Reading

Mini-lessons: During these short, focused lessons teachers explain and model skills and strategies students need to progress as readers.

Independent Reading: During independent reading, students read appropriately leveled texts and practice the skills and strategies presented in the mini-lesson and units of study. During this time students build stamina and fluency for reading.

Reading Conferences: Conferences with students are focused conversations that scaffold reading strategies to guide the student's progress. Teachers confer with students during independent reading time to review and teach skills and strategies necessary to build reading power. Conferences may occur individually or with small groups.

Small Group Instruction: During small group instruction, teachers meet with small groups of students for a variety of purposes. At times, students may work with other students in a similar text at their instructional level, which is slightly more challenging than their independent reading level. Teachers instruct students in the skills and strategies necessary to successfully comprehend these texts independently. This teaching approach is called Guided Reading. At other times, teachers may see students in small groups for a specific purpose or to work on a strategy or skill that all the students in the group can benefit from.

Read Aloud: During the read aloud teachers build community literacy and model skills and strategies through a process called “think aloud,” using mentor texts.

Word Study: During word study students encounter information related to the way our system of language works. Spelling, grammar, and phonetic information are included in this instruction.

Students in second grade read a wide array of texts as they progress through four units of study. The year begins with a unit which carefully introduces students to the structures of the reading workshop. This enables all students to function successfully in the reading workshop environment. It is important that all students feel that they are members of the literate community. In subsequent units students explore narrative texts, informational texts, fairy tales, folktales and fables, poetry, themes, and characters. Throughout all units students work to develop strategies for reading and the ability to appropriately respond to text, both orally and in writing.

Units of Study:

Second grade students are engaged in reading through implementation of the following units of study:

• • Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt

  • Becoming Experts: Reading NonFiction

  • Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power

  • Series Book Clubs

Major Concepts and Strategies:

In second grade, the major concepts and strategies for reading include:

• • Reading with fluency

  • Retelling stories

  • Determining the central message, moral, or lesson

  • Describing how characters respond to major events or challenges

  • Comparing and contrasting different versions of the same story

  • Acknowledging differences in point of view

  • Identifying the main idea

  • Using informational text features

  • Wondering (asking questions) about what they are reading

  • Picturing as they read

  • Noticing and figuring out (inferring) information and ideas from the texts

  • Determining the importance of various parts of the text

  • Synthesizing the information contained in the text

  • Summarizing information in the text

How can parents/guardians help their children with reading?

The most important and also the most rewarding ways to help your children are to read to them and read with them. These activities promote a wonderful dialogue and sharing of ideas. Parents/guardians can ask some of the types of questions listed below when reading to and with their children. These types of questions reinforce the Brookfield curriculum and the Connecticut Core Standards, and are similar to those asked of students as they “stop and jot” or write in their reading notebooks..

Questions that indicate understanding of the key ideas and details of the story:

• • What did you think or wonder about while you were reading the story?

  • What is the story mostly about?

  • Who are the characters in the story and what are they like?

  • What are their character traits?

  • What is the setting of the story? Where and when does the story take place?

  • What is the problem in the story and how is it solved?

  • How did the character respond to the problem in the story?

  • What is the central message, lesson, or moral of the story?

  • If there is a vocabulary word that the student does not know, try to have the student figure it out from the context.

  • What is the main idea of the text? What is the main idea of a specific paragraph?

  • How are the ideas in the text connected?

Questions that indicate that the student is able to analyze the craft and structure of the story (These questions also involve higher-level thinking skills.):

• • Put the important events of the story in order.

  • Describe the structure of the story. How does the beginning introduce the action? How does the conclusion wrap everything up?

  • What are the characters’ points of view? How are they the same? Different?

  • Why do you think the author wrote this book?

  • Why do you think the author has the characters talk to each other if there is dialogue in the story?

  • Do you notice any repeated lines in the text? How do they add to the story?

  • How do the nonfiction text features (e.g. captions, headings) help you understand the text?

  • What was the author’s purpose for writing the text?

Questions that indicate that the student is able to integrate knowledge and ideas to deepen his/her understanding of the story (These questions also involve higher-level thinking skills.):

• • Would you recommend this book to someone else? Why or why not?

  • What part of the story did you think was the most important? Why? Use details from the story to explain why you chose that part.

  • Compare and contrast two versions of the same story (e.g. Cinderella). How are the stories the same? How are they different?

  • How do the illustrations in a text help you to understand the characters, setting, or problem?

• How does the author support his or her ideas?