• Areas of Reading 

    In 2nd grade, students will receive instruction in all areas of reading; decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.  More in-depth explanations for each area can be found from the article,  "Your 2nd grader’s reading under the Common Core Standards".  I highly recommend the article. 
     
     

    *Decoding 

     Students will use their phonics knowledge to decode (sound out) unfamiliar words.  Also at this grade, students will expand their phonics base to include vowel teams (ea, ee, ie, oi ,oy, etc) and prefixes and suffixes. 
     
    Here's a video from greatschools.org on decoding:
     
     
     
     
     
     

    *Fluency

    "As for fluency, second graders need to read silently with enough accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. When reading aloud, they also need to read grade-level text with expression..." 

    Here's a video from greatschools.org on fluency 
     
     
    Below are the benchmark goals for the DIBELS assessment.
     
    Fall- 80 Words Correct per Minute (WCPM)
    Winter- 100 WCPM
    Spring- 111 WCPM 
     
     
     

    *Comprehension

    "Key skills that’ll help your second grader build their knowledge bank:

    • Reading silently and aloud with enough accuracy, expression, and speed to support understanding;
    • Being able to retell stories, fables, and folktales from diverse cultures in a way that covers the central message or lesson;
    • Describing how characters respond to events and challenges;
    • Recognizing a story or passage’s structure and how the beginning introduces what comes next and how the ending concludes the writing;
    • Understanding that different characters, narrators, and authors tell stories from different points of view;
    • Comparing two or more versions or accounts of the same story (e.g. Cinderella versus Ella Enchanted, or civil rights as explained by a person versus a description in a text book)."

     
     
     
     Show Me the Evidence 

    Your child’s teacher will emphasize evidence in different ways this year, but the main skills your child should have include:

    • Asking and answering questions about the five W’s — who, what, when, where, and why — to show both understanding and an ability to find answers in a book’s text or illustrations.
    • Identifying the main topic in a longer (think 3-5 paragraphs) text and being able to say what the main point of each paragraph is, too.
    • Beginning to understand how an author uses reasons to support an idea or argument.
    • Explaining how specific images — like a map of Australia showing where duck-billed platypuses live — contribute information to what they’re reading.

    Keep in mind that in second grade, hunting for evidence can be really fun – but it can also be tough. Just like a detective, your second grader will need to really try (and perhaps try, try again) to find the evidence hidden in every text.

     
     

    Summary vs Retelling

    In second grade, there is a shift in the reading comprehension skills students are expected to show.  By the end of the year, students are expected to write a summary for on-level fiction and non-fiction texts.  Here's a couple of resources that show the difference between retelling and summary.  

     Retelling     Summary
    *Tell the story again   
     
    *Add as many details as possible
     
    *Use the author's words 
     * Tell only the most important events from the story 
     
    *Keep in mind the BIG IDEA- what the story is mostly about 
     
    *Put the events in your own words 
     
     
     
    Click the link to see an  example of a retelling and summary for the story Owl Moon.