This unit was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 2nd Grade ELA.

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 2nd Grade English Language Arts content.

Students are involved in an interactive read-aloud of A My Name is Alice by Jane Bayers, during which they identify and examine the characteristics of alphabet books. Students then engage in shared writing to create a class alphabet book. After completing the class book, they work in small groups using technology to write their own alphabet books. These books are later shared with an audience, giving an authentic purpose to the writing experience.

Using a wide variety of nonfiction literature, students learn to sort and categorize books to begin the information-gathering process. Then, working with partners and groups, using pictures and text, students are guided through the process of gathering information, asking clarifying questions, and then enhancing the information with additional details. Students complete the lesson by collaboratively making “Question and Answer” books for the classroom library.

In this unit, students will explore literature about Africa and exhibit an interest in learning more about it. This unit will introduce them to the seven continents of the world.

These questions can be used to discuss the following economic concepts in the book Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday: opportunity cost, saving, savings goal, and spending.

In this lesson, students will read Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. Students will discuss text-dependent questions to promote an understanding of the story’s character. Through subsequent readings, they construct and support arguments concerning the character traits of Amelia Bedelia and use the text to determine how Amelia Bedelia and the Rogers can have different reactions to the same events. After these discussions, students demonstrate their understanding of character by completing a trading card for Amelia Bedelia.

This lesson describes how to use selected fiction and nonfiction literature and careful questioning techniques to help students identify factual information about animals. Children, first, identify possible factual information from works of fiction which are read aloud, then they listen to read-alouds of nonfiction texts to identify and confirm factual information. This information is then recorded on charts and graphic organizers. Finally, students use the Internet to gather additional information about the animal and then share their findings with the class.

This resource is a lesson plan for using the book, The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. Anticipation guide, graphic organizer, recipe for apple pie, and a link for the book is included. Students will observe an apple tree throughout seasons while answering questions.

This lesson is for Grades 1 - 2 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

This lesson is for Grades 1 - 2 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

This lesson is for Grades 1 - 2 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

Students will write a biography about someone they consider a hero and then use Voki to create a digital version of their biography with an avatar and voice recording.

These questions can be used to discuss the following economic concepts in the book Bunny Money: human saving, savings goal, and spending.

This leson meets the learning needs of most students. Students are called upon to be careful readers without jeopardizing the pleasure they gain from reading. It is best to allow students to read the entire story before engaging in a detailed study of the work. Students will examine the front cover illustration and the information on the title page to try and determine what the book will be about. They will also explore how the author uses figurative language. "

In this lesson, students read and answer questions about a short story called "The Case of the Disappearing Water," in which characters investigate a possible crime scene and use observations about water evaporation to deduce how many days the "victim" might have been missing.

These questions can be used to discuss the following economic concepts in the book A Chair for My Mother: human resources, income, saving, and savings goal.

In this lesson, students will read Shel Silverstein's "Sick" aloud, students summarize the poem and count the words in their summary. They then summarize the poem again, using only one word. Students explain their choices and discuss the various words offered as a summary. The class then chooses the one word that best represents what is happening in the poem. Finally, students read a second poem, individually or in small groups, and summarize it using only one word.

In this lesson, students explore the different purposes readers have and how to determine what their purpose for reading is. Students also learn how to evaluate whether a book is at the right reading level and length for their abilities.

In this lesson, students complete two prewriting activities, one on brainstorming ideas using story maps, and one on creating beginnings of stories. They then work on two collaborative-writing activities in which they draft an "oversized" story on chart paper. Each student works individually to read what has been written before, adds the "next sentence," and passes the developing story on to another student. The story is passed from student to student until the story is complete. In a later lesson Collaborative Stories 2: Revising, the story is revised by the groups.

In this lesson, students will learn how to ask 'I wonder' questions while reading 'Grandfather Twilight'.

This lesson plan features an example of a cumulative literary experience or “literature unit” structured around a text set made up of conceptually-related fiction and nonfiction for reading aloud and for independent reading.

Beginning with a comparative study of selected, illustrated retellings of the traditional folktale “Little Red Riding Hood,” including versions from several different cultures, this literature unit continues with a study of modern revisions of this well-known tale. After students have an opportunity to explore similarities and differences among the retellings and revisions, they are introduced to fiction and nonfiction texts featuring wolves in order to provide them with a different perspective of the “villain” in the "Little Red Riding Hood" tales. The unit culminates in a class-written version of the folktale.

"Reading like writers," students will explore the ways that stories are structured; then, "writing like writers," students explore organizational structures in their own writing. Students listen to a reading of Long Night Moon, a circular story. Nexzt, they develop their own examples of circular stories which they share out with their peers.

