Language Arts

Second grade is a year for confidence building in both reading and writing.  Our goal is to make each child see him/herself as a competent reader and writer.  Children solidify their skills learned in first grade.  They begin to expand their knowledge and have a new set of needs.  Children need extensive time for reading, writing, and word study to support their learning.  The way for children to get better at reading and writing is to read and write!

Reading

Second grade is an exciting year of school because the children are at a point where they can bring together all of their reading skills from first grade.  Children no longer have to put all of their energy into learning to read words (decoding). Word identification is beginning to become automatic so children are more able to concentrate on meaning making.  Second graders are growing rapidly in their ability to read longer, more complex narrative texts over several days.  Literary elements such as character, setting, and plot becomes more important to understanding these longer stories.  In simple stories, characters may encounter some surprises or learn something, but there are usually only one or two such episodes.  In longer texts, characters begin to change and develop through their experiences.  The reader has more opportunity to think about how characters feel and their motivations for doing what they do.  They are learning to approach reading from a whole new viewpoint, and developing the tools they will need all their lives to make sense of their reading.  All children know that the purpose of reading is to make meaning from the text.  Children will deepen their understanding of a story, genre or author.  They will learn to look at a book from different aspects.  They can talk about how authors choose interesting and descriptive words.  Children begin to learn to make more connections with their reading such as a book to a book, or a book to real life situations.  Children begin to expand their ability to solve words and process text, but they will also make connections across texts, make inferences about characters’ feelings and motivations and predict solutions to problems.  We will be discussing the books we are reading in our reading groups.

Another big step in second grade reading is learning to read and use non-fiction books.  Children will learn that you do not need to read the entire book and that there are ways to find out the information you need.  They will learn how to use a table of contents, captions, a glossary, an index and other features of non-fictions texts.

We enjoy lots of whole class reading every day.  Teachers read picture books aloud, discus, and demonstrate how to think about a book.  We will also be reading chapter books to the children.  We will read both classic literature as well as chapter books that may get children started in a series.  These books are often a stimulus for writing as well.  Literature continues to influence second grade writers very positively.

How parents can help with reading:

Modeling:  Demonstrate the importance of reading throughout our lives to your child.  Read a book together, discover a new recipe, read road signs out loud, read a newspaper. Take your child to the public library on a regular basis. Most importantly, show your child how enjoyable reading truly can be.

Read to your child: 

• With the demands of busy lives, it is difficult to find time to sit down with your child and a good book.
• Whenever you have a spare moment, whether it be while cooking dinner and reading the nutritional value of a package of pasta or reading the daily newspaper, model good reading behavior—previewing the reading material by looking at the pictures, summarizing what was read, asking thoughtful question before, during, and after reading.
• Model your reading process and your love of reading by “thinking aloud” (ex. “Boy, I feel lucky to have a few spare minutes to sit down and read the newspaper,” etc.).
• Also, continue to read and tell stories to your child EVEN if he or she has begun to read independently.  Nothing enriches your child’s development of language, vocabulary, communication skills, sense of story, and love of reading as well as listening to stories.

Read with your child:  The following are a list of strategies you may use to assist your young reader with decoding (figuring out how to read a word):

• Look at the picture
• Take a running start
• Make predictions based on picture clues or story patterns
• Skip the word and come back to it
• Does it make sense?  Does it look right?  Does it sound right?
• Get your mouth ready (cueing off the initial sound of a word)
• Sound it out
• Break the word into parts
• Make a meaningful substitution
• Ask someone (only to be used as a last resort)

•    Reinforce the importance of reading comprehension by asking your child questions about his/her reading.  Help your child value the meaning of reading, not just decoding (figuring out the words).

•    Take breaks while reading or follow-up after reading with discussions relating your child’s personal experiences to what he or she has read to increase your child’s reading comprehension.  Ask your child many “WHY?” questions (i.e. “Why do you think the character chose to…” or “Why do you think the author included…in this story?” etc.) before, during, and after reading.

•    Listen to your child read both new books and “old favorites.”

