Engage your learners using SCHWA resources

I am so pleased I came across this useful website. I use it nearly every day for either reading tasks that are aligned with our Structured Literacy programme, wonderful writing units that are set up to run lesson by lesson or with WordQuest, an interactive spelling game also aligned with Structured Literacy spelling concepts. My girls love using Schwa, especially the interactive spelling tasks.

I've been using Schwa with my Year 5/6 class every day for the past 18 months, and I can honestly say it has transformed the way I teach structured literacy. The decodable texts are engaging, meaningful and relatable to New Zealand children — my students genuinely enjoy reading them, which has led to noticeable improvements in both their reading comprehension and their understanding of spelling concepts. More recently, we've introduced WordQuest, and it's been an absolute hit. My students can't wait to log in each day to practise their spelling. Schwa has become an indispensable part of our classroom, and I couldn't imagine teaching without it.

The SCHWA resource has been a game-changer in our classroom! It has significantly improved our students' understanding of spelling rules and offers engaging stories that are the perfect length for maintaining attention. The vocabulary is well-suited for our upper primary students. I highly recommend SCHWA to any teacher looking to enhance their literacy programme.

The resources that I have used so far are amazing. We are just starting our structured literacy journey with our year 5-6 students and they love the structure of the lesson, the vocabulary (especially the Kiwi colloquialisms). We love the activities that we can use with the students post reading.

We predominantly used the reading resources to consolidate and practice children's spelling and reading fluency during class time and for home learning. It was helpful to see the text type which allowed us to select to align with our writing programme. I particularly enjoyed selecting the texts that were New Zealand based.

Love SCHWA. I use the writing units to support my writing programme - I started with the Writing to Entertain unit, and the children loved designing their own mystery island and planning their stories around an island escape. We've also followed the Writing to Inform unit, where the children wrote some great information reports on our inquiry topic, the Ocean. I use TWITS for whole-class tasks or as a reading activity the children can do independently. They love the ones that include a YouTube clip. I find SCHWA easy to use as a teacher. The units support your writing programme and are easy to follow. So much on offer on one platform.

My class LOVE the TWITS readings and the spelling-related reading pieces! I love them because of the ease, the excitement generated, and the depth of language and understanding - inferential, creative, and critical thinking - becoming part of my everyday classroom discussions, beyond just reading.

The children and I love the topics and the different genres SCHWA covers. The topics are engaging and relevant. For my more able learners I tend to add more analytical questions to the comprehension side of their understanding. Love the site.

The SCHWA reading texts have been invaluable for my students to practise identifying the spelling concepts they've been learning in engaging texts. Through the writing units, my students were able to grasp, identify, and replicate the features of information texts clearly. The methodical, easy-to-follow, and fun content made this a pleasure to use; children could see the improvement in their writing. And the Novel Studies resources have provided my more able readers with a cohesive, high-quality format to study some fantastic texts in an intentional and structured way.

I am loving SCHWA. I particularly love the writing units and so do the students. The short videos add interest, and it saves me having to waste time looking for similar content.

I have been regularly using the Schwa website and it's my go-to resource for all things reading and writing. The children love the interesting articles in the 'TWITS - this week in time' section, which I use for whole class reading. Our fluency and comprehension has definitely improved! The writing units are fun, interactive and are so well structured. I have seen a marked improvement in the quality of the children's writing as a result. I would 100% recommend using this website's resources.

I have been using Schwa for two terms with my year 7/8 class. It has been fantastic! The reading activities with the comprehension questions have been extremely helpful. The content is engaging for the kids and it is easy to use. We have planned to do a whole class novel starting in Term 3, Holes, and the resource looks brilliant. Lots of activities and follow-up work.

The resources that you have on SCHWA are second to none in my opinion. They are current, interesting, and work so well with all my students. I was going to say that I particularly enjoy using TWITS - This Week In Time - but then again I also love Reading Texts and Whole Class Reading. Let's just say that it is all brilliant and I can honestly say that it is the best collection of resources that I have. I am indebted to you for all the work you have done to produce such quality materials for us.

We have been using SCHWA for 2 terms and it has been a fantastic resource and support for our Year 5/6 students. We use it as a support when teaching The Code in our structured literacy program and we also use it as extension for those students who need the stretch. The writing lessons are so easy to follow and make it fun to teach as well as interesting. It has been satisfying to have a resource that is aimed at the older learners that is also engaging and creative. We will continue to use SCHWA to support our literacy programme in Terms 3 and 4!

Thank you for your website, I have found it great to use throughout my literacy block and have found it useful when it comes to our novel study. The students love the Word Quest and have really got into the dictation sentence and seeing who can produce the best sentence.

I have been using Schwa in my class this year. I have enjoyed the adaptability of the unit plans and the simplicity of the teaching sequence, which support us, as busy professionals, in delivering a quality lesson. My students have found the scaffolding templates easy to use, and they can support students at multiple levels to structure their thinking before writing—Kia ora for this awesome resource. We are just about to dig into your Novel Study on 'Holes'.