During a write-aloud activity, what skill is the teacher primarily contributing to by discussing print awareness?

In a write-aloud activity, the teacher's discussion of print awareness focuses specifically on helping students understand how print works. This includes concepts such as recognizing letters, understanding that print carries meaning, and distinguishing between different features of written language, such as text direction, spacing, punctuation, and word boundaries. By highlighting these elements during the activity, the teacher is directly contributing to the students' understanding of the physical aspects of written language, which is foundational for their literacy development.

Print awareness is essential because it lays the groundwork for more advanced reading skills, such as decoding and comprehension. While vocabulary development, comprehension skills, and phonemic awareness are all important components of literacy, they rely on a foundational understanding of how print operates, which is what the teacher is promoting through discussions of print awareness during the write-aloud.