Hi Maya!
Super relatable, fair questions that we have all had when learning to use Elkonin boxes. Also known as “sound boxes,” Elkonin boxes are a line of squares that students can use when learning to spell words by putting one grapheme (letter or letters used to represent one sound) in each box after orally segmenting the word. Readers unfamiliar with these sound boxes can explore their use more in depth in our Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping Lesson Toolkit.
My overarching advice for all of these examples of challenges is that Elknonin boxes are a tool that can help support students to learn the alphabetic principle, phoneme-grapheme relationships, blending, and segmenting. They are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. So, if you use Elkonin boxes in a slightly different way than how another teacher in another district does, that is ok. As long as you are using them to help students understand that words’ spellings are not random strings of letters to be memorized, and that, for the most part, each sound in a spoken word maps onto a grapheme in its written counterpart. A little variation in presentation and use of these boxes from what you may see on the internet is fine, but there should be consistency within a school, so that there is not any confusion when students receive pull-out support with an interventionist.
Because the letter < x > represents two sounds (either /ks/ like in box or /gz/ like in exam), you’re right in that it doesn’t quite make sense to write this letter in one sound box, as this inappropriately implies that it represents one sound. I’ve seen most teachers approach this with a relatively simple fix of writing the letter < x > one time across the two associated boxes, straddling their dividing line.
Similarly, the letters < qu > represent two sounds. Unlike consonant blends (e.g., < st > or < bl >), however, the letters do not represent their own individual sound. Meaning, it is not the < q > representing /k/ and < u > representing /w/ in a word like quit. It is < qu > working together that stands for /kw/. Teachers often represent this pickle by writing the < q > in one box and < u > in the next, indicating two sounds, but writing them together, close to their boxes’ dividing line, rather than centered in each box, to visually represent their working together. I have also seen teachers draw a circle around these two letters written in individual boxes. Again, either method is fine, as long as you’re explaining to students the ‘why’ behind it.
When using Elkonin boxes for words that have silent letters, the letter in question is typically represented in the box of an adjacent grapheme. Thus, the letters < m > and < b > would share a box in the word climb just as < k > and < n > would share a box in knit. The letter < e > at the end of a word would similarly share a box with its preceding grapheme, regardless of its orthographic purpose being the consonant-vowel-e pattern (e.g., bike), or other function (e.g., edge). Some teachers like to encourage writing these silent letters slightly smaller than the shared grapheme.
Finally, remember that Elkonin boxes are a strategy, not the strategy. The spelling of words like one and two are probably better explained by their etymology (word origin) than through a strategy like phoneme-grapheme mapping. The spelling of two makes more sense when explained alongside twin, twice, twenty, and twelve. Likewise, connecting the spelling of one and once with only can help students begin to understand how the spelling of English words is also shaped by additional influences, rather than only by sounds.
Hopefully this both gives you some direction, as well as grants you permission to take some liberties to use this scaffold (or not!) as the context allows. If their use is not enhancing student learning, then pivot!