Language Arts Resources

Reading

Author Studies

Author Studies are a great way to introduce children to the wonderful world of reading and writing. As we study each author, we look for "fingerprints" of that author. An author's fingerprints are those things the author does that makes his/her books unique from other authors. For example, Robert Munsch uses lots of onomatopoeia (sound words) and sttrrrreeeeeeeeetches words in his stories for emphasis. We also compare and contrast author's books and characters, create character maps, complete reading responses, and partner read.

It is important to have multiple copies of an author's books; therefore I (and wonderful

parent volunteers!) often visit the public libraries to check out all of the books we can find! At the end of each author study, students complete an "About the Author" form as a memory keepsake of the study. These forms will be bound into an Author Book for each child at the end of the year.

Author Studies Timeline  

August - Kevin Henkes

September - Robert Munsch

October - Marc Brown

November  - Gail Gibbons

December - Jan Brett

January - Chris Van Allsburg

February - Steven Kellogg

March - Patricia Polacco

April - Bill Peet

May - Chapter Books (various authors)

Genre Studies

Each month we also study a specific genre of literature. We begin genre studies in August by discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction. Once students have a good grasp on this, I begin introducing the different types of fiction. When we study specific genres, we read examples as a whole-class (often teacher read-aloud), in small groups, and with partners. Students also keep track of the genres of books they are reading on their reading logs. Each month, students are assigned a "BOOK PROJECT" specific to the genre we are learning about. Students may read any book of their choice within this genre and projects are completed at home. They are due on the last school day of the month and are presented to the class for a grade.

Genre Timeline and Monthly Book Projects

September - Fantasy

Book Project (Any Fantasy Book) -Story Sack

October - Mysteries

Book Project (Mysteries) - Story Skeleton

November - Non-Fiction Informational

Book Project (Informational Non-Fiction) Non-Fiction Book

December - Poetry

Book Project - special Jan Brett author project

January - Biographies

Book Project (Biographies) - File Folder Biography

February - Tall Tales

Book Project (Tall Tale) - Character Puppet

March - Realistic Fiction

Book Project (Realistic Fiction) - Sandwich Book Report

April - Fairy Tales

Book Project (Fairy Tale) - Sell a Fairytale (Cereal Box)

May - Chapter Books

Book Project (any chapter book) - Story Gameboard

Literature Circles

At the beginning of the year, we begin literature circles as a guided activity. As the year progresses and students become more independent readers, literature circles become an integral part of our reading classroom. To learn more about how I specifically use literature circles with second graders, please visit our Literature Circle Project Showcase Page . There are many resources available to print at this page including my literature circle role sheets for fiction books, ballots for book choices, project planning sheets, roles recording sheet (for holding students accountable during group sharing), and a grading rubric. Click here to see pictures of students working in literature circles and examples of students' extension projects.

Writing

In our classroom, we have Writer's Workshop daily. To learn more about our Writing Workshop, please visit our Writing page. It shows pictures of our writing binders.

Other great writing resources on the web:

http://www.mrscarosclass.com/writing_resources.htm

Melissa Caro has created a writing page for 2nd grade teachers with a wealth of information!

Word Study

Every Monday students will receive 15 weekly words; 5 word wall words along with 10 words that follow a special spelling pattern. These words will be used each week to complete homework assignments and will be practiced at school during our Word Study block. 

On Fridays, we will have our weekly words test.  Our test will include 10 spelling pattern words (5 words from the 10 spelling words given for the week and 5 transfer words).  Transfer words are words that follow the same pattern, but were not assigned for the week.  This type of test will ensure that students are not just “memorizing” words with the spelling pattern, but truly understand and can apply the spelling pattern in their writing. 

For example:  If our weekly words were long a words such as bake, take, rake, lake, quake, brake, stake, fake, cake, and make, our spelling test would include 5 of these words plus 5 other words that followed this pattern such as snake, or wake.  By studying the spelling pattern throughout the week students should now be able to apply that pattern to new words in their writing.

Our test will also include 10 word wall words.  Five word wall words will be assigned each week for students to study.  Word wall words are high-frequency words that second graders should know fluently by the end of the year.  The 10 word wall words on the spelling test each week will be drawn at random from the words previously assigned throughout the year (therefore, this will not start until the second weekly words test when we will have 10 assigned words to draw from).  This is called “random sampling”.  A list of the high-frequency word wall words for second grade can be found on the back of this page.  As you will notice, many of them are words they should be familiar with from first grade.  In second grade, students are expected to spell these words correctly in their writing at all times.  We will graph our results individually in our data notebooks and as a class.  If you have any questions, please let me know!  It is my goal that each child will go to third grade knowing how to spell all of these words!  I know that we will work very hard on this goal! 

Students will also have 3 dictation sentences on the back of their spelling test. Dictation sentences are read aloud by the teacher twice (at first word by word and then more fluently). These sentences contain spelling or word wall words from the current or previous weeks and are graded for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Spelling Homework in second grade is called Speller's Choice. Students must earn at least 4 points by the end of the week by completing Speller's Choice activities. Speller's Choice is meant to meet the needs of all levels of students (if they have proper guidance from parents in choosing appropriate activities).

Students will also occasionally have Making Words homework to practice manipulating letters to make words of all sizes.