of Education and Training, 2009). Interactive activities

engage students of all learning styles to activate more senses to help them learn phonics (New

South Wales Dept. of Education and Training, 2009). The Elkonin sound box was created to help

with this process in an interactive and engaging way.

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 8

Shortcomings of the Elkonin Sound Box

Although this is a highly effective tool to use for teaching the skills mentioned above, it

is not a strategy that has no limits or shortcomings. While the Elkonin Sound Box does help

students to be able to break down and build words based on the sounds they hear, it is only useful

for the words with no more than five letters with some of them being letter blends such as /fl/ or

/sm/. This means that the sound boxes are only relevant during the first stages of learning to read.

Once the student has mastered words made up of more than five letters, the sound box is

unhelpful. For this reason, above the beginning of the first grade year, it would not be a strategy

that would be found helpful.

Description of Lesson Study

On Tuesday, October 29, 2019, there were twenty-two little desks in the kindergarten

classroom. Lauren, who was our group member introduced herself to the class and at 11:35, the

Elkonin sound box lesson started. Lauren introduced the Elkonin sound box and explained what

the sound box does, how to use it, and what they will be doing with it. She wrote down the letter

“m” in the first box with the green marker, then the letter “a” in the next box with the yellow

marker, and lastly, the letter “t” in the last box with the red marker. She asked the class if they

knew the letter names to the word she had just written. The class could identify and say each

letter name as Lauren pointed to the letters. Then, she modeled how to sound each letter out

individually, they did it together, then the students did it by themselves. The next step was for the

students to blend the sounds “m,” “a,” and “t” together by using their finger to swoop to each

letter and stretch each sound out. Last, they said the word fast: “mat.” Lauren’s second example

was with the word “top,” which gave the students more practice and to helped them to get
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 9

familiarized with the Elkonin sound box. After practicing the two words, Lauren did a read-aloud

with the whole class.

As Lauren read Copy Cat by Mark Birchall, she stopped at two different pages in the

book to reinforce the Elkonin sound box with words she picked out from the story. Then, she

introduced the dice game. She went over the instructions, and she explained and modeled how

the game worked. As she rolled each die she created the word “raf.” The “I do, we do, you do”

strategy was used with the Elkonin sound box.

The students were placed into small groups to play the dice game. When students got all

their materials, they began to play the game; however, most students did not follow the rules.

Some students didn’t participate in writing the letters in the boxes or rolling the die. Some wrote

the letters in the wrong color boxes or copied the other students. Only a few were able to follow

the instructions by actually sounding out the words with finger swooping. The students were able

to create three words during the dice game.

As Lauren stopped the class and redirected their attention toward her, she had them put

all the materials away. At this time, Lauren closed the lesson by asking the students if they felt

that the Elkonin sound box was easy or hard. Although some raised their hands when asked if the

Elkonin sound box was easy, the majority of the students raised their hands because it was too

hard.

Data Collection

During the lesson study, there were a total of five observers. Observers of the lesson

study were given an observation packet. This observation packet contained sections for both the

whole group and small group instruction of the lesson.

Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 10

During whole group instruction, there were observations being taken according to student

engagement and student participation. This criteria was decided upon due to the fact that the

Elkonin sound box was a strategy and concept that was being taught to the Kindergarteners.

Numerous versions of word boxes and letterbox lessons have promoted phonemic awareness for

primary grade levels (Keesey, 2014). Student engagement was broken down into four different

criteria; eyes on the speaker, appropriate body language, nonverbal response (nodding), and body

being contained while on the carpet. When analyzing the collected data on student engagement,

it was noted that the majority of the class was fully engaged with their eyes on the speaker. There

were two students that were observed of not being engaged because their eye contact was not on

the speaker and they were looking at the ground the majority of the time. When looking at body

language and non-verbal response and body control, the entire class had no issues with staying

grounded on the carpet during instruction. It was noted that some students would sit up with their

legs not fully criss-crossed on the carpet, but it was during a time where the Elkonin sound box

was being introduced to the class and when the student teacher was showing illustrations from

the book.

