Material and Ideas for Teaching KSSR

Teacher Name: G.Reenuga School: SK Tasek Classes Taught: 1 Kamil

The Idea (What is it? What is it meant to teach/practice? Who is it for? (age-group/year level) Connections to curriculum?):

Elkonin Box is an instructional method used in the early elementary grades to build phonological awareness among students by segmenting words into individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes. Each box in an elkonin box card represents one phoneme, or sound. It

can also be used to practise spelling from a synthetic phonics point of view.

Outline the task/activity (Instructions/Directions):

1. Pupils are divided into groups of four.2. Each group is provided with an elkonin box and a set of letters. 3. The teacher says the word that names the picture (ex: sun). Teacher will say sound

of each letter in the word. 4. Pupils will listen to the word said by teacher and place letter cards in the box

according to sound they hear. (ex. the teacher says /s/ ,/u/, /n/, pupils put letter s in the first box, letter u in the middle box, and finally puts letter n in the third block while saying /n/).

5. The teacher would say the word again, sliding her finger below the boxes from left to right: sun and pupils will repeat after teacher.

Time Needed:

10-15 minutes depending on the number of words taught in the lesson.

Materials (Ingredients if self-made):

Elkonin box Letter cards Picture cards

Possible Problems (What issues may be faced by students/teachers etc when doing this activity?):

Pupils normally face problem differentiating sounds when it comes to segmenting digraphs sound in certain word said by the teacher. For example, /ck/ as in sock and sack. Therefore, picture card is an important tool to aid pupils at early learning stage.

Adaptations (possible additions or changes to allow further use or practice):.

An elkonin box for the word stick, which consists of four phonemes or sounds, can be modified to a little more room for fitting diagraphs such as ‘ck’ . For example :

s t i ck

Reflections on previous use: (When, why and how did you use the idea? What were your objectives? Where did your design ideas come from? How long did it take you to make materials? How many times did you use it with your students? How did they respond to it? Did you adapt or change it for re-use in a different context, with a different class or year? What suggestions would you have for another teacher attempting to use your idea?)

The objective of the lesson is to build phonemic awareness and ensures that pupils are able to decode and blend to become an independent reader. I originally used this idea in my Year 2 class to teach segmenting and it worked out remarkably well. The students responded well and were actually able to sound the letters and blend it better with the help of elkonin box. It had also build their self-confidence. I have used this strategy in Year 1 as well and it has always been a great way to engage all the pupils in a meaningful context.

Elkonin box became an essential tool for pupils to associate sounds with letter and assist pupils to recall the sound of individual letters when they had difficulty reading the word. Allowing pupils to take lead in the group by adaptation, or by asking pupils to arrange letters just by looking at picture shown , made it a much more challenging experience for them.

I would recommend allowing pupils to take control of their group by providing the list of words. Each day a pupil takes teacher’s role and the rest of the group members arrange the letters on the elkonin box.

Pictures: