[Music] hi I'm Jennifer welcome to Orton Gillingham coaching today I would like to talk about schwa most people think that vowels make two sounds long and short but the reality is they make three long short and schwa so what is a schwa schwa is one of the most common sounds in the English language and it is when a vowel and all of them can make it a e i o u and Y it is when a vowel makes the short U or a sound words like lemon denim family among comma elephant you hear the uh sound in those you don't say among you don't say lemon and you don't say family you say family so those are all schwas it can be found in any position family you know in the middle in the end among in the beginning there aren't really any rules for schwa there is one thing you can Bank on is that if a word ends in an a it's going to be a schwa mocha Pizza umbrella Cola those words are going to be schwas at the end another little tidbit is that moshuas are in over a words and they're less common in e and i words so that's just a little something in the dictionary the schwa is represented by an upside down e so when you see that that's the sound making a schwa so I was taught that schwas are not in one syllable words even if you have a word like love that's not a schwa that's an Old English word I do see that some people don't do that and I think even in the dictionary you might could find an upside down e and a one-syllable word but when I was learning about schwa it was I was told that they are not in one syllable words it is always in multi-syllable words so I've really just stuck with that you may have something different but it does help when you have a word like Cola then you can divide that and tell a student it's you know which one's unaccented because the the uh sound and I just think it's helped me with students so you get into teaching accenting the schwa can come in handy to say that's not the accented syllable the reason that the schwa is in the English language is because it makes for faster more fluid speech and some countries probably do pronounce their vowels maybe they have the diction but in the English language we use the schwa and we use it a lot so you'll start finding you'll start noticing a lot of words with the uh sound when you start thinking about it so when do we teach raw it really depends on the maturity of the student in this case to me I vary on when I teach schwa on my scope and sequence it's it's kind of down here schwa vowels but if a student is mature enough I will say especially say second grade vowels make three sounds long short and schwa and the schwa makes a short u sound and then you might give some examples but to me this the trick to teaching a schwa for the first time is to make it as simple as possible I wouldn't even go into the accenting yet I just make it the schwa makes a short u sound give examples and have some activities with around that later you can introduce that schwas are in unaccented syllables and even later than that you can introduce that they're in our controlled vowels like mother dollar doctor the main thing to know is that schwa is not a one and done lesson this is an ongoing thing it's it's really a deeper dive I do give a lesson on schwa I do tell a student vowels make three sounds long short and schwa I do when I start talking about accenting it's a great time to say the schwa is never accented so if you see a schwa in a in a word you know that's not the accented syllable and that's a great way to something you can teach an accenting that makes it a little easier but schwa is definitely not a one and done lesson you'll never just teach it and stop teaching it you can have activities around it but you will always have a deeper dive in every kind of lesson that a schwa appears in so you might teach it up here you might teach it here and you might teach it again even down here to your older students it's never done how we teach schwa well it's the same as it always is it's got to be kinesthetic Visual and auditory you want to make sure that they hear it see it and and write it however you can't you can't give dictation of a schwa among and expect that they're going to know that you're saying they're going to write a u especially if they're on the younger side so in this case you would say a monk about if you were doing dictation be sure that if you're doing a schwa the student can hear the vowel that you're using I have a lot of activities in the longer article that I have written about schwa and so I'm gonna go not a deep dive into activities today because schwa like I said is not a one and done lesson but there are some things you could do that are kind of fun for instance some you could do some flash cards or like a concentration game where you flip them over and whenever a schwa is revealed you discuss it but just be sure that they are getting the three-prong approach when you're doing these things you can have the clap out this syllables you know and talk about where does the schwa fall again reinstate that it's always on an unset accented syllable um I think one of the tricks to schwa is discussion and talking about it because it really all schwa words are going to have to be sight words because they don't make the sound as they normally do another activity I think is kind of cool is maybe doing a little Art Gallery having students draw something like an elephant and talk about the you know make a collage of elephant and talk about the schwa you could um display their artwork make sure the schwa is part of the lesson again we could you could do an umbrella or um any word that you can find that they could do around a schwa and have artwork Incorporated with it would be fun another activity that you could do or tongue twisters have them read out loud Oliver opened an umbrella Betty bought a bitter butter Walter wants to water the plants um anyway fine little tongue twister tongue twisters with schwas in them and read those out loud talk about the schwa words in them maybe even write some out even if they're looking at the word have them saying what they're writing and they're repeating it you know just anything you could do to get those words in there especially if they're having trouble with a specific word another activity that you could do is get books and have read aloud and highlight words if you look at my article on schwa I have a whole list of books that have are schwa heavy or you know have some schwas in them another activity would be for older kids but you can have them go on a scavenger hunt for schwa words by looking in newspaper books online articles have them read articles can you find the schwa words highlight or underline when they encounter it make sure that they are reading the words out loud it's very important to then discuss those words by reading them out loud and somehow writing with those words as well another activity is maybe some storytelling again this could be older students depends on maturity you can do sentences as well but have a student write a story from their mind and then go through and find which wall words they used in it how many schwa words are in there be sure they're discussing it and then they've written it be sure they read their story out loud and so they've now they're doing kinesthetic they're doing Visual and they're doing auditory of their schwa words a final word you can use activities to teach while words certainly have a lesson on schwa and you might have more than one depending on how many times you need it and go in a little bit of a deep dive but just know that schwa is not a one and done it's over and over and it's it might be a lesson but it's also a lesson within your other lessons and it's always going to be it's not a completely easy concept because sometimes these schwas can be difficult to hear or find but they're everywhere you can use these activities it's a great idea to have some activities but also do those activities within other activities if you're talking about our controlled vowels then you start seeing The R controlled doctor mother dollar those are schwas then talk about those within your are controlled syllable lessons so again you're just going to be teaching it over and over and over the other thing I want to just make sure and reiterate is you cannot determine a schwa by hearing it they all sound like a short you so no matter what the vowel is it's going to sound like a short u so the best you could do with this concept is to review it and when appropriate review it again and that's why I keep saying it's part of a larger concept because you you can't determine a schwa by hearing it you have to see it you have to write it and you have to hear it so that's why this specifically is very much a three-prong approach lesson and be sure that they can hear what you're saying if you ever dictate so that's my final word thank you for joining me today I hope you will like And subscribe and visit OG for 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