English/Language Arts:
In second grade, fluency, comprehension, and analysis are the focus of reading instruction. Students apply their knowledge of the basic features of reading to achieve fluency in oral and silent reading. Students ask and answer clarifying questions about text (e.g., who, what, why), use the features of text (e.g., headings, bold type) to locate information in expository text, and consider the author’s purpose as they analyze informational text. Students use these strategies to better comprehend their readings in all content areas. In second grade, students learn more sophisticated strategies to analyze literature. For example, they compare and contrast different sophisticated versions of the same story from different cultures. Students write compositions by using correct English conventions. They learn to analyze literature and use reference materials to locate information for their written compositions and oral reports. Their written products become longer, and students pay more attention to the organization of their compositions. Students develop initial skills in editing and revising text at this grade level. Students in second grade learn to give and follow multiple-step directions, provide descriptive details when telling stories or recounting events, and structure their oral presentations in a logical sequence. Students learn new vocabulary and academic language as they read and speak about grade-level texts and topics. They learn to use dictionaries and glossaries to clarify the meaning of words and to check and correct their spelling. They use their knowledge of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words. They also use their knowledge of prefixes to determine the meaning of a new word formed when a prefix is added to a known word.
Math:
Students in second grade extend their understanding of place value (within 1,000), build fluency in addition and subtraction (within 100), and use simple concepts of multiplication and division. They measure the length of objects by using appropriate tools and identify shapes and their attributes.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking
The NVACS develop addition and subtraction knowledge and skills at second grade. Students in the second grade use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems with unknowns in all positions. They represent problems by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number, use mental strategies to add and subtract within 20, and know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers. The NVACS build on the foundations of addition and subtraction to develop the concepts of multiplication and foundations of division. Students use repeated addition and counting by multiples to demonstrate addition and multiplication and use repeated subtraction and equal group sharing to demonstrate division.
With full implementation of the NVACS, use of the commutative and associative of multiplication properties to solve addition and subtraction problems will be introduced.
Number and Operations in Base Ten
In second grade, students’ growing understanding of whole numbers is a fundamental topic. Students extend their understanding of place value as they associate the digits of a three-digit number as amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones. They read, write, order, and compare whole numbers and skip count by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 100s within 1,000. Skip-counting to 100 is introduced at first grade in the mathematics standards. Students add and subtract within 1,000, although the NVACS specify student fluency in addition and subtraction within 100. To foster a deep understanding of addition and subtraction, students use concrete models or drawings and strategies (based on place value, properties of operations, and the relationship between addition and subtraction) to solve problems. Second-grade students extend their addition skills as they add up to four two-digit numbers and mentally add and subtract 10 or 100 from numbers between 100 and 900 (the NVACS emphasize the use of operations with multiples of 10 to develop understanding of place value).
Second-graders learn the basics of how to “carry” and “borrow” as addition and subtraction expands to include three-digit numbers (e.g., add or subtract numbers column by column—the ones and ones, tens and tens, and hundreds and hundreds). Students in these early grades often have trouble lining numbers up for addition or subtraction and may need to be reminded that it is essential to line up numbers in the correct position for their place value. Initially, limiting problems to those that require carrying or borrowing across only one column (e.g., 17 + 24, 43 7) will make this less confusing to students.
Measurement and Data
In second grade, we introduce the concept of standard units of measure. Students estimate and measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes. Second-grade students relate addition and subtraction to length as they represent positive whole numbers (from 0) and whole-number sums and differences within 100 on a number-line diagram.
Students model and solve problems involving amounts of money (e.g., If a boy has two dimes and three pennies, how many cents does he have?). Money problems provide second-graders with a practical context for the concepts of addition and subtraction. Students also use picture graphs and bar graphs to represent and interpret data.
Geometry
Second-grade students extend their understanding of plane and solid geometric shapes as they recognize and describe shapes by various attributes (e.g., the number of angles and equal faces). In the CCSS, second-graders also learn to draw various shapes. Students are introduced early to the concept of area as they partition rectangles into rows and columns (and count the number of squares). They also partition circles and rectangles into two, three, and four equal shares and learn the associated fraction vocabulary (thirds, a third of).
Word Study Instruction:
Word study consists of spelling, vocabulary, and grammar studies. In addition to specific lessons and practice, these skills are continually embedded into all other areas of instruction.
Weekly Spelling List:
Basic Words:
Each week students will receive a list of developmentally appropriate words on Monday to study and practice for the week. During the week practice will be through classroom lessons as well as homework study time.
Science:
Physical Sciences: Solids and Liquids
We study Properties of Matter to give an understanding of observable properties of materials. They are developed by students at this level through analysis and classification of different materials. We study how materials are similar and different from one another, and how the properties of the materials relate to their use. Extensions of these concepts lead us to study specific alterations in inventions, and their materials as we problem solve our own creations.
Earth Sciences: Silt, Sand & Soil
We study Landforms and Earth's Changing Surface. The performance expectations in second grade help students formulate answers to questions such as: What are the different kinds of land and bodies of water? How does land change and what are some things that cause it to change? Explain slow and fast changes the Earth's surface experiences. Students are able to apply their understanding of the idea that wind and water can change the shape of the land to compare design solutions to slow or prevent such change. Students are able to use information and models to identify and represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area and where water is found on Earth.
Life Sciences: Plants and Insects
Our study of plants and insects in habitats focuses on the life-cycles plants and animals experience. What do plants need to grow? How many types of living things live in a place? How do plants and animals depend upon on another? Students are expected to develop an understanding of what plants need to grow and how plants depend on animals for seed dispersal and pollination. Students are also expected to compare the diversity of life in different habitats as they experience and develop through their life-cycles.
Investigation and Experimentation
In the second grade performance expectations, students are expected to demonstrate grade- appropriate proficiency in developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information. Students are expected to use these practices to demonstrate understanding of the scientific core ideas. The crosscutting concepts of patterns; cause and effect; energy and matter; structure and function; stability and change; and influence of engineering, technology, and science on society and the natural world are called out as organizing concepts for these disciplinary core ideas.
Social Studies: Our Multi-Cultural United States History
We research to answer important questions such as: