Reading Standards for Literature Grade 2
Key Ideas and Details
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of a literary text using key details from the text.
Retell stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine the author's purpose (e.g., teach a lesson, make you laugh, tell a scary story, describe an imaginary place), lesson or moral.
Describe how characters in a story, play or poem respond to major events, problems, and challenges.
Craft and Structure
Identify words and phrases that supply rhythm or sensory images and meaning in a story, poem, or song (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) and describe how they make a reader feel or what a reader might see in his or her mind.
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story (who, what, why, where), the middle describes the problem (how characters react or feel and what they do), and the ending concludes the action or tells how the problem was solved.
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot (e.g., problem-solution; chronology).
(Not applicable to literature)
Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story/text (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
Range of Reading and Level of Complexity
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend a range of literature from a variety of cultures, within a complexity band appropriate to grade 2 (from upper grade 1 to grade 3), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Reading Standards for Informational Text Grade 2
Key Ideas and Details
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of informational texts using key details from the text.
Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.
Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.
Craft and Structure
Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.
Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, headings, charts, bulleted or numbered lists, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
Describe how reasons given support specific opinions the author states in a text.
Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts or related topics (e.g., a book about polar bears and a book about black bears).
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend a range of informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts within a complexity band appropriate to grade 2 (from upper grade 1 to grade 3), with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills Grade 2
Phonics and Word Recognition
Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
a. Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.
b. Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.
c. Decode regularly spelled two-syllable words with long vowels.
d. Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
e. Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound correspondences.
f. Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.
Fluency
- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
b. Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
c. Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Writing Standards Grade 2
Text Types and Purposes
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide one or more concluding sentences that restate or paraphrase their opinion.
Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or one or more concluding sentences that emphasize their most important point or focus.
Use narrative writing to retell a well-elaborated event or short sequence of real or imagined events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use linking words to signal event order, and provide one or more concluding sentences that restate or emphasize a feeling or lesson learned.
Production and Distribution of Writing
(Begins in grade 3)
With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed (e.g., adding concrete and sensory details; elaborating on how the details chosen support the focus) by revising and editing.
With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report or visual or oral presentation; record data from science observations).
Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
(Begins in grade 4)
Range of Writing
- (Begins in grade 3)
Speaking and Listening Standards Grade 2
Comprehension and Collaboration
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
b. Build on others' talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
c. Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussions.
Retell or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.
Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue.
Presentation of Knowledge
Tell a story or retell an experience with relevant facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.
Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 2 Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
Language Standards Grade 2
Conventions of Standard English
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
a. Use collective nouns (e.g., group).
b. Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish).
c. Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
d. Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
e. Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
f. Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy).
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
a. Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names.
b. Use commas in greetings and closings of letters.
c. Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.
d. Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage → badge; boy → boil).
e. Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.
Knowledge of Language
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
a. Compare formal and informal uses of English.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 2 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
a. Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
b. Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).
c. Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).
d. Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).
e. Use glossaries and beginning picture dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
a. Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).
b. Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).
Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).