What is a tool used in phonemic awareness instruction to represent sounds in words, commonly referred to as Sound Boxes?

The tool commonly referred to as Sound Boxes, or specifically Elkonin Boxes, is designed to help students segment individual phonemes in words. In this instructional strategy, students place a marker or a counter in each box to represent a sound they hear, allowing them to visually and physically manipulate sounds as they break down words into their constituent parts. This approach reinforces the connection between sounds and the letters or phonetic components that represent them, fostering phonemic awareness, which is a crucial skill for reading development.

While other options may involve different strategies or tools, they do not specifically focus on the unique representation of phonemes in segmented form like Elkonin Boxes do. Writing Boxes might suggest a focus on writing rather than sound segmentation, Phonics Charts may convey rules or patterns in phonics rather than supporting phonemic awareness directly, and Sound Maps typically involve broader representations of phonological awareness rather than specific phonemic breakdowns.