English Language Arts
2nd Grade
2nd Grade ELA Course Summary
In 2nd Grade English Language Arts, students explore how differences can be celebrated, and learn how both animals and humans interact with the world around them to survive. Students build social-emotional skills in Belonging and Friendship, Finding Your Power, and Stories of Immigration, explore how lessons from traditional stories can be applied to their own lives in Cinderella Around the World, and learn how animals adapt in Exploring Habitats. In each unit, students engage in process-based writing projects connected to the core texts that develop their narrative, informational, and opinion writing skills.
Using authentic, engaging read-aloud texts, teachers help students develop their language comprehension and address grade-level reading, writing, language, and speaking and listening standards. Over the course of 2nd Grade ELA, students deepen their understanding of the world around them through thematically-aligned, knowledge-building units, embedded daily writing instruction, and frequent opportunities for in-class discussion.
Recommended Sequence
Unit 1
28 Days
Cinderella Around the World
Students read multiple versions of the fairy tale Cinderella, challenging them to think about how the culture, or setting, of the story influences the plot and examine the setting and characters.
Unit 2
34 Days
Exploring Habitats
Students explore various habitats (forest, desert, water, rainforest, and wetland), investigating how plants and animals survive within them and compare and contrast the information that they gather.
Unit 3
28 Days
Belonging and Friendship: Pinky and Rex
By connecting with the characters from the easily relatable series Pinky and Rex, students learn that it's okay to be different and consider what it means to be a good friend.
Unit 4
35 Days
Stories of Immigration
In this unit, students explore immigration by reading a series of narrative nonfiction and fiction texts that highlight the experiences of early and recent immigrants.
Unit 5
28 Days
Finding Your Power: Freddie Ramos
Students continue to build reading and writing skills by engaging with the beginning chapter book series Zapato Power.
Alternate Units
Alternate Unit 4
35 Days
People Who Changed the World
In this unit, students improve reading and writing standards and skills as they explore biographies of famous leaders and change agents.
