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.
