3.1 Prepare for Schwa Instruction

Before you teach, you'll need to do a few things to get ready:

Review the Overview of Schwa so you feel comfortable talking with your students about the sounds it can make and when to expect it in words.

Word selection is key! As you prepare for instruction, it's important to be intentional about the words you choose to teach. Our free Reading Universe schwa word lists are a good place to start:

Here are three important tips for selecting words with schwa for your lesson:

• Using the phonics continuum as a guide, choose words with syllable types that you taught prior to schwa to reinforce what students have already learned.
• To deepen students' understanding of language and build vocabulary, select words with schwa that have multiple meanings and pronunciations, like present or record.

Embed high-frequency words with schwa — like of, the, from, again, about, and away — into your phonics instruction to give students meaningful opportunities to practice reading and spelling them in isolation and in context. 

A flash card warm-up helps students connect letters and sounds, builds fluency, and prepares them to read. To prepare for your schwa lesson, you'll want to run through skills you have previously taught with your class, such as vowel sounds and syllable types. Below are free, printable Reading Universe flash cards you can use with your students:

• Closed Syllable Flash Cards (opens in new window)
• Open Syllable Flash Cards (opens in new window)
• R-Controlled Vowel Flash Cards (opens in new window)
• Consonant '-le' Flash Cards without Pictures

In our beginning schwa lessons we do not recommend including dictation practice. That's because there are no spelling generalizations that we can provide for students on how to spell words with the schwa sound. Once students have been taught to use their spelling voice, you may consider providing practice using the routine provided. As students become more comfortable with using this strategy, you can add those words in phrases and sentences to add rigor to your dictation practice.

Next, consider your teaching strategies for teaching schwa, and go to the Resource Hub for a complete collection of word lists, read sheets, and decodables for practicing reading words with schwa.