Grade 2 Literacy Guide
I love literacy! I believe in evidence-based, structured literacy instruction that grows students' oral language skills, develops strong phonemic awareness, follows a systematic and explicit phonics program, develops fluency, and builds knowledge. I believe that every child has the ability to become a grade-level reader, and I aim to provide all children with the foundational skills they need to reach their full potential as readers and writers.
You can read more about what drives my literacy instruction on my Science of Reading page.
This year, Reading Public Schools is implementing a new literacy curriculum in grades K-2. Grades 3-5 implemented the curriculum last year. It is called ARC Core and is considered a knowledge-building curriculum. I have yet to incorporate components of the new curriculum on my website. Stay tuned for more information.
You can read more about what drives my literacy instruction on my Science of Reading page.
This year, Reading Public Schools is implementing a new literacy curriculum in grades K-2. Grades 3-5 implemented the curriculum last year. It is called ARC Core and is considered a knowledge-building curriculum. I have yet to incorporate components of the new curriculum on my website. Stay tuned for more information.
Massachusetts English Language Arts and Literacy FrameworkBelow are the standards for reading, writing, and discussion (speaking and listening) from the 2017 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy.
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Grade 2 Reading Standards for Literature
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
2. Retell stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
Craft and Structure
4. Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
6. Explain what dialogue is and how it can reveal characters’ thoughts and perspectives.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
8. (Not applicable. See standard 2 above.)
9. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different
authors or from different cultures.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Independently and proficiently read and comprehend literary texts representing a variety of genres, cultures, and perspectives and exhibiting complexity appropriate for at least grade 2.
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
2. Retell stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
Craft and Structure
4. Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
- For example, students learn the traditional nursery rhyme “As I was going to St. Ives” and point out how its repetitions of sounds affect the meaning and help them find the answer to the mathematical puzzle posed by the speaker in the poem.
6. Explain what dialogue is and how it can reveal characters’ thoughts and perspectives.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
8. (Not applicable. See standard 2 above.)
9. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different
authors or from different cultures.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Independently and proficiently read and comprehend literary texts representing a variety of genres, cultures, and perspectives and exhibiting complexity appropriate for at least grade 2.
Grade 2 Reading Standards for Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
2. Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
3. Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, mathematical ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area. (See grade 2 Language Standards 4–6 on applying knowledge of vocabulary to reading.)
5. Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
6. Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
8. Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text.
9. Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Independently and proficiently read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, mathematical, and technical texts, exhibiting complexity appropriate for at least grade 2.
Key Ideas and Details
1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
2. Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
3. Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, mathematical ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
- For example, as they are learning to subtract numbers within 1,000 in math, students read Shark Swimathon by Stuart Murphy and use mathematical reasoning to keep track of how many laps the shark swim team members swim each in order to predict whether or not the sharks will make their goal.
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area. (See grade 2 Language Standards 4–6 on applying knowledge of vocabulary to reading.)
5. Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
6. Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
8. Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text.
9. Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Independently and proficiently read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, mathematical, and technical texts, exhibiting complexity appropriate for at least grade 2.
Grade 2 Reading Standards for Foundational Skills
Note: Foundational skills standards 1 and 2 on print concepts and phonological awareness, apply only to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and grade 1.
Phonics and Word Recognition
3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Note: Foundational skills standards 1 and 2 on print concepts and phonological awareness, apply only to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and grade 1.
Phonics and Word Recognition
3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
- Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.
- Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.
- Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.
- Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
- Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.
- Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
- Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
- Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
- Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Grade 2 Writing Standards
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write opinion pieces that introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
4. Produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
9. (Begins in grade 4.)
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Text Types and Purposes
1. Write opinion pieces that introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
- In math, instead of writing opinions, students write or draw solutions to math word problems and present arguments to explain their thinking. Related Math Standards: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and respond to the reasoning of others.
- For example, students keep a math journal in which they record proposed solutions to word problems in addition and subtraction. They use drawings, written equations, and written sentences to argue why 8 is the correct answer to a problem such as “If there are 15 cupcakes in the table and 7 are eaten, how many remain?”
- Second graders research grey wolves and write and illustrate informational reports.
- For poems, use words and phrases that form patterns of sounds (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, end rhymes, repeated sounds in words or lines) to create structure.
4. Produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.
- Demonstrate the ability to choose and use appropriate vocabulary (as described in Language Standards 4–6 up to and including grade 2).
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
9. (Begins in grade 4.)
Range of Writing
10. Write routinely for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Grade 2 Speaking and Listening Standards
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
3. Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.
4. Tell a story, recount an experience, or explain how to solve a mathematical problem with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences and using appropriate vocabulary.
6. Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.
Comprehension and Collaboration
1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
- Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
- Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
- Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.
- For example, students working in a group studying community helpers make a list of people they know and could interview. Building on one another’s knowledge, they decide whom they wish to invite to class to discuss the work they do.
- Related Math Standards: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and respond to the reasoning of others.
3. Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.
- For example, groups of students ask and answer questions about mathematical reasoning as they solve word problems in which they must add and subtract within 1,000. In their conversations, they use general academic and domain-specific vocabulary such as place value, digit, value, operation, add, subtract, addition, subtraction, sum, difference, compose, decompose, increase, decrease, composition, and decomposition. They complete an assessment in which, as head Zookeepers, they are responsible for ordering animals’ food. They address Standards for Mathematical Practice 3 through 8 as well as math content standards as they solve problems.
4. Tell a story, recount an experience, or explain how to solve a mathematical problem with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences and using appropriate vocabulary.
- Related Math Standards: Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and respond to the reasoning of others. Attend to precision.
6. Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.
Grade 2 Language Standards
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking; retain and further develop language skills learned in previous grades.
Sentence Structure and Meaning
3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
Conventions of Standard English
1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking; retain and further develop language skills learned in previous grades.
Sentence Structure and Meaning
- Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences and choose among sentence types depending on the meaning to be conveyed.
- Use adjectives and adverbs in sentences and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
- Use collective nouns and frequently occurring irregular plural nouns.
- Use reflexive pronouns.
- Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs.
- Print upper- and lowercase letters legibly and fluently.
- Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names.
- Use commas in greetings and closings of letters.
- Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.
- Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage → badge; boy → boil).
- Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct
- spellings.
- Demonstrate understanding that context determines whether the writer uses a numeral or a written number (e.g., numerals in 1 + 3 = 4, but written words in “When I was one, I was just begun, / When I was two, I was still quite new” from A. A. Milne’s poem “Now We Are Six”).
3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
- Compare formal and informal uses of English.
4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
- Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
- Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).
- Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).
- Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).
- Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
- Recognize and use appropriately abbreviations related to grade-level content or commonly used in everyday life (e.g., a.m., p.m.)
- Recognize and use appropriately symbols related to grade-level content or commonly used in everyday life (e.g., $, ¢).
- Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).
- Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).
