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Second Grade Reading

Course Description

Reading is a meaning-making process that requires the synthesis of skills to effectively communicate. Students are immersed in daily opportunities to explore, inquire, practice and apply reading strategies and skills in a variety of genres to advance toward grade level reading in addition to becoming self-motivated readers. They will learn how to effectively use before, during, and after reading strategies, build vocabulary, improve fluency, and select their own independent reading texts in order to become more informed citizens. Students will independently use their learning to grapple with increasingly complex texts from a variety of genres and time periods to gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge.

In second grade, children move from a “little-kid” focus on print to a “big-kid” focus on meaning. The first unit, Second-Grade Reading Growth Spurt, teaches children to take charge of their reading, drawing on everything they know to figure out hard words, understand author’s craft, and build big ideas about the books they read. Children learn that books can be their teachers in the second unit, Becoming Experts: Reading Nonfiction, in which they learn more about familiar topics and grow understanding of new topics while working on word solving, vocabulary development, and comparing and contrasting information across texts. In the third unit, Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading Power, children learn strategies to build three foundational reading skills—fluency, understanding figurative language, and comprehension. In the final unit for second grade, Series Book Clubs, children work within book clubs to study author’s craft to understand ways authors use word choice, figurative language, punctuation, and even patterns to construct a series and evoke feelings in readers.

Grade Level(s): 2nd Grade

Related Priority Standards (State &/or National):  K-5 Missouri Learning Standards & ELA Priority Standards

Essential Questions

  • How do I know when I am stuck?
  • How do I figure out why I am stuck?
  • How do I purposefully apply effective strategies to help comprehend?
  • How do I motivate myself to read complex text?
  • Why am I reading? For what purpose?
  • How has my thinking changed?
  • How can I transfer the strategies to real life experiences?

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas

Students will understand that:

  • Reading is a meaning making process that requires application of self-monitoring strategies to deepen the level of comprehension.
  • Self-directed reading leads to character and knowledge development.
  • Reading helps a reader extend and deepen their knowledge.
  • Reading develops critical thinking skills to evaluate reasoning.
  • Reading provides insights into the human condition.

Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)

  • Unit 1: Establishing Reading Workshop & Growing World Solving Muscles
  • Unit 2: Becoming Experts - Reading Nonfiction
  • Unit 3: Amping Up Reading Power
  • Unit 4: Series Book Clubs

* The above adjustments to scope and sequence are pending Board approval on August 22, 2022.

Course Resources & Materials

Date Last Revised/Approved: 2014