The letter a: about, banana, wasWhat is the schwa sound? The schwa sound says, "uh". All vowels will make the schwa sound in some words. Here are some examples of words with the schwa sound:
The letter e: the, open, travel, item
The letter i: animal, family
The letter o: above, gallon, dinosaur, another
The letter u: particular
The schwa sound often times happens in an unstressed syllable.
This might be confusing to a beginning reader.
It may be best to introduce schwa as a sound a vowel can make.
I call it the lazy sound for a vowel.
So . . .
When a long or short vowel sound doesn't work, try the schwa sound. It's like the short u sound, or the sound a person makes when he or she is thinking. Here's a video showing some words you may not have thought have the schwa sound.
I think teaching the schwa sound and not calling all words with the schwa sound a sight word greatly improves a new reader's chances of correctly sounding out many more words. Here's a video I made showing two common words with the schwa sound.Uh! What's The Schwa Phonics Sound?
Wikipedia's Definition
Find more from me at Parent and Child Reading Assistance.
9 comments:
love the schwa!! love teaching it too!
Hi! I'm your newest follower.
Thank you so much for this post on the schwa sound. This is a tricky sound to teach. My kids LOVE the name, though. Ha!
Thanks for sharing.
Lyndsey
A Year of Many Firsts
What is the "long to schwa" and "short to schwa"? My daughter has a list words that are supposed to go under each category.
Hi Dawn,
I looked this up, and I'm not sure. My only guess would be if an ending, prefix, or suffix was added did it change from a long vowel or short vowel sound into a schwa sound. Here's a discussion link I found helpful to learn more about the schwa sound, but I didn't find the answer to your question. http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2509166
Thank you. There were words like suffice and sufficient, preside and president. I will look at the discussion. Thanks again.
You're welcome Dawn. I appreciate you sharing some of the words from the assignment. I think I was almost on the right track. Thanks for the brain stretching. I hope you and your daughter figured it out. Have a great night!
Thanks! This is very helpful.
Thanks so much. Homeschooling overseas and using a spelling book that was donated to us. Had no idea what a "schwa" sound is, boy am I thankful for you.
I home teach and this "schwa" word came up in a lesson! I'd never heard of it! Thank you for clearing this up!!!
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