The groups “student participation” portion was broken down into three different criteria;

voice, volunteering appropriately, and following directions (following along when using elkonin

sound box). When looking over student voice, it was observed that students answered

appropriate when being asked questions whether it was about a book, or about particular letter

sounds and names that the student teacher had mentioned. For the criteria of the students

volunteering appropriately, it was noted that there were times when students would shout out

answers to student teacher’s questions, or during discussions. During whole group instruction,

there were portions where the student teacher asked the class to, “Someone raise their hand and
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 11

tell me,” when doing a quick check for students listening comprehension while Copy Cat was

being read. Majority of the students understood directions and were eager and willing to share

thoughts and answers which helped open up discussions. When analyzing the criteria of

following directions, student participation was not as consistent. There were times where

students would not participate right away during the “I do, we do, you do” strategy when using

the Elkonin sound box. Some observations that were noted circulated around students not doing

proper sweeping motions when students had to blend letter sounds together. On the other hand,

orally, the students’ participation was present with the exception of one student who lacked

participation throughout the whole group instruction.

Other observations that were made during whole group instruction circulated around

class discussion and student response. When being shown the CVC nonsense word “raf” students

seem to find connections with words contained similar sounds. One student sought clarification

when relating “raf” to the word “raft.” Another student added on to another student’s thought and

shared thoughts by connecting the CVC nonsense word “raf” with “giraffe.” Overall, some

students were able to find similar blended letter sounds through personal connections.

In the second half of the observation packet contained a section that was specifically for

the small group/student led portion of the lesson study. When observing the Elkonin sound box

dice activity, observations would be jotted down similar to a running record. If the student were

to say an incorrect sound, the observers would put the sound the student had said above the

perspective letter. If the student said the letter name instead of the sound, the observers would

put the letter the student had named with a circle around it. With each letter being written down

in its perspective section, letter identification, knowledge of letter-sound, segmenting and

blending was observed. If the students say individual sounds correctly, the observer would
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 12

underline it. Observers put a checkmark next to the elkonin sound box template if the student

was able to blend the letter sounds correctly. There was a total of four occurrences where

students said the letter name instead of the letter sound.

When analyzing student success in using the elkonin sound box correctly to blend letter

sounds with CVC words, there was a 33% success rate (6 students out of 18). 5% (1 student) was

SPED. Within that 33%, 3 students were considered high, 1 was considered approaching and 2

were considered low/developing in letter name/sound recognition.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

When looking at the data after teaching the lesson using the Elkonin Sound Box, it was

clear that the Elkonin sound box strategy was helpful to the majority of the students at the

beginning stages of our lesson. As this was the first exposure to the sound box the students had

ever experienced, we were delighted to witness the majority of them fully taking part in the

lesson. It also became very clear to us that the lesson was over ambitious when it came to the

student led-group work. As stated above, only six of the eighteen students that participated were

successful in using the sound box to create words. The other students either did not remember

what to do and began to play around or they simply copied the letters from the few students that

seemed to understand the directions. The data showed that although students were able to

comprehend the concepts of the Elkonin sound box in the large group setting, they were not

ready to attempt an activity of this independent nature so soon.

Another aspect the collected data showed was that homogenous groupings should have

been implemented instead of heterogeneous grouping. This would have allowed for greater

differentiation between the students and made a way for each one to succeed and be challenged

at their own levels. Also the teacher could have been able to focus on the groups that needed
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 13

greater amounts of help while simply being able to check in on those who could work more

independently.

In the end, we did discover that the sound box is an effective strategy. However, the data

and observations taught us that some strategies take time to build upon with the students and that

their levels of understanding need to be considered before coming up with activities. This

understanding will greatly impact how we will select activities and implement strategies in our

future classes.

