Second Grade: Word Study

Updated for SY25-26

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Second Grade Word Study:

Our Instructional Year

Word Study helps lay the foundation for students to become strong readers and writers. Word Study is where students learn how letter-sound patterns and word parts work in order to read and write words automatically and fluently. This year we are utilizing the CKLA curriculum. Here are some key aspects of the CKLA.

- The Skills Strand provides comprehensive instruction in foundational reading skills, such as phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, language skills (including conventions of English, spelling, and grammar), as well as reading comprehension and writing instruction.
- CKLA includes explicit, systematic phonics instruction in which students are taught the letter-sound correspondences needed to independently decode words.
- CKLA begins by teaching the most common or least ambiguous spelling for a sound (the basic code spelling). Later it teaches spelling alternatives for sounds that can be spelled several different ways. The system is kept simple at first and complexity is added bit by bit as students gain confidence and automatize their reading and writing skills.
- CKLA uses a synthetic phonics approach that teaches students to read by blending through the word. It does not teach multiple cueing strategies, use of pictures as a primary resource in decoding, or part-word guessing.
- Students who successfully completed the Grade 1 CKLA program learned the “basic code” spellings, that is, the most frequent or least ambiguous spelling, for all of the single consonant sounds; consonant clusters, such as ‘fl,’ ‘br,’ and ‘st;’ consonant digraphs such as ‘sh,’ ch,’ and ‘th;’ double-letter spellings such as ‘ss,’ ‘ff,’ and ‘ck;’ and the basic code spellings for the short and long vowel sounds, r-controlled vowels, and various vowel digraphs. They also learned a handful of spelling alternatives for consonant sounds, such as ‘c’ for /s/, ‘kn’ for /n/, and ‘ai’ for /ae/. These students were also introduced to hundreds of high-frequency words from the Dolch Sight Word List and Fry’s Instant Words List.

Second Grade Word Study: Unit by Unit

Unit 1 || August 20 - September 26 (27 days)

Unit 1 will be a review for students who completed the Grade 1 CKLA program. In Unit 1, students will review: (1) a number of spellings from Grade 1 with an emphasis on consonant sounds; (2) one- and two-syllable words; and (3) a number of high-frequency Tricky Words. They will also read new decodable stories from the Unit 1 Reader, The Cat Bandit.

Unit 2 || September 29 - October 28 (21 days)

In this unit, students will:

review a number of spellings they learned in Grade 1, with an emphasis on spellings for vowel sounds
read one- and two-syllable words
read contractions and provide their noncontracted equivalents
practice recognizing a number of high-frequency Tricky Words
read decodable stories in the Unit 2 Reader, Bedtime Tales
learn the use of quotation marks
begin instruction in the writing process, with a focus on writing narratives

In this unit students will review sixteen additional letter-sound correspondences:

/ae/ > ‘a_e’ (cake)
/ie/ > ‘i_e’ (bite)
/oe/ > ‘o_e’ (home)
/ue/ > ‘u_e’ (cute)
/ee/ > ‘ee’ (bee)
/ee/ > ‘e_e’ (Pete)
/ee/ > ‘ea’ (beach)
/oo/ > ‘oo’ (soon)
/oo/ > ‘oo’ (look)
/ou/ > ‘ou’ (shout)
/ou/ > ‘ow’ (now)
/oi/ > ‘oi’ (oil)
/oi/ > ‘oy’ (toy)
/er/ > ‘er’ (her)
/or/ > ‘or’ (for)
/ar/ > ‘ar’ (car)

Unit 3 || October 29 - December 19 (32 days)

This unit is devoted to introducing spelling alternatives for vowel sounds. Vowel sounds and their spellings are the most challenging part of the English writing system. There are only two vowel sounds that are almost always spelled one way. One is /a/, which is almost always spelled ‘a’ as in at. The other is /ar/, which is almost always spelled ‘ar’ as in car. The other sixteen vowel sounds have at least one significant spelling alternative. Several of them have many spelling alternatives.

Vowel Spellings and Sounds

The sounds and spellings taught in this unit are:

/ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ (cake), ‘a’ (paper), ‘ai’ (wait), ‘ay’ (day)
/oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ (home), ‘o’ (open), ‘oa’ (boat), ‘oe’ (toe)
/ie/ spelled ‘i_e’ (bite), ‘i’ (biting), ‘ie’ (tie)
/ue/ spelled ‘ue’ (cue), ‘u_e’ (cute), ‘u’ (unit)
/aw/ spelled ‘aw’ (paw), ‘au’ (Paul), ‘augh’ (caught)

Unit 4 || January 6 - February 13 (28 days)

Unit 4 is devoted to introducing more spelling alternatives for vowel sounds and three tricky spellings. Remember vowel sounds and their spellings are the most challenging part of the English writing system. Only two vowel sounds are almost always spelled just one way (/a/ and /ar/). The other seventeen vowel sounds have at least one significant spelling alternative. Several of them have many spelling alternatives.

Many opportunities are provided in this unit for review of the spelling alternatives. The specific sounds and spellings introduced for the first time in this unit are:

/er/ spelled ‘er’ (her), ‘ur’ (hurt), ‘ir’ (bird)
/i/ spelled ‘y’ (myth)
/ie/ spelled ‘y’ (try), ‘igh’ (night)
/oe/ spelled ‘ow’ (snow)
/ee/ spelled ‘e’ (me), ‘y’ (funny), ‘ey’ (key)
/aw/ spelled ‘al’ (wall)

Unit 5 || February 23 - April 10 (35 days)

This unit is devoted to introducing spelling alternatives for vowel sounds. Vowel sounds and their spellings are the most challenging part of the English writing system. There are only two vowel sounds that are almost always spelled just one way (/a/ and /ar/). The other sixteen vowel sounds have at least one significant spelling alternative. Several of them have many spelling alternatives.

The sounds and spellings taught in this unit are: