English Language Arts Highlights

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Second grade in the first time that students are no longer learning to read but reading to learn. To facilitate this process, we focus a great deal on developing various metacognitive strategies. This process will be discussed below.

Using Our Metacognitive Reading Strategies

Reading is an active process. To ensure that students are always monitoring their reading, we use the following strategies introduced in our Houghton Mifflin reading series:

• Predicting
• Visualizing
• Questioning
• Connecting
• Monitoring and Clarifying
  

We introduce each strategy throughout the year through shared reads of the stories in our anthologies. The allows students to practice comprehension strategies with more ease because the labor of decoding the words has been taken away. Students can comprehend stories we read to them with more ease than stories they read themselves.

This reading key allows students to use symbols to represent each of the comprehension strategies. When students use any of these strategies, they mark it in their guided reading books by labeling a Post-It Note with the appropriate symbol and sticking it on to the page. When they have completed their book, these post-its are stuck on to pages in their reading binders to monitor their progress and to drive conversation in their book groups.

Click on the link at the bottom of the page to see a copy of our reading key.

Students are then expected to answer comprehension questions based upon the various levels of comprehension (literal, inferential or interpretive, and applied), or to respond to a reading response prompt that guides them to think critically about the text they have read. Some prompts include but are not limited to: writing about the main idea of a story by giving a new title, writing a summary of the story using transition words, identifying the author's purpose (to entertain, persuade or to inform), and to classify the type of text being read. Some other prompts focus on characterization and point of view, such as "If the main character had $100,000 what would he or she do with the money?" and some prompts focus on the setting and making predictions such as "How would this story be different if it took place in a different setting?" They will also be writing literary letters to a friend or to me.

For some tips on how to foster higher level comprehension skills at home, click here.

To practice asking your child questions at the various levels of comprehension, use this sheet to help you.

To promote to a life-long love of reading, the students will also be utilizing various interactive literacy bulletin boards during reading workshop and throughout the day.  This holds them accountable for their free choice reading time, as well as their reading various class books.

For more information on Reader's Workshop, click here.

For more about our classroom library and reading "just right" books, click here.


The Writing Process and Spelling

The Writing Process: Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing

As we continue to prepare our students for the New York State English Language Arts exam, we have them respond to various reading response prompts based upon the stories they read both in class and at home. When our students write, we are crafting their writing to have a unique voice and style. These are the key grading of the state assessments. Mechanics, spelling and grammar comprise a lesser percentage of their writing grade. This is why we concentrate on the drafting process through the use of mentor texts, writer's workshop and structured teacher modeling. Spelling has sometimes been a source of writer's block for students. If they focus too much on spelling their words correctly during the drafting process, they invariably struggle to form their thoughts easily. As students continue to learn how to go through the writing process, they learn how to edit and revise their work independently. This is part of the second grade writing rubric on our report card.

Word Work and Word Study Practices: Based on Fountas and Pinnel's Word Study Lessons
To aid with our spelling instruction in the classroom, we will be using the Fountas and Pinnell Word Study kit as a resource.  This resource consists of various mini-lessons on word study principles.  An overview from the website is stated below:

Most entering second graders will have consolidated their knowledge of sound patterns in words and relationships between letters and sounds. In second grade they will expand their abilities by applying this knowledge to less regular, less common correspondences and patterns, longer stretches of print, and more challenging texts. In Phonics Lessons, Grade 2, students explore six areas of word learning: phonemic awareness, letters and sounds, reading words, writing words, processing strategies in reading, and processing strategies in writing.


Part of this program includes various word study activities that allow students to practice spelling words from the principle we are studying as a class as well as some of their own personal words to know.  Students will be given words as a class and will also pick words from their writing.  These words are placed on an index card for them to study.  Each day they will complete a different word study activity.  They are listed below.

Reading Key (pdf file)

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