Conclusion

We discovered that the Elkonin Sound Box is an effective strategy if the students knew

their letter names and sounds prior to using the sound box. Our success criteria was based on if

the students were able to identify the letter names and sounds, if the students were able to say the

correct letter sounds, and if the students were able to blend the sounds to read a word. Because

this was the success criteria, we expected the students to already know their letter names and

sounds.

We concluded that the Elkonin Sound Box is an effective strategy when taking into

account the different reading levels of the students. If we were to do the lesson for a second

round, we would make a few changes; however, the students who were able to utilize the

Elkonin sound box effectively were able to identify the letters, segments the sounds, and blend

the phonemes together to read words, even if they were martian words.

Appendix

Lesson Plan:

Name: Date:
Tuesday, October 29, 2019

11:30am-12:45pm
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 14

Rondel Baraoidan, Courtney Gibo,

Tennelle Quon, Lauren Temte, Laryce
Visitacion

Lesson Title:
Elkonin Sound Box
Provide a rationale for why you chose to teach this lesson at this time. Where is the lesson
located within the unit (in relation to previously studied topics and ideas to be studied in
the future)?
Based on the end of the quarter 1 Kinder assessment, students were unable to segment words
into letter-sounds. This lesson will introduce students to blending sounds to make words which
will help them with reading fluency.

Grade Level: Standard(s):

RF.K.2D: Isolate and pronounce the initial,
Kindergarten medial vowel, and final sounds (Phonemes) in 3
phoneme words (CVC)
Subject: ELA
RF.K.3A: Demonstrate a basic knowledge of one-
to-one letter sound correspondences by producing
the primary or many of the most frequent sound of
each consonant.

What are the primary learning goals?

- Students will be able to identify letter names and sounds.
- Students will be able to say the letter sounds.
- Students will be able to blend sounds to read a word.

Differentiation Strategies: (Content, Process, Product)

To use differentiation in this lesson we will be using multisensory forms of instruction. A book
will be read to the students to help with visual and audible learners. The elkonin sound box will
be used to help the visual, audible, and kinesthetic learners. The students will also be playing a
game in a small group with dice and their own sound box to help the visual, audible, and
kinesthetic learners.
Teaching Targets (timing, activity types, purpose, kinds of grouping)
Timing: 75 minutes
Activity types: Whole group instruction, read-aloud, and small group/individual
Purpose: To introduce the Elkonin Sound Box and see if it is an effective strategy to use when
teaching phonics.
Kinds of grouping: Whole group/Small heterogenous (high, medium, low, sped)
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 15

Time: Teaching Strategy: Purpose: Method:

11:30-11:40 Show & Tell: Elkonin Introduce the sound box. Explain Whole group
Sound Box what it does, how to use it, and
what we will be doing with it.
11:40-11:50 Practice using Elkonin I do, we do, you do: Practice words Whole group
sound box. to get students used to using the
sound box.
11:50-12:05 Reading a book with sight Students will identify words in the Whole group
words and high frequency book as it’s being read out loud.
words. Teacher will reinforce Elkonin
Practicing using Elkonin sound box. By using sight words
sound box along the way. and high frequency words, the
students will gain confidence in
using the Elkonin sound box with
words they already know.
12:05-12:15 Group Activity: Go over Explain and model how the game Whole group
instructions works. Have students sit in a circle,
explain how to complete their
worksheet and do it as a group.
12:15-12:30 Group activity Students will work with their group Small group
and play the dice game.
Dice game:
Have 3 dice with letters pre-written
on them. Students will roll the dice,
students will copy the letters that
the dice lands on and put the
sounds in the correct box (Learning
how to blend the word using the
Elkonin Sound Box Template). We
will have 27 possible word
combinations.
12:30-12:45 Sharing One student from each group will Whole group
share one word from their
worksheet. They will identify the
letters in the word, the sounds that
make the word, and read the word.
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 16

Materials/Handouts: Extensions:
● Elkonin Sound Box
● Storybook: Copy Cat by Mark Students will choose a book from their book
Birchall baskets. In that book they will find CVC
● Soundbox Worksheets combination words to put into the sound box.
● 12 Dice (Activity) Class word bank will be created. Those CVC
● Expo Markers words will be chosen as words of the day and the
● 22 Sheet protectors Elkonin sound box will be implemented.

