Elementary English Language Arts
- Guiding Statements
- Curriculum Standards
- Enduring Understandings
- Essential Questions
- Curriculum Map
- Longtitudinal Rubrics
- Common Assessments
- Stage Three
- Five Year Plan
Secondary English Language Arts
- Guiding Statements
- Curriculum Standards
- Enduring Understandings
- Essential Questions
- Curriculum Map
- Longtitudinal Rubrics
- Common Assessments
- Stage Three
- Five Year Plan
455 N. Woods Mill Road
Chesterfield, MO 63017
Phone (314) 415-8100
Contact Parkway
455 N. Woods Mill Road
Chesterfield, MO 63017
Phone (314) 415-8100
Contact Parkway
English Language Arts
2nd Grade Reading
Course Description
The Second Grade Communication Arts Curriculum is centered around units of study in which students are actively engaged in the processes of reading, writing, speaking, listening, informational literacy and vocabulary. Within the structure of reading workshop students learn to build habits and develop strategies that proficient readers use on a daily basis. The units of study include the following inquiries: Readers Build Good Habits - where students learn the routines of reading workshop. Schema: Connecting the Known to the Unknown - where readers learn how to explicitly use their schema to increase their comprehension of different texts. Nonfiction - where students learn how to use the text features and comprehension strategies to navigate and understand nonfiction text. Talk Curriculum: Building Talk for Robust Book Discussions - where students learn the importance and power of conversation in helping them understand more deeply the texts they read. Story Elements: Thinking Deeply about Characters - where students learn how to use thinking strategies to understand the importance of story elements, focusing on character traits and actions. Fixing It Up - where students learn how proficient readers monitor their understanding of text while at the same time monitoring their reading of the print on a page. Inferring - where students learn how to understand the text by thinking beyond the printed words. The units of study are taught in a Reading Workshop, which provides a balanced approach to instruction. The Reading Workshop includes the following: Mini-lesson - a short, focused lesson taught in whole group format which teaches a strategy, skill, or classroom routine. Independent Reading - a period of time in which individual students are engaged in reading of self-selected texts at their independent reading level. During this time the teacher is conferring with individual students to provide direct instruction. Read Alouds - an instructional method where the teacher reads aloud to the class while modeling the skills, strategies, and thinking they will use. Shared Reading - interactive reading experience that occurs when students join in or share the reading of a big book or other enlarged text while guided and supported by the teacher. Small Group Instruction - an instructional method where students are grouped flexibly based on specific learner needs. A small group may be convened for a strategy lesson or guided reading lesson.
Grade
2
Prerequisite: 1st Grade Reading
Course Expectations
Rationale: Reading is a rich and complex human activity. It provokes reflection, introspection, and imaginative thinking, and allows students to create and explore new ideas. Teachers strive to provide an extensive variety of fiction, nonfiction, classic, and contemporary works. The classroom is filled with a variety of print, including poetry, newspapers, and quality literature, as well as content area books and magazines. Teachers model experiences and strategies, explaining their thinking when deriving meaning of text and demonstrating how to select books, authors, and genres. With frequent opportunities to read self-selected materials, at an independent level, students are motivated to read and turn to reading as a source of enjoyment. Reading is a process whereby readers bring meaning to text as well as take meaning from text. Students' responses are influenced by prior knowledge and experiences. They develop skills in the context of whole and meaningful literature. Students are assisted in discovering and articulating what a given text means. Independence is promoted by developing a variety of reading strategies without relying on any one strategy to read. Time for reading, sharing, and discussing is provided daily.
Time Frame: 1 Year
Standards Alignment
Course Materials: Representative Texts, Films and Resources
Leveled Library for small group instruction including book clubs, strategy groups, and/or guided reading (available in buildings)
Anchor Texts for modeling in mini-lessons (available in buildings)
Units of Instruction
1. 2nd Grade Reading - Readers Build Good Habits (Rev. July 2011)
Second grade students will learn classroom routines for reading workshop, print and comprehension strategies, and how readers think about text. Students will learn routines and procedures for partnerships.
Second grade students will learn the grade level appropriate habits that good readers need to possess and use to learn to read. This will include how to handle books, management of books in book boxes, and recording thinking about reading. Students will also begin partnership work to begin talking about texts.
1. 2R Building a Community of Readers (CCSS Aligned)
This unit is designed to foster a love of reading. Readers will establish structures and procedures supportive of a community that reads for enjoyment, and promotes the sharing of one’s thoughts about reading with others.
2. 2R Talk Curriculum (CCSS Aligned)
This unit is meant to build upon the first grade Talk unit. The purpose of this unit is to help students build their skills at engaging in true dialogue.
2. 2nd Grade Reading - Talk Curriculum (Rev. September 2)011
This unit introduces more sophisticated skills needed to talk and think deeply about texts.
3. 2nd Grade Reading - Fixing It Up (Rev. September 2010)
This unit of study is intended to support second grade readers as they read independently.
Students will gain a deeper understanding of how to self-monitor while reading independently by problem-solving unknown words, working through confusing text, and reading fluently and with expression in order to build comprehension.
3. 2R Meaning and Message (CCSS Aligned)
This unit is designed to teach second grade students the skills that are necessary to read and comprehend chapter books. It teaches students to hold on to information across the many chapters of a book and make meaning of the text. There is special emphasis on learning about the messages, lessons, and themes that are present in second grade texts.
4. 2nd Grade Reading - Story Elements: Thinking Deeply about Character (Revised June 2010)
This unit is designed for second grade students to improve reading comprehension through thinking deeply about story elements.
Students will gain a deeper understanding of story elements by thinking and inferring about character traits, character change, setting and how it changes, problem/solution, and identification of narrator. Students will be able to retell a story using story elements.
4. 2R Navigating Nonfiction (CCSS Aligned)
This unit emphasizes skills that are used to comprehend a nonfiction text such as determining importance, identifying main idea, and utilizing text features.
7. 2nd Grade Reading - Inferring - Revised March 2010
This unit of study is intended as an introduction to inferring for second grade students.
Students will learn to understand messages, ideas, or thoughts that the author does not include in the text. Students will infer using various strategies to deepen their understanding of text. Students will learn to monitor their comprehension of a text.
15. 2R Tackling 2nd Grade Text by Getting to Know Characters (CCSS Aligned)
In second grade, most readers will be reading within the text band K/L/M. By teaching with the characteristics of this text band in mind, we will prepare our readers for new challenges they will encounter in their daily reading. In this unit, we will tackle the strategies needed for the new work that is required at these levels.
16. 2R Nonfiction Reading to Become Experts (CCSS Aligned)
This unit is designed to build on the skills second graders learned in the Navigating Nonfiction unit as they read to learn about a topic of personal interest. The emphasis is on studying multiple texts/sources and integrating information to gain deeper understanding of the topic. Collaboration is also emphasized as students are asked to work with peers to ask questions, seek knowledge, and grow ideas about their topics.
17. 2R Reading and Role Playing (CCSS Aligned)
This unit is design to enhance reading comprehension through a study of characters’ emotions and actions. Students will use dramatization to connect with and grow their understanding of text.
