Category: Grade 2 ELA

Cross Genre Literature and Opinion Writing

* This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations units which focus on print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and building fluency. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Unit description: Students will be reading various texts by a variety of authors. Students will explore similarities between books in a series.  They will also determine differences that may exist between books that are written by the same author. Students will use their knowledge and understanding from this author study to write an opinion piece. This will include stating a clear opinion and then supporting it with examples/ details.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 4 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes of the Unit

Reading

2R6: Identify examples of how illustrations, text features, and details support the point of view or purpose of the text

2R9: Make connections between self and text (texts and other people/world).

Reading Foundations- Fluency

2RF4: Read grade-level text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension

Language

2L1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

2L2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

2L4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies

Writing

2W1: Write an opinion about a topic or personal experience, using clear reasons and relevant evidence. 

2W7:(CC 2W8) Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Speaking and Listening

2SL3: Develop and answer questions about what a speaker says; agree or disagree with the speaker’s point of view, providing a reason(s).

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: 2RF3, 2RF3a, 2RF3b, 2RF3c, 2RF3d, 2RF3e
• 2R1, 2R3, 2R4, 2R6, 2R8, 2R9
• 2RF4 , 2RF4a, 2RF4b
• 2L1, 2L2, 2L3, 2L3a, 2L4, 2L4a, 2L4b, 2L4c, 2L5, 2L5a, 2L5b, 2L5c
• 2W1, 2W3, 2W4, 2W7
• 2SL1, 2SL1a, 2SL1b, 2SL1c, 2SL1d,  2SL4, 2SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do readers understand traditional literature?
  • Readers will use strategies to summarize important story events in sequence and determine the central idea.
  • Readers will identify how a character changes based on events and challenges in a story.
  • Readers and writers will make connections through collaborative conversations.
• How do writers create personal narratives to tell a story?
  • Readers and writers will make connections through collaborative conversations.
  • Writers will write narratives with a clear beginning, middle, and end using temporal words and relevant details.

Read, Write & Learn from Fiction/Traditional Literature

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations which focus on the acquisition of phonological awareness and phonics which are essential foundations for reading and writing. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Unit description: Students will be reading traditional literature from around the world. They will be learning about important story events, examining how a character responds to challenges, studying the features of literary text, and determining the central idea. They will use the knowledge that they have acquired to help them write their own personal narratives.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 2R2: Identify a main topic or central idea and retell key details in a text; summarize portions of a text.
• 2R3: In literary texts, describe how characters respond to major events and challenges.

Reading Foundations- Fluency

• 2L3: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening
• 2L5: Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings

Language

• 2W3: Write narratives which recount real or imagined experiences or a short sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings; use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Writing

• 2W4: Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience (e.g., poem, play, story, artwork, or other).

Speaking and Listening

• 2SL6: Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly, adapting language according to context.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: RF3, 2RF3a, 2RF3b, 2RF3c, 2RF3d, 2RF3e
• 2R1, 2R2, 2R3, 2R5, 2R9
• 2RF4
• 2L1, 2L2, 2L3, 2L4, 2L4b, 2L4c, 2L5, 2L5a, 2L5b, 2L5c, 2L6
• 2W3, 2W4
• 2SL1, 2SL4, 2SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do readers understand traditional literature?
  • Readers use strategies to summarize story events in sequence to determine the central idea.
  • Readers identify how a character changes according to events in a story.
• How is a text organized?
  • Texts have a beginning, middle, and end.
  • Stories follow the main character through a sequence of events, engaging the reader through these experiences and through the characters emotions.
• How do readers make connections to texts?
  • Readers and writers make connections between stories, to their own lives and the to the world around them.
• How do writers create personal narratives to tell a story?
  • Writers will write narratives with a beginning, middle, and end.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 3 framework to customize for your own planning.

Read, Write & Learn from Informational Text 

In this unit, students will learn to use questioning to look deeper at texts and to identify the main topic/central idea and details to support that main topic within an informational text. They will learn to make connections between and within texts. The students will summarize their understanding during conversation and in writing informational texts.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• Students will read, write, and respond to a wide variety of informational texts. Students will use multiple texts to compare and contrast a topic. Students will recognize that informational texts give information, provide answers, and provoke questions.

Reading Foundations – Fluency

• 2R1: Develop and answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of key ideas and details in a text.
• 2R2: Identify a main topic or central idea and retell key details in a text; summarize portions of a text.
• 2R3: In informational texts, describe the connections among ideas, concepts, or a series of events.

Language

• 2L4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.