In this lesson, students practice counting as the book "Counting with Common Cents" is read. As they count pennies, nickels, and dimes, they place those coins on the appropriate spot on a handout, indicating how many pennies are equal to a nickel and a dime. They discuss saving their pennies and draw a picture of an item they would like to buy. In an optional activity, they draw pictures or write notes indicating chores they would do to earn 10 pennies.

In this multiple activity lesson, students will read and watch the video, "The Crayon Box That Talked". Students will discuss the book with a series of questions, graph their favorite colors, perform a Reader's Theater, rhyme words, and explore the story with several other activities.

Students will create an original fable using Book Creator.  They will have the option of working with a partner or on their own.

Students listen as the teacher reads different picture books by Ezra Jack Keats. Following the story, the students undertake class discussion and compare the different stories and plots using a story mapping graphic organizer. As a culminating project, students choose their own characters, define a problem and a solution appropriate for their characters, and then write their own problem-solving stories.

This lesson introduces the concept of cause and effect with Trinka Hakes Noble's books about Jimmy and his boa constrictor. Each lesson begins with the teacher reading a new story about Jimmy and his boa and the chaos they bring to each place they visit. Class discussions about each event and its cause are followed by tasks for the students to help illustrate understanding of the concept. Students create cause-and-effect pictures, puzzles, and flow charts as they explore the genre. As a culminating activity, students write their own book with causes and effects, which are assessed with a rubric.

In this lesson, students explore key elements of design such as color, shape, size, texture, density, and layout to understand and appreciate how these elements combine to convey meaning in Little Blue and Little Yellow, by Leo Lionni. Using art and digital media, they will then create their own designs to express meaning for setting, character relationships, and plot.

This lesson will allow students to demonstrate comprehension of a text by using a wide variety of strategies and by making personal connections to stories. Students will learn how to develop deeper understanding of character and theme, as well.

In this lesson, students are first introduced to inquiry notebooks and then use them record what they already know about worms. Next, students observe the cover of a fiction book about worms and make a hypothesis on whether the book is fact or fiction, and then check their hypotheses after the book is read aloud. Next, after an introduction to related scientific words such as hypothesis, habitat, attribute, predator, and prey, students conduct and record research and findings in their inquiry notebooks.

In this activity, students will listen to the story, Ox-Cart Man, and then work on the next slides. The slides have highlighting examples for illustrations, fill in the blank sentences from the story, and a voice recording activity for comprehension. 

In the multi-day lesson, students will distinguish facts about worms from fictional details by listening to and reading Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. Students will have the opportunity to explore the illustrations, fictional details, nonfiction details, and captions and speech bubbles within the text. In this way, students are given concrete strategies that they can use to help differentiate narrative and informational elements in other books they read.

Students will read books about families and make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections using those books. Students gain a deeper understanding of a text when they make authentic connections. Beginning with a read-aloud of Donald Crews' "Bigmama's", the instructor introduces and models the strategy of making connections. Read-alouds of "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and "The Relatives Came" by Cynthia Rylant are followed by activities that help students learn to apply each type of text connection when responding to texts. After sharing and discussing connections in a Think-Pair-Share activity, students plan and write a piece describing a personal connection to one of the texts.

Getting children to use their imaginations when writing a story can sometimes be difficult. Drawing, however, can create a bridge between the ideas in a child's head and the blank piece of paper on the desk. In this lesson, students use factual information gathered from the Internet as the basis for creating a nonfiction story. Story elements, including setting, characters, problem, solution, and endings, are then used as a structure for assembling students' ideas into a fiction story.

In this lesson, students will learn that characters in the book "A Chair for My Mother" are human resources who save part of the income they earn. Students will identify other human resources and state how the mental and physical work of those human resources allows them to earn an income. Finally, students name strategies to reach a savings goal.

In this activity, students will read Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers, and then take another look at one dramatic moment in the story. After revisiting the moment, they will create a new scene that is not in the book, based on the character of Abraham Lincoln.

In this lesson, students will read Laura Joffe Numeroff's 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' to combine word-skill work with prediction and sequencing practice. Students learn about cause-effect relationships during a shared reading of the book and then complete a cloze exercise that uses context and initial consonant clues. Students then create story circles that display the events of the story and use these circles to retell the story to a peer. Finally, the students compose their own stories featuring themselves in the role of the mouse.

In this lesson, students will read part of a story and use details in the text, personal experience, and prior knowledge to predict the way the story will end. To support their predictions, the class discusses the plot elements of the book to the stopping point as well as experiences they have had with other books in the genre and in their own lives. Students individually create illustrations of the story’s ending that reflect their predictions and share these illustrations with the class before the entire book is read again. After the entire book has been read, students compare their endings to the ending in the original story.