•    Ask your child to retell or summarize key parts of a chapter or a book, including character(s), setting, plot (in sequence), and supporting details.

•    Encourage your child to research interesting questions using a variety of resources such as magazines, CD-ROM’s, encyclopedias, books, or the Internet.
 

Writing

The reading and writing processes are interconnected.  Children use enriched vocabulary, pay more attention to detail, and improve their grammatical structure as well as notice an author’s style.  Children will continue to write every day in Second Grade.  Second graders are capable of a sustained effort.  They will be writing from their own experiences and for their own purposes.  At times, children will write fictional stories in which they plan and map out the story before they write.  As we are encouraging students to concentrate on getting their ideas onto paper, we emphasize the use of “sound-stretching” where students try their best to sound out the spelling of words. Second graders are in the process of learning simple proofreading skills to help them spell unknown words accurately and use capitalization and punctuation correctly.  Second graders are able to do specific work on editing such as punctuation, capitalization, spelling, looking at the content of their work and learning how to choose interesting and descriptive words.  They will also learn how to do research writing.  This means that children will not only read information books, but also learn how to put the information into their own words.
 

Spelling

We are working on learning to spell the high frequency words used in everyday writing and reading.  This ensures that the words with the greatest long term spelling power are presented before words with less utility in writing.  Students need repeated exposure to the high use words for their mastery in writing.  We will continue to introduce new words and help students to expand their word banks.  The goal of our spelling program is to teach students to become accurate, independent spellers in their writing.

As in other subjects, children move through stages.  Most children in second grade begin with phonetic spelling.  Phonetic spellers understand that letters relate to sounds that they hear. They may write “grl” for “girl” or “cr” for “car.”  The next stage is transitional spelling, in which children begin to experiment with and apply spelling patterns that they recall from reading. Phonetic spellers may write “bote” for “boat” following the silent-e pattern.  At the same time, children begin to learn conventional spelling.  These include the high frequency words that they just have to memorize, as they are not always spelled the way they sound.  As part of the process, students begin to identify words in their own writing that are misspelled or “don’t look right.”

Children begin to increase their vocabulary of words they can spell from memory through our spelling activities.  The words we learn are found in all of their reading and writing.  When children spell high frequency words correctly, a greater and greater percentage of their writing has correct spelling.  By the end of the year, most children will be able to spell between 100-150 words correctly.

Students are learning strategies that enable them to anticipate the spelling of a word.  They are learning antonyms, synonyms, homophones, plurals, contractions, compound words and word families.  They are also exploring other word forms through the addition of prefixes and suffixes and some basic spelling rules.

Most important is that our second graders have abundant opportunities to work toward the mastery of many high frequency words and word patterns. Encourage your child to use “Think and Go” spelling when drafting to support their writing fluency. Then reinforce good spelling habits by offering to correct misspelled words when helping to edit your child’s work.

Handwriting

At Catlin Gabel, we have adopted the Italic system of handwriting.  We begin working with the lower case printed letters and later introduce the upper case letters.  In second grade, the expectation is that children will begin to use the proper cases in their daily writing. Cursive writing begins in third grade.

How parents can help with writing:
 

• Provide meaningful opportunities for writing:  thank you cards, shopping lists, love notes, letters, etc.
• Model the usefulness and love of writing; “think aloud” as you write.
• Encourage your child to read his or her writing to you; help your child refine his or her writing by asking the questions:  Does it make sense?  Does it look right?  Does it sound right?
• Encourage your child to both tell and write stories (fiction & non-fiction) at home.
• Notice and praise your child’s use of proper writing mechanics including penmanship (lower case letters, good spacing, clear and consistent letter formation) and grammar.
• Keep a family journal:  have each person write or dictate his or her view of a significant family event or vacation.  Include pictures or illustrations.
• Allow your child opportunities to use invented spelling as a means of “getting the ideas down,” encouraging the free flow of your child’s ideas.
• Provide ample writing tools:  make a variety of paper, pens, and markers available to children and identify a study or work area.