Writing

What is 2nd Grade Writing?

In second grade, students write daily with the goal of becoming independent writers. As specified in second grade writing standards, students begin by learning how to write a paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting details. Second-graders gain awareness of the audience they are writing for and write for different purposes. In reports and stories, second grade students learn how to provide descriptive detail about characters and settings. They also organize their work using a beginning, middle, and ending. Writing activities for 2nd grade will focus on using a sequence of events and writing from different viewpoints, i.e., first person (‘I’) and third person (he, she, it, they). 

Writing Strategies—The Writing Process

Second grade writing standards focus on the writing process as the primary tool to help children become independent writers. In Grade 2, students are taught to use each phase of the process as follows:

• Prewriting: Students generate ideas for writing by using prewriting techniques, such as drawing and listing key thoughts.

• Drafting: Students write a draft suitable to the topic, audience, and purpose. In drafting, second grade students strive to create clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea.

• Revising: Students revise and refine the draft for clarity and effectiveness, with the goal of achieving a sense of audience, and using precise word choices and vivid images.

• Editing: Students edit and correct the draft for appropriate grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalizations, and other features of polished writing.

• Publishing: Students produce, illustrate, and share a variety of compositions, including using appropriate computer technology to compose and publish work.

Use of technology: Second grade students will use available technology to compose text.

Writing Purposes

This year, students learn to write for different purposes and audiences, and 2nd grade writing topics include creative, informational/expository, and persuasive forms. Specifically, second grade writing standards stipulate that students write to:

• record ideas and reflections.

• discover, develop, and refine ideas.

• communicate with a variety of audiences.

• respond to literature 

• express themselves in different forms for different purposes, such as writing lists, letters to invite or thank, stories or poems to entertain, and brief narratives to tell about a personal experience.

Written English Language Conventions

Students in 2nd grade are expected to write and speak with a command of Standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level. In particular, 2nd grade writing standards specify these key markers of proficiency:

Sentence Structure 

—Distinguish between complete and incomplete sentences.

—Use correct subject/verb and noun/pronoun agreement, as well as correct verb tenses in simple and compound sentences.

Grammar

—Identify and correctly use various parts of speech, including nouns and verbs.

Punctuation 

—Use commas in the greeting and closure of a letter and with dates and items in a series.

—Use quotation marks correctly.

Capitalization

—Capitalize all proper nouns, words at the beginning of sentences, letter salutations, months and days of the week, and titles and initials of people.

Spelling

— Focus on regularly spelled patterns such as consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) (hop), consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e (CVCe) (hope), and one-syllable words with blends (drop).

—Spell frequently used, irregular words correctly (e.g., was, were, says, said, who, what, why).

— Write with more proficient spelling of inflectional endings such as plurals and verb tenses.

—Write with more proficient use of orthographic patterns and rules such as keep/cap, sack/book, out/cow, consonant doubling, dropping e, and changing y to i.

—Use resources to find correct spellings, synonyms, and replacement words.

Penmanship

—Create readable documents with legible handwriting.

Writing Units

Cluster 1: (8/12-9/20) 

Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Craft 

Cluster 2: (9/23- 10/31) 

How-To Guide for Nonfiction Writing

Cluster 3: (11/6-12/20) 

Poetry: Big Thoughts Small Packages

Cluster 4: (1/7-2/13)

Writing About Reading

Cluster 5: (2/18-4/4) 

Nonfiction Writing Projects (Insects)

Cluster 6: (4/7-5/21) 

ECR - Extended Constructed Response