English Language Arts – 2nd Grade

COURSE OVERVIEW

The English Language Arts curriculum is an integrative, multi-thematic course of study including reading, writing, speaking, and listening instruction. A proficient understanding of the following areas are incorporated into the language arts curriculum- phonics, reading, narrative writing, listening, speaking, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, literary analysis/interpretation, and research. 

Unit – Friends and Family

-Develop questions based on selection.

-Map out characters, setting and events of each selection.

-Identify important details to the stories.

-Define and use vocabulary in context.

-Correctly use punctuation, and Identify subjects, and predicates.

-Write a Personal narrative and Friendly letter.

Unit – Animal Discoveries

Develop predictions for paragraphs, pages, or story and then confirm or revise based on reading.

-Summarize beginning, middle, and end of a plot.

-Make “table” drawings of Main topic and supporting key details.

-Identify root words and recognize how they can change meaning using prefixes/suffixes.

-Define different meanings to the same word.

-Correctly use nouns, singular, plural, and possessive nouns.

-Write an explanatory essay or a how-to text.

Unit – Live and Learn

-Develop questions and answer them as they perform close reads.

-Write an analysis identifying two clues to support Author’s purpose

-Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms, antonyms in word studies

-Use similes to compare two things

-Correctly use action verbs, past-present-future tense verbs, and the verb have.

-Write a book report or an Opinion letter

Unit – Our Life Our World

-Reread the selection to identify more details.

-Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting children from two places in the world.

-Make Cause and Effect graphic organizers for water erosion, volcanoes, and earthquakes.

-Correctly identify and use verbs in sentences.

-Identify linking, helping, and irregular verbs.

-Narrative text or Poetry writing

Unit – Let’s Make a Difference

-Make predictions and confirm or revise them based on closer reading of the text.

-Use text evidence to determine the point of view of a character in the selection.

-Recognize the sequence of events in a selection.

-Identify types of words using word studies, as well as determine meanings of individual idioms.

-Use correctly pronouns and contractions in sentences and writing assignments.

-Write Informative Text Explanatory essay or Compare and Contrast article.

Unit – How on Earth?

-Answer questions to selection upon rereading for further details.

-Summarize a topic using text evidence.

-Identify Problems and Solutions in a selection in a graphic organizer.

-Use two or more paragraph clues to find evidence of the Theme of the selection.

-Write Informative Text such as a Summary and Research Report.

Grade 2 English Language Arts courses are aligned to the PA core standards.

Unit – Friends and Family

Comprehension requires and enhances critical thinking and is constructed through the intentional interaction between reader and text.

This unit discusses through reading selections the concept of how those around us help us.

Families and friends learn from, help grow, and help one another. Families help us learn how to love and help each other. Families around the world have parents and children that work together to make their house a home. Pets can be friends to people and can help by keeping us happy and healthy.

Unit – Animal Discoveries

Effective use of vocabulary builds social and academic knowledge.

Language is used to communicate and to deepen understanding.

This unit discusses through reading selections the ideas that animals play a part in the world around us.

Animals can teach us survival skills, Animals are similar to people as in life cycles, parenting, and habitats.

Animals help us to be happy and show friendship.

Unit – Live and Learn

Purpose, topic, and audience guide types of writing.

This unit discusses through reading selections that learning about the world can be surprising.

The earth has different forces, such as gravity and magnetism.  Gravity pulls things to the earth.  A magnet’s force pulls objects to it.  Magnets can also repel things away. Magnets and the Earth have poles.

Unit – Our Life Our World

This unit discuss through reading selections that different environments make the world an interesting place. People who live in different areas of the world dress, eat, and act differently. Different features of the earth make different environments for people.

Kids around the world do similar and different things from each other. Language, culture, and traditions are different but people are very similar.  Nature is all around us, changes all the time, and is part of our lives.

Unit – Let’s Make a Difference

People can make a difference in the world.

It is important for people to work together to make positive changes and improvement in their communities and in the world. This makes the world a better place.

Unit – How on Earth?

What keeps our world working?

Curiosity leads people to learn more about different things.

Learning more about different things can happen through experiments, taking things apart, reading about them, and seeing examples of them.