Similar to First graders, Second graders will need lots of opportunities to practice reading: books, menus, grocery lists, street signs, and cereal boxes are just a few examples of things to encourage your child to practice their new reading skills. While reading, if your child encounters a word they have not been taught the sounds for yet, simply give them the word. If your child encounters a word containing a phonics pattern they have already worked on, first and foremost, encourage them to pay attention to the letters they see and what they have learned about those letters and patterns in words. Second graders will encounter more and more multisyllabic words. These are words with more than one syllable. Second graders will learn that only one vowel or vowel team can be found in a syllable. They will learn how to break longer words into smaller parts in order to decode them more accurately. Practicing the weekly decodable texts will help your student recognize the newly learned skill and give them many opportunities to read words with the new skills. Here is a link to the decodable passages from UFLI Foundations phonics program. Your child's teacher will be able to share which lessons they are currently teaching each week.
See below for a few definitions of terms used in second grade reading instruction:
What are heart words? Heart words are high frequency words taught within the UFLI Foundations phonics program. These words are the most common words spoken and written in the English language. Learning these words will advance your child's reading skills quickly. These words may have letter combinations that do not follow the typical phonics rules, or may be words that your child will see often but they haven't learned these advanced phonics rules yet. These parts of the word will be coded with a heart under the unlearned sound. Students may have to remember this part of the word by heart in order to read the word accurately. Click here for the list of words learned in 1st grade ----> Heart Word Cards
First graders will begin their year reviewing reading CVC words, words with blends and digraphs. (see the first grade resource page for definitions on these types of words)
Second graders will spend a bit more time determining if a vowel is short or long within a syllable. Short vowels make the following sounds: /a/ as in the beginning sound of apple, /e/ as in the beginning sound of the name edge, /i/ as in the beginning of the word itch, /o/ as in the beginning of octopus, and /u/ as in the beginning of the word up. Long vowels will sound like you are saying the letter name: /a/ as in the word safe, /e/ as in the word/ Pete, /i/ as in the word pine, /o/ as in the word home, and /u/ as in the words mule and rule.
Second graders will also spend time learning about r-controlled vowels (ar, er, ir, ur, or) as the vowel sound changes when followed by the letter r. They will also learn about vowel teams. Vowel teams are when more than one vowel sit next to each other in a word.