Writing

• 2W2: Write informative/explanatory texts that introduce a topic, use facts and other information to develop points, use content-specific language, and provide a concluding statement or section.
• 2W7: (CC 2W8) Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Speaking and Listening

• 2SL4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: 2RF3, 2RF3a, 2RF3b, 2RF3c, 2RF3d, 2RF3e
• 2R1, 2R2, 2R3, 2R5, 2R6, 2R7, 2R9
• 2RF4, 2RF4a, 2RF4b
• 2L1, 2L2, 2L3, 2L3a, 2L4, 2L4a, 2L4b, 2L4c, 2L4e, 2L6
• 2W2, 2W4, 2W6, 2W7
• 2SL1, 2SL1a, 2SL1b, 2SL1c, 2SL1d , 2SL5, 2SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• Why are Informational Texts important?
  • Nonfiction texts provide facts and important information.
  • Information can be found in many different forms.
• How does making a connection deepen our understanding of a text or topic?
  • A text connection allows students to share experiences.
  • A text connection shares personal feelings that a student has about a specific topic.
• What details are important when writing an informational piece?
  • Nonfiction writing includes facts and researched items.
  • Students need to understand the command of conventions when writing.

Prerequisite Checklist

Text Features

• Identify major events in a story. 
• Identify characters and setting.

Key Details

• Describe characters and settings within a story.
• Use illustrations to help identify details presented in a story. 

Making Connections 

• Understand how to connect with a text. 

Write Informative Texts

• Write using a combination of sound spelling and conventional spelling to create a sequenced written piece.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 2 framework to customize for your own planning.

Character Study and Narrative Writing

In this unit, students will learn to pay close attention to how characters interact within a story and how they drive the actions. They will begin to ask and answer who, what, when, where, how, and why questions to further their understanding and to identify key details within a text to support their understanding. The students will learn to participate in collaborative conversations, beginning to identify and use appropriate grammar and punctuation when writing and speaking, specifically while discussing characters’ thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how they respond to major events within a text. The students will begin to listen to others perspectives and notice how others thoughts reinforce or contradict their own thoughts and understandings. Students will write a personal narrative where they will begin to apply what they have learned in reading to their own writing. The students will begin to develop fluency to aid in comprehension. This unit should be paired with the appropriate reading foundations lessons for your class.

This unit should be paired with the Reading Foundations units which focus on print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and building fluency. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 1 framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading

• 2R1: Develop and answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of key ideas and details in a text.
• 2R3: In literary texts, describe how characters respond to major events and challenges.
• 2R4: Explain how words and phrases in a text suggest feelings and appeal to the senses.

Reading Foundations – Fluency

• 2RF4: Read grade-level text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

Language

• 2L1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• 2L2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Writing

• 2W3: Write narratives which recount real or imagined experiences or a short sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings; use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Speaking and Listening

• 2SL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.

All Standards Addressed in this Unit

• See Reading Foundations Units: 2RF3, 2RF3a, 2RF3b, 2RF3c, 2RF3d, 2RF3e
  2RF4, 2RF4a, 2RF4b
• 2R1, 2R3, 2R4, 2R5, 2R6, 2R9
• 2L1, 2L2, 2L3, 2L3a, 2L4, 2L4a, 2L4b, 2L4c, 2L5, 2L5a, 2L5b, 2L5c, 2L5d, 2L6
• 2W3, 2W4
• 2SL1, 2SL1a, 2SL1b, 2SL1c, 2SL2, 2SL3, 2SL4, 2SL6

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• Why do literary texts matter?
  • Stories can show us what is important and valued in our own lives and the lives of others.
• How do readers build habits to read with stamina, fluency, meaning and attention to print?
  • Readers and writers make decisions about the texts they read and topics they write about.
  • Readers and writers think about texts before, during, and after they read.
  • Readers use strategies to problem solve to aid in fluency, comprehension, and decoding.
• How do writers build habits to engage and inform an audience on a personal experience?
  • Writers make connections between how authors share character experiences and their own experiences.
• What strategies do readers use to understand that characters face problems, characters lead readers to the author’s message, and characters can influence the way people live their lives?
  • Readers make inferences about characters.
  • Readers compare and contrast the characters in their stories.
  • Readers and writers retell their stories to partners.
  • Writers share what they are thinking about their characters.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Unit 1 framework to customize for your own planning.

Phonics and Word Recognition

The students will learn to recognize and distinguish between long and short vowel sounds when reading and writing c-v-c and silent -e one syllable words. The students will continue to build on their sight vocabulary, adding words and increasing recall when reading and writing new sight words.

Note: This unit should be paired with the ELA Units which focus on the applications of print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition and building fluency in reading and writing. It is essential that these skills are not taught in isolation, but applied within students reading and writing.

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Reading Foundations framework to customize for your own planning.

Essential Outcomes

Reading Foundations: Phonics and Word Recognition

• 2RF3: Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• 2RF3a: Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words (including common vowel teams).
• 2RF3b: Decode short and long vowel sounds in two-syllable words.
• 2RF3c: Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words.
• 2RF3d: Recognize and identify root words and common suffixes and prefixes.
• 2RF3e: Read all common high-frequency words by sight.

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• How do readers and writers decode and spell new words?
  • Readers and writers use their understanding of consonant sounds, vowel sounds and syllable types to decode and spell new words

Download the complete Grade 2 ELA Reading Foundations framework to customize for your own planning.