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Curriculum and Programs

Year 2 Language Arts Curriculum

The Language Arts Curriculum is divided into Primary, Primary/Intermediate, and Intermediate/Upper categories. Children work at their own pace and abilities, regardless of grade level.

Primary Language Arts

Literature

Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (picture books, poems, plays, audiotapes)

Resources include: trade books, leveled skills books, anthologies, magazines

The following is a sampling of reading selections used in class:

Relationships and Change	Colonial	Westward Expansion	Other
Little Bear Frog and Toad series “We Are Best Friends” Henry and Mudge series Clifford the Big Red Dog series "Caterpillar and Polliwog"	Samuel Eaton’s Day Sarah Morton’s Day On the Day Peter Stuyvesant Sailed Into Town George Washington’s Breakfast	Josephina Story Quilt Wagon Wheels Daniel Boone Trailblazer The Keeping Quilt	Weekly Reader, weekly news magazine Wright books Rookie Readers

Reading

• Developing Phonological Awareness:
  • Reciting rhymes & songs
  • Rhyming words & patterns
  • Letter sounds & blending
  • Beginning & ending sounds
  • Phonograms (at, op, ot, ill…)
    
• Naming letters
• Understanding concepts of print
• High frequency words-Word wall
• Using context clues to decode meaning
• Read-alouds
• Participating with patterned text
• Recognizing parts of a book
• Preview text-revise, confirm
• Recognizing story patterns
• Retelling a story
• Using picture clues & punctuation marks
• Story elements: setting, characters, problem-solution
• Sequencing events
• Listening/reading for information
• Comparing/contrasting characters and stories
• Distinguishing fantasy/reality
• Making inferences
• Drawing conclusions
• Making connections to self, world, text
• Expressing own opinion of text
• Responding to literature in a variety of ways (project, art, drama)

Writing

• Writing group stories, poems, letters, picture books
• Reading/writing predictable charts· Using personal word lists for writing and spelling.
• Writing manuscript: upper and lowercase letter formation, staying on line, finger spacing between words.
• Practicing manuscript: formation, spacing and size.
• Dictate/write labels, captions, experience statements.
• Writing journal entries
• Using graphic representations to record elements of story
• Word order
• Writing complete sentences
• Capitalizing first word and names.
• Punctuating end of sentence.
• Creating stories with beginning, middle, and end using pictures, drawings, and some words
• Writing pieces of 5 or more sentences that flow together in a logical sequence.

Grammar/Usage/Vocabulary

• Generating word lists (weather words, plant words)
• Using the Make-A--Word activity for developing awareness of word chunks and patterns.
• Using the Uncover the Word activity to develop strategies for using context to decode words
• Primary analogies
• Subject verb agreement
• Using correct verb tense
• Pronoun recognition
• Identifying and categorizing nouns
• Compound words
• Using spelling patterns: double final consonant, change y to i, adding ing, Making plurals by adding s, es)
• Using prefixes: un, dis, re

Study Skills/Oral

• Sharing personal experiences
• Expressing and supporting personal opinions
• Retelling a story in sequence
• Following oral directions
• Contributing relevant information to group discussions
• Participating in group storytelling, singing, and finger play
• Using informational texts to formulate questions and to gather data, facts, and ideas.
• Alphabetizing by first letter
• Exploring the library
• PET Skills (Primary Education Thinking Skills)

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Primary/Intermediate Language Arts

Literature

• Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (books, poems, articles, fairy tales, fables, fiction)
• Resources include: trade books, reference books, anthologies, magazines
• Children participate in guided, independent and group reading activities.

