Language Arts

Grade 2: Oral and Visual Communication

Overall Expectations

•communicate messages, and follow instructions and directions;

•listen to discussions on familiar topics and ask relevant questions;

•retell stories and recount personal experiences, presenting events in a coherent sequence;

•talk about characters and situations in stories, and information in non-fiction materials, and relate them to personal experience;

•apply the rules of participating in a conversation and working with others;

•view, read, and listen to media works with simple messages or factual information and describe what they have learned;

•create simple media works;

•use the conventions (e.g., sentence structure) of oral language, and of the various media, that are appropriate to the grade (see below). 

Specific Expectations

Use of Words and Oral Language Structures

•use appropriate vocabulary and oral language structures to express emotions in a variety of situations;

•use linking words such as because, if, and after to organize ideas in speech;

•recognize the beginning and end of a spoken text, and present their own remarks in a coherent order;

•experiment with rhyme, rhythm, and word play to create humorous effects;

Non-verbal Communication Skills

•use appropriate gestures and tone of voice, as well as natural speech rhythms, when speaking;

Group Skills 

•participate in group discussions, demonstrating a sense of when to speak, when to listen, and how much to say;

•use speech appropriately for various purposes (e.g., to influence others in the group);

Media Communication Skills

•view, read, and listen to media works to obtain information and to complete assigned tasks (e.g., view or read the weather reports on television or in the newspaper);

•distinguish between a commercial and a program (e.g., on the radio or television) and between an advertisement and an article (e.g., in a magazine or newspaper);

•identify different technologies (e.g., television, radio, the Internet, CD-ROMs, a videocassette recorder) and understand that they serve different functions;

•create some simple media works (e.g., design an advertisement for a toy).

Expectations: Copyright The Queen's Printer for Ontario, 1997.  With thanks to B.Phillips, 1998.

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