Teaching the Schwa

Have you heard about the schwa sound? I had never learned about this sound until I went through Orton-Gillingham training. After I learned about what the schwa is, I realized that students need to be explicitly taught about the schwa so that they are prepared to decode a word that has a schwa.

What is the schwa?

The schwa is a vowel sound that appears in an unstressed syllable. It is represented by the symbol /ə/ and it can be spelled with any vowel letter – a, e, i, o, u, or y. It’s considered the easiest vowel sound to make because it requires so little effort to articulate it. The schwa sounds like an ‘uh’ or ‘ih’ sound and can be made by slightly opening your mouth and engaging your vocal cords without moving your lips, tongue, or jaw.

Here are some example words with a schwa for each vowel spelling.
a: banana, sofa, ago, capital
e: children, elastic, system
i: animal, April, pencil
o: lemon, pilot, other
u: bonus, upon, unless
y: syrup, vinyl, syringe

The schwa is the most common sound in English. We hear it more than three times more frequently than any other sound. It’s found in more than 90% of multisyllabic words! It is an efficient sound because it requires so little effort to produce, which is why we encounter this sound so often. Because the schwa is so versatile, it is incredibly difficult to spell. Other phonemes are consistently represented by specific letters, but the schwa has six variations.

When should you explicitly teach the schwa sound?

After students begin to read multisyllabic words, it’s only a matter of time until they encounter a schwa. Words that they’ll read early, like wagon or lemon, will contain a schwa. Introduce the schwa sound as they learn about closed syllables. Continue to remind your students about the schwa sound because they will see it everywhere!

How should you teach the schwa sound?

Keep your teaching simple. You don’t need to explain all the details about the schwa, but let your students know that when they encounter a vowel that makes an unexpected sound, it’s most likely a schwa. When you introduce the schwa, generate a list of words where you hear the schwa sound. Point out words that have the schwa sound when you find them and make a point to include them in your phonics lessons.

Things to keep in mind when you teach the schwa

Any vowel can make the schwa sound, so this can be really confusing for students who are just beginning to grasp short and long vowel sounds. It may be beneficial to wait to introduce the schwa until students have a solid foundation of long vowel sounds and are ready to begin reading two syllable words.

In some words, the schwa sound is dropped completely, as in chocolate, family, or camera. In other words, we add a schwa between two consonant sounds, as in rhythm. Keep this in mind if students encounter these words and seem confused by them.

Are you looking for activities to help you introduce the schwa?

Grab this resource with five schwa activities, an informational poster, and a teacher word list! Here’s what is included:

• Informational Poster
• Schwa Teacher Word List
• Find the Schwa Cards
• Match the Word Cut & Glue Page
• Coding Syllables Pages
• Reading Comprehension Pages
• Schwa Spelling Pattern Sort

You can use these activities in a whole group setting, in small groups, or as an independent task after students have learned about the schwa. When students are more familiar with the schwa sound, they are better equipped to read unfamiliar multisyllabic words.

Looking for more phonics ideas? Check out these blog posts!