In Second Grade students continue to build important reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
Reading
Instruction begins to move away from phonics to focus on fluency, comprehension, and analysis using fiction and nonfiction. Students use questioning techniques to clarify and to better understand text. In addition, they start to develop more sophisticated ways of analyzing text. Direct instruction and independent practice allow students to learn and practice comprehension strategies using texts that are appropriate for their level.
Writing and Spelling
Students continue to learn the writing process, with a focus on the pre-writing and planning stages. They are able to distinguish between fact and opinion and explore concepts such as cause and effect. Emphasis is placed on including details to describe events, actions, thoughts, and feelings. Students also begin to pay more attention to the organization of their composition. They learn how to more fully develop a topic and strengthen their skills of editing and revising. Second grade students continue to improve their spelling, learning more complex spelling patterns and spellings of multi-syllable words.