2nd Grade - English Language Arts

Avon Lake City Schools 

Curriculum Framework

2nd Grade ELA 

Course Overview:

Students in second grade draw on their prior knowledge and experiences from first grade language arts to become more fluent readers using expression while reading.  The Skills strand of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program teaches students the decoding skills needed for independent reading. The focus of English Language Arts (ELA) at the second grade level is to build comprehension through understanding story structure, using text evidence, developing a main idea with supporting details, and comparing and contrasting between texts. The Knowledge strand of the Core Knowledge Language Arts program is designed to help students build the background knowledge and vocabulary critical to listening and reading comprehension. Students will be expected to use a variety of reading skills while reading text such as  visualizing, noting key details, categorizing information, and identifying problem and solution.  Writing focuses on opinion, narrative, and informative writings and engages students to use more complex sentences. Students work at writing clear beginning, middle, and concluding statements and strengthen their writing through revising, editing, and collaborating with peers. 

Textbook (Title and Publishing Company): 

Core Knowledge Language Arts, Amplify

Online/Supplemental Materials:

            Readworks

Assessments: 

NWEA MAP

mCLASS

InView

Curriculum & Benchmark Assessments 

Content/Topics/Learning Goals

Subject to Pacing and Schedules

1st Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Units 1-2

    • Reviewing various spellings with an emphasis on consonant sounds, one- and two-syllable words, and high-frequency Tricky Words.

    • Focus is on various spellings with an emphasis on vowel sounds. Students read one- and two-syllable words, as well as contractions. 

    • Practice with a number of high-frequency Tricky Words. 

    • Learn about the use of quotation marks and begin instruction in the writing

process, writing narratives and opinions.


  • Knowledge Domains 1-3 (Fairy Tales and Tall Tales; Early Asian Civilizations; The Ancient Greek Civilization)

    • Demonstrate understanding of Fairy Tales and Tall Tales genres

    • Set a purpose for listening and understand the concept of exaggeration

    • Distinguish details of idioms and multiple meaning words

    • Identify regular and irregular plurals

    • Compare and contrast 

    • Experiment with narrative writing by rewriting a classic tale

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Identify trickster tales and folktales as a type of fiction

    • Effectively write and use regular and irregular past tense verbs

    • Successfully plan, draft, and publish an informational book 

    • Summarize a text in “Somebody Wanted But So Then” format

    • Make predictions about what will happen in a text

    • Draft a short opinion piece and a short fictional narrative

2nd Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Units 3-4

    • Introduce spelling alternatives for vowel sounds, as well as various tricky spellings (spellings that can stand for more than one sound). 

    • Pactice writing a personal narrative. 

    • Grammar instruction focuses on capitalization, quotation marks, ending punctuation, common and proper nouns, singular and regular plural nouns.

    • Introduce antonyms and synonyms.

    • Practice persuasive writing as part of a friendly letter.

    • Introduce the formation of irregular plural nouns, as well as action verbs and to be verbs.


  • Knowledge Domains 4-6 (Greek Myths; The War of 1812; Cycles of Nature)

    • Identify Greek myths as a type of fiction

    • Identify common characteristics of Greek myths

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Sequence story events and make predictions

    • Plan, draft and edit a fictional narrative in the style of a Greek myth

    • Collect and synthesize information with graphic organizers and notetaking tools

    • Plan, write, and present a persuasive speech

    • Create a Picture Gallery of important people and events 

    • Deepen comprehension and cite evidence from the text

    • Participate in a shared research project by recording observations on scientific phenomena

    • Write an informational paragraph summarizing the life cycle of a frog

3rd Quarter- 

  • Foundational Skills Unit 5

    • Introduces spelling alternatives for vowel sounds and the schwa sound.

    • Practice chunking phonemes as a means of reading multi-syllable words. 

    • Review grammar skills and learn about adjectives, as well as how to identify the subject and predicate in a complete sentence. 

    • Practice narrative writing by rewriting an ending to a story 

  • Knowledge Domains 7-9 (Westward Expansion; Insects; The U.S. Civil War)

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Write an informational text in the format of a Westward Expansion Quilt

    • Deepen comprehension and cite evidence from a text

    • Identify the main topic of a text and compare and contrast two texts 

    • Plan, draft, and revise an informational narrative

    • Research, collect, synthesize, and record information in a journal

    • Compare and contrast oppositional concepts using a T-chart

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Identify and record relevant information to a Civil War Timeline and Civil War Journal

4th Quarter -  

  • Foundational Skills Unit 6

    • Introduces several new spelling alternatives for vowel and consonant sounds

    • Review grammar skills and learn about adverbs

    • Distinguish complete from incomplete sentences, as well as how to identify and correct run-on sentences.

    • Introduce expository or report writing

  • Knowledge Domains 10-12 (The Human Body; Immigration; Fighting for a Cause)

    • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

    • Cite evidence from the text when answering questions

    • Make connections and sequence information to deepen comprehension

    • Identify and record relevant information in My Human Body Journal

    • Collect and summarize information into short summaries of the read alouds

    • Plan, draft, and revise a letter

Last Updated:

September, 2023