Resources:
● Elkonin sound box template
● Dice template

Activity/Assessment tool:

Observation Recording Sheet:

Observation Checklist

Name: __________________
Date: _____________
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 17

Whole Group: Student engagement and participation supports the instructional strategy by the
outcome of the “how” to properly execute the Elkonin sound box.
Add additional comments on the back as needed.
Student 1. Eyes on the speaker
engagement 2. Appropriate body posture
3. Nonverbal response (nodding)
4. Body is controlled (contained)
1 2 3 4

Comments

Student 1. Voice
participation 2. Volunteering appropriately
3. Following directions
1 2 3

Comments

Student 1. C/A/T + able to identify letters

knowledge of 2. D/O/G ✓ able to letter-sound
letter name and C A T
sound
D O G

Small group: Please take pictures and videos of the students executing the Elkonin sound box.
This will be used as our evidence. Add additional comments on the back as needed.
Student 1. Eyes on their paper and dice
engagement 2. Appropriate body posture
3. Verbal response to the letters that is on their paper and dice
4. Body is controlled
1 2 3 4

Comments

Student 1. Voice
participation 2. Rolling dice and writing letters onto paper
3. Following directions
1 2 3

Comments
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 18

Student Write down each student CVC word and mark if if they were able to…
knowledge of -Identify letters
letter name and -knowledge of letter-sound
sound -segment word
-blending words

+ able to identify letters

✓ able to letter-sound

Data will be taken almost like a running record. For example:

d o g

- If they say the incorrect sound, put the sound that they said above
it.

d o g

- If they say the letter name instead of the sound, put a circle around
it.

d o g

- If they said all individual sounds correctly, underline it.

- Put a checkmark if they were able to blend the sounds correctly to
say the word.
- Add any additional comments in the box if needed. For example if
they said dag instead of dog write it in the comments. If they had to
be reminded to use their fingers to tap, swoop, or drag. Add those
types of information in the comments.
- Try to collect as much data as possible.
Write students name in the first box. Write the letters rolled into the boxes provided. The last
row is for any comments about that student.
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 19

Student Samples:
Effectiveness of Elkonin Sound Box 20

References

Adams, M. J., Foorman, B.

R., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1998). The Elusive Phoneme; Why

Phonemic Awareness Is So Important and How To Help Children Develop It. American

Educator, 22(1), 18–29. Retrieved from

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Alber-Morgan, S. R., Joseph, L. M., Kanotz, B., Rouse, C. A., & Sawyer, M. R. (2016). The

Effects of Word Box Instruction on Acquisition, Generalization, and Maintenance of

Decoding and Spelling Skills for First Graders. Education & Treatment of Children,

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Letter Naming and Sound Fluency in Kindergarten and Implications for Subsequent

Reading Fluency. School Psychology Review, 46(3), 272–287.

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https://doi.org/10.17105/SPR-2017-0032.V46-3.

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https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/for-educators/teaching-

strategies/evidence-based-literacy-strategy-elkonin-sound-boxes.

Joseph, L. M. (2000). Using Word Boxes as a Large Group Phonics Approach in a First Grade

Classroom.Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 41 (2).

Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol41/iss2/4.

Keesey, S., Konrad, M., & Joseph, L. M. (2014). Word Boxes Improve Phonemic Awareness,

Letter–Sound Correspondences, and Spelling Skills of At-Risk Kindergartners. Remedial

and Special Education, 36(3), 167–180. doi: 10.1177/0741932514543927.

New South Wales Dept. of Education and Training. (2009). Literacy teaching guide: phonics.

Sydney, N.S.W.