The following is a sampling of reading selections used in class:

Relationships and Change	Colonial	Slavery	Westward	Tall Tales	Other
Freckle Juice The Chalk Garden Aldo Applesauce "Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport" Muggie Maggie	Mollie's Pilgrim Phoebe the Spy Courage of Sarah Noble Samuel’s Choice Tolliver’s Secret	Harriet's Underground Railroad Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt	The White Stallion Lewis and Clark and Me Following the Drinking Gourd	“Paul Bunyan” “Pecos Bill” “John Henry” "Stormalong” “Johnny Appleseed"	Time for Kids weekly news magazine ROAR (independent reading) Self-selected literature books Angel Child/Dragon Child In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

Reading

• Making, confirming, revising predictions
• Summarizing the story
• Sequencing the story
• Identifying literary elements of character, setting, plot, problem, resolution
• Identifying main idea and supporting details.
• Identifying cause and effect relationships
• Identifying fact and opinion
• Analyzing character traits
• Drawing conclusions
• Making inferences
• Making connections to self-world, text
• Identifying author’s purpose
• Recognizing steps in a process
• Comparing text between different sources
• Identifying features of text: captions, capitals, italics
• Using graphic organizers: T-chart, webbing, Venn diagram, etc. to compare/contrast and organize story elements.
• Interpreting figurative language and quotations
  

Writing

• Writing cursive: upper and lower case letter formation, joining letters together, size and spacing
• Practicing cursive: formation, size, spacing
• Writing journal entries and/or “quick-write” topics daily.
• Using periods, exclamation points, and question marks to punctuate end of sentences.
• Using commas in a series
• Capitalizing proper nouns, titles, abbreviations.
• Expanding sentences: compound subjects and predicates, transitional words
• Paragraph development:
  • Writing sentences on one topic, indenting first word
  • Writing paragraphs with a topic sentence, supporting details, conclusion
    
• Using the writing process:
  • Prewriting, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, publishing
  • Using graphic organizers for pre-writing
  • Adding, deleting, reorganizing for clarity and impact.
• Writing book reviews, personal narratives, essays, reports, poems, friendly letters, business letters, descriptive passages, fictional stories.
• Writing to inform, entertain, persuade.

Grammar/Usage/ Vocabulary/Spelling

• Keeping personal word lists
• Writing, reading, using vocabulary words related to theme and appearing in literature selection.
• Using Make-A-Word activity to develop awareness of word structure and patterns. Using Uncover-the-Word Activity to develop strategies for using the context
• Creating word analogies
• Using spelling patterns (ough)
• Changing words to past tense
• Recognizing sentence structure/parts: subject/predicate, statements, questions, commands, exclamations
• Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles
• Singular and plural, common and proper nouns
• Comparative and superlative adverbs, past tense verbs
• Recognizing, using, and understanding:
  • Multi-meaning words
  • Homophones
  • Compound words
  • Synonyms and antonyms
  • Contractions
  • Singular possessives
• Using syllabification
• Using simple prefix/suffixes to decode and build new words
• Identifying figurative language: alliteration, simile, idioms

Study Skills/Oral

• Alphabetizing to second and third letters
• Using dictionary to look up a word for spelling, meaning, usage
• Identifying different sources for locating information: dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, phone book, yellow pages
• Using the library computer (card catalogue)
• Locating and using the parts of a book: table of contents, glossary, index
• Using graphic aids: charts, tables, diagrams, pictures, time lines
• Using graphic organizers to collect information
• Sorting and organizing information
• Outlining information from text—main topics and sub topics
• Taking notes from oral presentations.
• Organizing information into a report
• Participating in “oral shares” to school: reading chosen passage from book with attention to expression and delivery, reading original writing piece.

---

Intermediate/Upper Language Arts

Literature

Children apply reading skills to a variety of literature of different genres (books, poems, articles, fairy tales, fables, fiction, short stories)

• Resources include: trade books, reference books, anthologies, magazines, computer resources.
• Children participate in guided, independent, group, and literature circle reading activities.
• The following is a sampling of literature selections used in class:

Relationships and Change	Colonial	Revolutionary War	Westward Expansion	Immigration	Tall Tales
Shiloh Kid in the Red Jacket "Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher" "Rip Van Winkle"	Mem’s Journey Witch of Blackbird Pond	War Comes to Willie Freeman The Fighting Ground My Brother Sam is Dead	Bound for Oregon “The Way West” “Oregon Fever” "Orator of the Plains-Kiowa Chief" "House of Dies Drear"	Strudel Stories Immigrant Kids How Many Days to America?	“Paul Bunyan” “Pecos Bill” “John Henry” "Stormalong” “Bess Call” “Annie Christmas” “Davy Crocket,” “Johnny Appleseed” “Mike Fink”

