Letterbox Lessons

Letterbox lessons are a great way to teach young children how to read. It teaches the students to break a word into phonemes and then use their knowledge of phonics to produce an invented spelling. To begin, a teacher should make about six 2x2 inch squares and tape them together in a line. When using the boxes, only the number of boxes needed for the word being spelled should be showing, the rest will be folded behind the showing boxes. The instructor will help the student break down a word into phonemes, or sounds. Each sound gets one box. The student should use plastic letters and place the corresponding letter or letters in the box for that sound. For example, the word cat has three phonemes: /c/ /a/ /t/. The letter c makes a /c/ sound and so it would go in the first box. A will go in the second box because of its /a/ sound. Lastly, the t will go in the third box because of its /t/ sound. As stated before, more than one letter can be placed in a box. For example, the word punch has four phonemes (even though there are five letters): /p/ /u/ /n/ /ch/. You cannot break the /ch/ sound down anymore so it stays in one box. If a silent e is at the end of a word, it does not get a letter box! The e sits outside the last letterbox to symbolize it is part of the word but it does not make any sound, just manipulates the sound that other vowels make. All of this allows a student to break up a word and try to spell it the way it sounds. This helps a student with phonemic awareness. Also, students who can break down words can read unfamiliar words faster and usually with more accuracy. Students should all have the opportunity to work with letterboxes in the first grade to help them with both their spelling and reading.