Correct Response: B. Phonemic awareness is the ability to distinguish the individual sounds within a word. By counting the number of separate sounds heard in simple words, students in this scenario are practicing phonemic awareness skills. A is incorrect because phonics skills involve the relationship between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of written language. In this scenario, students are counting the sounds they hear in a spoken word. The teacher does not relate the sounds to written words. C is incorrect because, again, the teacher is asking the students to focus on the sounds of spoken words, not letters. D is incorrect because word consciousness is a concept related to vocabulary development and refers to an awareness of and interest in words and their meanings. In the scenario, the teacher is helping students think about words phonologically, to lay the foundation for later learning how to decode words in print.
