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 unit was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This unit 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.

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.

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.

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.

Students read two math-related books used in the lesson to give real-world contexts to the strategy of grouping objects to be counted. Students, then, explore their school and home environments to find and represent their own examples of sets. In the culminating activity, students create pages for a collaborative class book of sets.

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 unit, students will begin their inquiry by comparing fiction and nonfiction books about animals, using a Venn diagram. They will list things they want to know about animals on a chart. As a class, students will vote on an animal to research. They will revise their question list, and then research the animal using prompts from an online graphic organizer. After several sessions of research, students will revisit their original questions and evaluate the information they have gathered. Finally, students will revise and edit their work and prepare to present their findings to an authentic audience.

In this lesson, students will learn that building a snowman is one way to provide food for birds and animals during the winter. Students begin by listening to a book about snow. Students are then introduced to a K-W-L chart and discuss what they know about how animals find food in the winter. As students listen to Henrietta Bancroft's Animals in Winter, they listen for details about how some animals survive during the winter and record those details in the last column of the chart. To continue to build students' knowledge of the topic, they listen to additional fiction and nonfiction books and view a website about animals in winter. As a culminating activity, students use their charts to write and illustrate a story.

In this lesson, students count the days between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Valentine’s Day and are challenged to complete 100 acts of kindness during that time. They brainstorm examples of kind acts they could do and discuss how to report acts of kindness they witness. They also select a service project to plan and complete together as a class. For the project’s duration, acts of kindness are tracked on a classroom chart. Students are encouraged to acknowledge kind acts by others through thank you notes, and families are encouraged to help report acts of kindness. The project culminates with a Valentine’s Day celebration.

ABCya! presents its fifth children's storybook for the classroom. It's called Marvin Makes Music, an original work by Michelle Tocci. The story is about a frog that is sad because he cannot sing like his friends, until one day when he gets a new musical instrument. This is a great storybook to share with kids using an interactive whiteboard.

*This storybook has narration! Students can click the speaker button to have the story read to them.

In this lesson, students create a name tag using information about themselves. Each student's name tag, while being similar, will visually represent personal information. These name tags will help the teacher learn students' names, but they will also help the students get to know each other and practice a visual, contemporary literacy when they interpret glyphs made by others. Students learn that communication is symbolic on a very fundamental level in this lesson.

In this unit, students will develop an understanding of nonfiction through peer interaction and hands-on experiences with books. They use graphic organizers to record their thinking and new learning.

In this introductory critical literacy lesson, students will consider the perspectives of central but silent characters in the picture book Stevie, by John Steptoe. They will look at the story from these characters’ points of view and give voice to their thoughts and feelings, thereby gaining much deeper understandings of the story and realizing that every story truly gives just a partial account of what happened.

Hello, my name is Kim. I am a 2nd grade teacher in North Carolina. As a teacher, it is important that my students feel seen, heard, and valued. I build relationships and do my best to use materials that reflect my students, their families, and their home lives. This may be through books, music, or visuals. I also work to develop their sense of curiosity and expose them to the rich and diverse cultures that exist across the globe. In this instructional unit, my goal was to bring a student’s Vietnamese culture into the classroom.

The unit I am sharing was created as part of a summer program hosted by The National Humanities Center. I chose to participate in a summer institute on Vietnamese history and created this virtual field trip using a multimedia platform called Argis. My goal was to expand my own learning as I demonstrated one way teachers can integrate geography, social studies, and literacy. The unit is called the Seven Wonders of Vietnam. The unit begins with a couple of leveled readers that I used to introduce the topic. Then it goes into the virtual filed trip. When you click on each location on the map, a window opens. The slide provides you with an image, a short description, and an optional video to learn more about the landmark.

As you scroll down, you see a literacy extension that allowed my students to find meaningful books to them. There are the seven wonders of the world, but there are also so many other places, people, and events that are special to us. Through this extension activity, students can explore a topic they care about. That can be seven wonders of North Carolina, or somewhere special to their heart.

This lesson supplements the curriculum of Core Knowledge Language Arts Domain 2 Unit Listening and Learning: Early Asian Civilizations. Domain 11 Listening and Learning: Immigration explores the push and pull factors for people from diverse cultures to migrate to the United States.

Day 1-Guided Reading (Books that introduce students to the geographical area of Southeast Asia)
The lesson provides an integrated social studies and reading unit to front-load background knowledge for second graders to better access middle-school social studies non-fiction content. This unit explores how place can form a person's culture and identity.

Day 2- Argis website
This lesson will provide an enrichment lesson connecting the two units. The students will learn about Ancient Vietnam and Modern Day Vietnam. Please refer to the Argis website for the learning activities.

Day 3-The teacher can select how many days to focus on the famous sites in Vietnam. For example, I spent two days going over on how to use non-fiction text features on a map and how we can use informational text to learn about Vietnam.

Day 4- Making personal connections to the informational text. The teacher will model to the students on how to write their personal connection to different parts of world. The teacher can adapt the lesson to fit the students' demographics.

Additional Resources: Read-aloud videos of the leveled readers provided.

In this unit, students begin by evaluating book reviews written and read aloud by other children. Next, students discuss the effectiveness of, what components are included in, what they learned from, and what they might change about the book reviews. Once students have a foundation for book review components and structure, they choose a favorite book and write a review. Finally, students publish their reviews by videotaping them or posting them online.