Also: Time for Kids weekly news magazine
         ROAR (independent reading )– Self-selected literature books

Reading

• Making, confirming, revising predictions
• Summarizing the story
• Sequencing the story
• Identifying literary elements of character, setting, plot, problem, resolution
• Identifying main idea and supporting details.
• Identifying cause and effect relationships
• Analyzing character traits
• Drawing conclusions
• Making inferences
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion
• Making connections to self-world, text
• Identifying author’s purpose
• Analyzing author’s and illustrator’s style
• Identifying point of view
• Making judgements with references to the text
• Identifying theme and comparing pieces with similar themes
• Comparing different versions of the same story
• Identifying elements of theme, imagery, irony, mood flashback, foreshadowing, symbolism, rising action, conflict, falling action, climax, resolution, metaphor, simile
• Comparing text between different sources
• Identifying elements of newspaper and news articles
• Using graphic organizers (T-chart, webs, flow charts, Venn diagram) to compare/contrast and organize story elements
• Interpreting figurative language and quotations

Writing

• Practicing cursive: formation, size, spacing
• Writing journal entries and/or “quick-write” topics daily
• Using quotation marks and writing dialogue
• Using colons and semi-colons
• Using conventions of capitalization and punctuation and spelling
• Using appropriate paragraph structure and writing several related paragraphs
• Develop topic with details, examples, facts, explanations.
• Using the writing process:
  • Prewriting, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, publishing
  • Using graphic organizers for pre-writing
  • Adding, deleting, reorganiz-ing for clarity and impact.
  • Using varied and descriptive writing style
  • Evaluating own and others’ pieces
    
• Paraphrasing given text
• Using signal words to provide clues to the organizational format (for example, in addition, finally, as a result)
• Using the appropriate “writer’s voice” for different situations.
• Writing book reviews, essays personal narratives, poems, research reports, news articles, friendly letters, business letters, fictional stories, biographies. Writing to inform, entertain, persuade.

Grammar/Usage/Vocabulary/Spelling

• Creating word lists within different criteria
• Writing, reading, using vocabulary words related to theme and appearing in literature selection.
• Using Make-A-Word activity to develop awareness of word structure and patterns.
• Creating word trees from Greek and Latin roots (vocabulary and spelling).
• Using prefixes and suffixes from Nifty 50 list to decode, spell, and build meaning in other words.
• Using phonetic, structural, and contextual analysis to construct meaning from print.
• Interpreting and creating word analogies
• Using figurative language:
  • alliteration
  • onomatopoeia
  • simile
  • metaphor
  • personification
  • proverbs
  • idioms
    
• Recognizing cliches, colloquialisms, jargon, and cultural expressions.
• Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, interjections
• Recognizing, using, and understanding:
  • Multi-meaning words
  • Homophones
  • Compound words
  • Synonyms and antonyms
  • Contractions
  • Singular and plural possessive
    
• Using syllabification

Study Skills/Oral

• Using dictionary to look up a word for spelling, meaning, syllabification, usage, pronunciation, part of speech, etymology,
• Using a variety of sources for obtaining information: dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas, thesaurus, electronic media, internet, oral interviews, newspaper, magazine.
• Using graphic aids: charts, tables, diagrams, pictures, time lines, maps, photos, graphs
• Using graphic organizers to collect and organize information
• Sorting/organizing information from several sources
• Taking notes from oral presentations.
• Combining information from several sources into outline
• Organizing information from several sources into a report
• Using/creating footnotes and bibliography
• Participating in “oral shares” to school: reading chosen passage from book with attention to expression and delivery, reading original writing piece.
• Presenting information through an oral presentation
• Evaluating own and others’ presentations

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