Language Arts

Grade 2: Reading

Overall Expectations

•read a variety of simple written materials (e.g., pattern books on specific themes, stories, chart stories, poems, interactive software) for different purposes;

•read aloud in a way that communicates the meaning;

•read independently, using reading strategies appropriate for this grade level;

•express clear responses to written materials, relating the ideas in them (thoughts, feelings, experiences) to their own knowledge and experience;

•independently select stories and other reading materials by a variety of authors;

•understand the vocabulary and language structures appropriate for this grade level;

•use some conventions of written materials to help them understand and use the materials. 

Specific Expectations

Reasoning and Critical Thinking

•restate information in a short non-fiction text in their own words;

•retell a story in proper sequence, identify the main idea and the characters, and discuss some aspects of the story (e.g., give reasons why they prefer one character rather than another);

•use a variety of reading strategies to understand a piece of writing (e.g., reread, predict content, ask questions);

•express their thoughts and feelings about ideas in a piece of writing;

Understanding of Form and Style

•identify characteristics of different forms of written materials (e.g., poem, story, children's dictionary, recipe);

Knowledge of Language Structures

•use their knowledge of sentence structure in oral and written language to determine the meaning of a sentence (e.g., the verb in a simple statement usually follows a noun; the subject and verb are inverted in interrogative sentences);

•use their knowledge of word endings to recognize the same word in different forms (e.g., jumps, jumped, jumping);

•understand that the same sounds may be represented by different spellings (e.g., finger, telephone);

Vocabulary Building

•substitute one word for another in a meaningful way (e.g., use house instead of home);

•separate words into parts and use patterns of word structure to determine the meaning of new words (e.g., lock, locket);

•use phonics as an aid in learning new words;

Use of Conventions

•use punctuation to help them understand what they read (e.g., question mark, apostrophe);

•use and interpret some conventions of formal texts (e.g., maps, pictures, graphics, simple diagrams, bold and italic type for headings).

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

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