About+Second+Grade

||= MATH 4th Quarter Plans ||
 * = READING 4th Quarter Plans

== = About Second Grade =

Second grade is absolutely awesome! Most children transform from "learning to read" to beginning to "read to learn" in second grade. My goal is for all of my students to be reading at or above grade level by the end of the year. I will work along with parents and students to help each one achieve their greatest potential. While my personal favorite subject is math, reading is the subject in which most struggling students seem to lag behind. I can't stress the importance of reading enough. Whether you love reading or would rather give a bear a bubble bath, the fact is that reading is the foundation for ALL future learning. In order to meet the rigorous demands of all future instruction, students must read on grade level. Studies show that if a student is below grade level at the end of second grade, they may never have the opportunity to catch up with their peers. As a second grade teacher, I take this statement to heart. As teachers and parents, we want to provide the support children need to develop an appreciation and love of reading. With "just-right" level books and finding subjects or genres that interest students combined with proper incentives as needed, children can show tremendous growth in their reading abilities. It takes more than just teacher instruction (although this is critical), students must spend a large amount of time reading both independently and along with fluent readers. Students that receive proper instruction, have time in school to read independently, and read every night at home for a minimum of 15-20 minutes per night will almost always show expected growth in reading. For struggling students, I recommend longer periods of time (20 - 30 minutes) that include reading WITH fluent readers to minimize frustration and maximize cooperation. Unfortunately in a classroom there are always students who do not read at home, and these students often begin to see an ever-widening ability gap with the students who are reading nightly. The bottom line is that your child will become a better reader by reading and we have to work together as a team to see this happen.

Our language arts block will involve students in all areas of literacy: reading, writing, listening and speaking. We will learn basic grammar and continue with word study to learn about the spelling patterns within words. Students will participate in Accelerated Reader (AR) and will have individual goals to achieve and maintain throughout the year in reading. After reading an "AR book", students can take a test to determine basic comprehension of the book. Most students should be able to earn about 1 to 1.5 AR points each week through their independent reading time and their at-home reading time. Students should read short books through at least twice before taking the associated AR quiz so that they can take the quiz without referring to the book for answers.

In math this year, we will develop a better understanding of place value. Students will be able to identify the place value of the digits in a three-digit number and be able to properly read and write numbers up to 999. We will learn all of our addition and subtraction facts through 20. Students will learn how to add and subtract with regrouping and build on their prior knowledge of extending and identifying patterns. Students are expected to have a thorough understanding of geometric shapes (especially two-dimensional). We will use Accelerated Math as part of our daily math practice. This is a computer-generated math practice program that individualizes instruction based on student achievement and ability.

Second grade science and social studies will be integrated with language arts. We will be learning all about weather, sound, matter (solid, liquid, gas), and animal life cycles in science. In social studies we will learn about communities and citizenship, goods and services, historical events and people in history who have impacted society. We will learn about ways to keep our bodies healthy and the importance of kindness and respect towards others.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN SECOND GRADE, CHECK OUT THE OTHER PAGES ON THIS WIKI.