SECOND GRADE STANDARDS

• Students understand the basic features of reading. They select letter patterns and know how to translate them into spoken language by using phonics, syllabication, and word parts. They apply this knowledge to achieve fluent oral and silent reading.

• Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed (e.g., generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, comparing information from several sources). The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students. In addition to their regular school reading, by grade four, students read one-half million words annually, including a good representation of grade-level-appropriate narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information). In grade two, students continue to make progress toward this goal.

• Students read and respond to a wide variety of significant works of children's literature. They distinguish between the structural features of the text and literary terms of elements (e.g., theme, plot, setting, characters). The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students.

WRITING

• Students write clear and coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea. Their writing shows they consider the audience and purpose. Students progress through the stages of the writing process (e.g., prewriting, drafting, revising, editing successive versions).

• Students write compositions that describe and explain familiar objects, events, and experiences. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American English and the drafting, research, and organizational strategies in Writing Standard 1.0.

WRITTEN AND ORAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS

• Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level.

• Students listen critically and respond appropriately to oral communication. They speak in a manner that guides the listener to understand important ideas by using proper phrasing, pitch, and modulation.

• Students deliver brief recitations and oral presentations about familiar experiences or interests that are organized around a coherent thesis statement. Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0.
   

History-Social Science

• Differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened yesterday.
• Demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative locations of people, places, and environments.
• Explain governmental institutions and practices in the United States and other countries.
• Understand basic economic concepts and their individual roles in the economy and demonstrate basic economic reasoning skills.
• Understand the importance of individual action and character and explain how heroes from long ago and the recent past have made a difference in other’s lives (e.g., from biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Louis Pasteur, Sitting Bull, George Washington Carver, Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Jackie Robinson, Sally Ride).

Mathematics

• Understand the relationship between numbers, quantities, and place value in whole numbers up to 1,000.
• Estimate, calculate and solve problems involving addition and subtraction of two-and three-digit numbers.
• Model and solve problems by representing, adding and subtracting amounts of money.
• Use estimation strategies in computation and problem solving that involve numbers that use the ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands places.

• Students model, represent, and interpret number relationships to create and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.

• Understand that measurement is accomplished by identifying a unit of measure, iterating (repeating) that unit, and comparing it to the item to be measured.
• Identify and describe the attributes of common figures in the plane and of common objects in space.

• Collect numerical data and record, organize, display, and interpret the data on bar graphs and other representations.
• Demonstrate an understanding of patterns and how patterns grow and describe them in general ways.

• Make decisions about how to set up a problem.
• Solve problems and justify their reasoning.
• Note connections between one problem and another.

Science

• The motion of objects can be observed and measured.

• Plants and animals have predictable life cycles.

• Earth is made of materials that have distinct properties and provide resources for human activities.

• Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting  careful investigations. To understand this concept and to address the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.