Short Vowels & Schwa: Interactive Unit Guide

Schwa: The Most Common Vowel Sound

After students demonstrate mastery of the Foundations of Phonology, Unit 1, I'm ready to introduce short vowels and schwa. It's a hefty unit as it technically includes two concepts. However, I think they complement each other given that schwa sounds are essentially "lazy" short vowel sounds.

As mentioned in The Lit Stop Routines, we generally follow the same sequence for each unit. This unit includes a few new routines that weren't included in Foundations, such as Bags of Rimes and Read & Sort Phonology Passages, and Identify the Vowel by Mouth Position. In this unit, I introduce the process of syllabication which is a skill that will be practiced at least twice during each unit throughout the year. You can grab the printable Short Vowel & Schwa Unit Plan here. You'll also want the Short Vowel & Schwa Teacher Word Bank for dictation and brainstorming. Below is the interactive Unit Plan where you can find tons of helpful links. Each blog post will include the typical grouping, methodology, suggested duration, and rationale. I included the objectives in the chart to give you a quick overview. The PDF column will take you to directly to TPT. Lastly, I noted how each objective applies specifically to this unit.

Short Vowel and Schwa Mastery Goal:

Define and identify  short vowels, long vowels, CVC, VCC patterns, open and closed syllables, unstressed and stressed syllables, and the schwa sound.

Day	Blog Posts	The PDFs	Objectives	Unique to this Unit
tool	None	Short Vowel & Schwa Teacher Word Bank	Provide the instructor with a bank of words for dictation and brainstorms.	n/a
tool	Anchor Charts & Posters	Short Vowels & Schwa Anchor Chart	Provide students and instructor with a reference chart.	n/a
1	How To: Introduce a New Phonology Concept	Introduction to Short Vowels and Schwa	Use Vocabulary Squares to develop shared definitions of key terms.	Terms:  schwa, unstressed syllable, vowels, long vowels, short vowels
2		None	Morphology Full Period
3	How To: Explain Why	Explain Why: Counting Short Vowels & Schwa	Apply phonological knowledge to analyze patterns in words	Students will "explain why" the vowel makes a short, long, or schwa sound in a set of words.
4	How To: Word or Syllable Only? (Collaborative)	None	Review grapheme to phoneme relationships in order to build blending automaticity and accuracy.	n/a
4	How To: Look Alike & Analysis	Look Alike & Analysis	Build fluency and accuracy through orthographic mapping.	n/a
5	How To: Sand Spell the Phoneme	None	Review known phoneme to grapheme relationships in order build automaticity.	n/a
5	How To: Syllabication	Syllabication & How to Syllabicate	Apply phonological knowledge to syllabicate words.	Students are introduced to open and closed syllables and the syllabication process.
6	Identify the Vowel by Mouth Position	Mouth Position ID	Identify the mouth positions unique to each short vowel sound.	This activity is new to this unit and directly relates to objectives. I recommend reviewing as needed throughout the year.
6	How To: Spell & Sort	Spell & Sort Short Vowels & Schwa	Recognize and apply phonological knowledge.	Students will sort pictures to highlight the sounds rather than the spelling.
7	How To: Short Vowel Intensive	Short Vowel Intensive	Build fluency with short vowel sounds through auditory, visual, and kinetic responses.	This activity is new to this unit and directly relates to objectives. I recommend reviewing as needed throughout the year.
7	How To: Spell & Sort	See Day 1 of Spell & Sort	Continue from day 6.	See Day 6.
8	How To: Identify the Grapheme	Identify the Grapheme	Review phoneme to grapheme relationships in order to build automaticity.	n/a
8	How To: Rime Drill	Rime Drill: Short Vowels & Schwa	Recognize and use common rimes to build blending automaticity, accuracy, and fluency.	n/a
9	How To: Marker Spell the Phoneme	Marker Spell the Phoneme	Review phoneme to grapheme relationships in order to build automaticity.	n/a
9	How To: Dictation	Dictation	Encode new phonological patterns.	Repeated twice this unit.
10	How To: Identify the Vowel by Mouth Position	See Day 1 of Mouth Position ID (same doc)	Identify the mouth positions unique to each short vowel sound.	See Day 6
10	How To: Syllabication	See Day 1 of Syllabication (same doc)	Apply phonological knowledge to syllabicate words.	See Day 5
11	How To: Read & Sort Phonology Passages	Passage and Sort	Identify and sort phonological patterns in a story.	n/a
12	How To: Bags of Rimes	Bags of Rimes	Recognize and use common rimes to build blending automaticity, accuracy, and fluency.	n/a
13	How To: Word or Syllable Only? (Independent)	Word or Syllable Only? (Independent)	Review grapheme to phoneme relationships in order to build blending automaticity and accuracy.	n/a
13	How To: Syllabication	See Day 1 of Syllabication (same doc)	Apply phonological knowledge to syllabicate words.	n/a
14		None	Morphology Full Period
15	How To: Look Alike & Analysis	See Day 1 Look Alike & Analysis	Build fluency and accuracy through orthographic mapping.	n/a
15	How To: Dictation	See Day 1 Dictation	Encode new phonological patterns.	n/a
16	How To: Pre-Quiz Power-Up	Pre-Quiz Power-Up	Review content in preparation for the quiz.	n/a
16	How To: Quiz	Quiz	Assess understanding of the unit objective.	n/a