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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, learn how animals adapt in Exploring Habitats, and explore how body systems keep us healthy Inside the Human Body. 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 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.

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Recommended Sequence


Unit 1

23 Lessons

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 examining the setting and characters.

Unit 2

25 Lessons

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

22 Lessons

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

29 Lessons

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

21 Lessons

Finding Your Power: Freddie Ramos

Students continue to build reading and writing skills by engaging with the beginning chapter book series Zapato Power.

Unit 6

19 Lessons

Inside the Human Body

Students study two important body systems, the digestive and urinary systems, through a variety of informational texts and hands-on projects.

Alternate Units


Alternate Unit 2

23 Lessons

Awesome Insects

Students learn about insects and their impact on the natural world by asking and answering questions about informational texts in order to become inquisitive, active readers.

Alternate Unit 3

19 Lessons

Lessons from Anansi the Spider

Students read, discuss, and write about spider — or Anansi — folktales from West Africa, which have been used for generations to teach lessons about human nature and the consequences of good and bad behavior. 

Alternate Unit 4

32 Lessons

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.

Alternate Unit 5

26 Lessons

Learning From Mistakes: Keena Ford

In this unit students explore the concepts of honesty, forgiveness, and friendship by reading Freckle Juice and Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up.

Alternate Unit 5

21 Lessons

Solving Mysteries: The Fenway Foul-up

Students explore the characteristics of a mystery, and how an author uses those characteristics to develop the plot, while reading about the American pastime of baseball in the text The Fenway Foul-Up.

Alternate Unit 6

23 Lessons

Exploring Ancient Greece

In this unit, students explore ancient Greece, learning and exploring the different characteristics of ancient Greece and its values.

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