What is an example of a phonemic awareness activity?

Practicing sound blending and segmentation is an excellent example of a phonemic awareness activity. This type of activity directly engages students in manipulating phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound in spoken language. Sound blending involves combining individual sounds to form words, while segmentation entails breaking words down into their component sounds. For instance, a teacher might say the sounds /k/, /a/, and /t/ and help students blend them to say "cat." Similarly, the teacher might ask students to listen to the word "cat" and then identify the individual sounds that make it up. These skills are crucial for developing reading proficiency as they lay the groundwork for decoding and encoding words.

Other options, while they may involve aspects of literacy, do not specifically target phonemic awareness. Writing essays about phonemes focuses more on written expression than on the auditory manipulation of sounds. Listening to music and identifying sounds may enhance auditory skills but doesn't specifically hone in on phonemic awareness related to language sounds. Reading texts aloud without focusing on sounds does not engage students in the critical phonemic skills necessary for developing reading abilities.