How to Teach Schwa

We have the simplest way to teach SCHWA in today's video!
Sometimes we as teachers over complicate things, so let's keep teaching the schwa sound simple! We see tons of ways to teach SCHWA out there, most of which are all too complicated and even confuse teachers. If we are confused, odds are our students will be as well!
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To teach schwa, you'll want to have watch our MULTISYLLABIC WORD READING STRATEGY videos...
What and Why of Multisyllabic Word Reading Strategy: • What and Why of Multis...
How to Teach Multisyllabic Word Reading Strategy: • How to Teach Multisyll...
How to Plan Multisyllabic Word Reading Strategy: • How to Plan a Multisyl...
If you missed our video about WHAT are the Sound-Spelling patterns and WHY we teach them, check it out:
• What and Why of Sound ...
Breaking the English language into the most common spelling patterns is an effective way to teach the connection of the sounds and the spellings to children while learning to read. This relationship between the sounds and the spellings of language is also called decoding. Decoding our language is critical to being an adept reader. Breaking the English language into the most common spelling patterns and teaching them explicitly in a clear scope and sequence is recommended. You can follow our pattern or break this up to follow your Core Reading Program's scope and sequence.
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[@angel31941]

Sometimes a short vowel sound changes in a word to reflect that it is not stressed or vocally emphasized in the syllable. The schwa is considered a weak/ reduced vowel and it’s can make the any of these sounds uh, ih, eh but it’s always considered the same vowel regardless and in pronunciation guides it is represented as an upside down e and it can appear on any vowel including semivowel Y. I had to teach this one and it’s not very easy to teach and it can be hard as an unstressed vowel is not always represented by a schwa; sometimes it has the same vowel sound just with less emphasis. It is commonly known as a tired, relaxed or lazy sound. So this one is quite difficult I hope this helped.

[@kitkatpat3]

This is great! Schwa can be tricky to teach. This simplifies it in a way that makes it accessible to learners.

[@TheSimpleTeachers]

kitkatpat3 we are glad it helps! Can’t wait until you’re able to use it! Thanks for commenting and watching!

[@christopherp.hitchens3902]

Why was I taught that vowels have TWO sounds…when I always knew (as a kid) there were more? We learned about Abraham Lincoln with “Abraham” having three A’s …with 3 different sounds. NOT ONCE did teachers, parents or administration ever mention this SCHWA thing! I thought myself a confused young person but I am beginning to suspect that my friends and I were always right: Those that can’t do, teach. Those that can’t teach…teach English and Gym!

[@TheSimpleTeachers]

Love this comment! Thanks!

[@kg4378]

Thanks so much for your time and videos! This just helped both of our kids SO much, THANK YOU!!

[@TheSimpleTeachers]

So glad they are helpful! Thanks for watching :)

[@zarapeace660]

Very very useful.

[@edo7131]

I'm an English learner, what's the tongue doing when producing the schwa? does it rise in the middle? does it press down? thanks

[@melissamason2169]

Is there a rule about dividing a word into syllables with a schwa?

[@liuping3688]

make sense. This helped us so much.THANK YOU!

[@LaurBeDaurb]

Thank you! :-)

[@TheSimpleTeachers]

You're welcome! Thanks!

[@mauriwebster2464]

Love it! Thanks!

[@shann74]

Great!

[@zarapeace660]

I have a question

[@danielleraya2789]

Thanks gals

[@sutash9043]

This might be effective for native English speaking children learning to read. However, when you enter the territory of ESL teaching, this system becomes a pitfall. Teaching schwa as a short "u" doesn't make any sense to us Spanish speakers. Using a "uh" spelling to elicit a schwa sound is a dead end with Spanish speakers because we will automatically think of the sound /u/. Instead, I tell my students that they need to think of it as the "tired" sound". The mouth should be completely relaxed, as if they had no more energy for anything, not even for moving their lips. As for which spellings are going to give us the sound schwa, we learn them one at a time. For example, when teaching comparatives I raise awareness of the "er" comparative morpheme in short adjectives and also the word "than", so my students will learn the grammatical rule together with the correct pronunciation. Something else that is absolutely crucial when teaching to read is CONTEXT. So students will come up with the correct reading of words not necessarily because they'll recognize the written form, but because the context will naturally lead them to think of that word. And something that I need to point out; where's the second schwa in "above"?? There's no other schwa there, but a silent "e".

[@bloozism]

I’m 29 and I didn’t even know this existed 😞

[@melissanick6535]

You're over-simplifying too much by only teaching that schwa makes the /uh/ sound. There are tons of words where schwa makes more of an /ih/ sound rather than /uh/: -- basket (baskit), bonnet (bonnit), ballad (ballid). It's not that confusing to teach students that schwa occurs when a vowel makes a lazy sound that is different than its typical short sound, and that it typically sounds like /uh/ or /ih/.

[@itsbesr2940]

spagetti