This resource accompanies our Rethink 2nd Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning.  

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

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

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.

Students are prompted to use comparisons to discuss what they see as they picture walk through books about the ocean. They identify what these comparisons have in common to arrive at an informal name and definition of simile. They then create illustrations showing these comparisons. Next, students picture walk through two additional picture books about the ocean and comment about what they see. They are introduced to metaphor by rewording some of their comments into metaphors. They continue to note metaphors as the books are read aloud, and then name and define this new type of comparison. They again draw pictures to illustrate some of these metaphors. Students discuss why writers use these types of comparisons, then work to revise existing writing to incorporate figurative language through guided practice or independent work. Finally, students use templates to create a book on the ocean that features similes and metaphors.

This informational text explores adaptations that allow penguins, whales, walruses, seals, and fish to live in the cold water of the Arctic and Southern Oceans. The text is at reading level appropriate for students in Kindergarten through first grade. It is a PDF file that contains the text as well as a glossary.

In this lesson, students will identify and list characteristics of responsible citizens using Clara Barton as an example. In small groups, students will share ways they can demonstrate responsible citizenship in their neighborhood, school, state, nation, and world.

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.

Students can practice their reading skills as they read stories with high-frequency words; interact with the computer to create new text; understand that changing one word in a sentence can change the meaning of the entire sentence; recognize consonant sound-spellings; distinguish easily confused letter pairs; and recognize common short and long vowel sounds as they participate in this interactive reading of Clifford's beloved stories.

Students can practice their reading skills as they read stories with high-frequency words; interact with the computer to create new text; understand that changing one word in a sentence can change the meaning of the entire sentence; recognize consonant sound-spellings; distinguish easily confused letter pairs; and recognize common short and long vowel sounds as they participate in this interactive reading of Clifford's beloved stories.

Students can practice their reading skills as they read stories with high-frequency words; interact with the computer to create new text; understand that changing one word in a sentence can change the meaning of the entire sentence; recognize consonant sound-spellings; distinguish easily confused letter pairs; and recognize common short and long vowel sounds as they participate in this interactive reading of Clifford's beloved stories.

Students can practice their reading skills as they read stories with high-frequency words; interact with the computer to create new text; understand that changing one word in a sentence can change the meaning of the entire sentence; recognize consonant sound-spellings; distinguish easily confused letter pairs; and recognize common short and long vowel sounds as they participate in this interactive reading of Clifford's beloved stories.

Students cut apart provided words. Teacher guides students to group similar words together. If necessary, teacher prompts with "Notice how the words look" and/or "Notice how the words sound."

The purpose of the sort is NOT to teach "rules" regarding what sounds these letter combinations make. Instead, it is to build confidence in recognizing some common, yet difficult combinations when reading words and also spelling words with this sound in it.

For an extension, students could also create subgroups by sorting according to where the letter combination is found in the word-at the beginning, middle, or end.

It is suggested that an anchor word for each combination be added to a resource such as a word wall or word study notebook for future reference.

For assessment, students could sort and glue into the groups, read the list of words from the sort, or spell the words from the sort.

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 use KWL charts and interactive writing as key components of organizing information. As a class, students list what they know about insects, prompted by examining pictures in an insect book. Students them pose questions they have about insects, again using picture books as a visual prompt. Students then search for answers to the questions they have posed, using Websites, read-alouds, and easy readers. Periodic reviews of gathered information become the backdrop to ongoing inquiry, discussion, reporting, and confirming information. The lesson culminates with the publishing of a collaborative question and answer book which reports on information about the chosen topic, with each student contributing one page to the book.

In this lesson, students summarize biographies of leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Lydia Maria Child, William Lloyd Garrison, Claudette Colvin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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.

This informational text introduces students to solar energy's role in warming the Earth's land and water and to the fact that dark-colored surfaces absorb more of the Sun's energy than do light-colored ones. This version is a full-color PDF that can be printed, cut and folded to form a book. Each book contains color photographs and illustrations. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level.

This informational text introduces students to solar energy's role in warming the Earth's land and water and to the fact that dark-colored surfaces absorb more of the Sun's energy than do light-colored ones. This is a PDF containing the informational text and a glossary. The text is written at a kindergarten through grade one reading level.