15. Mr. Hicks conducts a phonemic awareness activity with his first-grade class. He leads the class in the following. Mr. Hicks: Say 'blank.' Students: 'Blank.' Mr. Hicks: Now say the word 'blank' without the letter 'l.' Which of the following phonemic awareness activities is Mr. Hicks using with his students?
Answer: B
Mr. Hicks is using a phoneme deletion activity with his students.
In this activity, Mr. Hicks asks the students to say the word "blank" and then instructs them to say it without the letter 'l,' which exemplifies the phonemic awareness skill of deletion.
A) Phoneme substitution
Phoneme substitution involves changing one phoneme in a word to create a new word, such as changing the 'b' in "bat" to 'c' to make "cat." This does not align with Mr. Hicks' instruction to remove a letter from the word.
B) Phoneme deletion
This option is correct as it involves removing a specific phoneme from a word, which is exactly what Mr. Hicks is doing by asking students to say "blank" without the 'l.' This activity helps students develop their ability to manipulate sounds in words.
C) Phoneme segmentation
Phoneme segmentation requires breaking down a word into its individual phonemes, such as identifying the sounds in "cat" as /k/, /æ/, and /t/. Mr. Hicks' activity does not involve breaking down the word into its components but rather removing one of its components.
D) Phoneme blending
Phoneme blending is the process of combining individual phonemes to form a word. For example, blending /k/, /æ/, and /t/ to say "cat." Since Mr. Hicks is instructing students to remove a phoneme, this option does not apply to his activity.
Conclusion
The correct answer is B) Phoneme deletion, as Mr. Hicks' activity directly involves the process of removing a specific phoneme from the word "blank." Other options, such as phoneme substitution, segmentation, and blending, do not accurately represent the activity described and fail to align with the phonemic awareness skill being targeted.