## ***Practice 1 - Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum*** Heggerty is a structured, daily phonemic awareness program built around eight phonological skills including rhyming, blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes. Lessons are brief, oral-only, and follow a predictable routine using gestures and auditory repetition — no print required. | Pros | Cons | | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Structured, easy to implement, and research-aligned. | Oral-only format may not be enough for students who need visual scaffolds. | | Works well for whole-class and small-group instruction. | Limited built-in differentiation. | | Strong scope and sequence for systematic skill building. | Must be paired with phonics instruction to transfer to print. | **** ## ***Practice 2 - Elkonin Boxes*** Elkonin boxes are a hands-on segmentation tool where students push a token into a box for each sound in a word — not each letter. For example, "ship" has three boxes: /sh/ /ĭ/ /p/. This makes the abstract concept of individual phonemes concrete and visible. |Pros|Cons| |---|---| |Kinesthetic and visual — supports diverse learners.|Requires physical materials or prepared worksheets.| |Highly effective for segmenting and blending practice.|Works best in one-on-one or small group settings.| |Easy to differentiate by adjusting word complexity.|Students can conflate letters and sounds if the transition to letter-boxes isn't carefully managed.|