Untitled Document

Athletics & Activities

Second Grade

Language Arts

Language Arts is composed of several interrelated areas: reading, writing, and spelling. At the elementary level, students are encouraged to learn to communicate clearly through development in these three areas:

Reading

SRA/Open Court Reading, a phonics-based program developing reading fluency while leading to greater comprehension and enjoyment of reading.

Utilize and apply a variety of reading strategies (e.g., picture clues, decoding, context clues, and rereading for meaning) for the purpose of comprehending a text
Interpret figurative language (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homonyms)
Use a variety of strategies to connect important ideas in text to prior knowledge and other readings
Identify fiction and non-fiction and differentiate between fact and opinion
Read age appropriate material aloud with fluency and accuracy
Identify purposes for reading
Make, confirm, modify, or reject predictions before, during, and after reading
Ask questions in order to continuously check and clarify for understanding during reading
Use evidence and information in text to form questions, verify predictions, generate and respond to questions that reflect higher level thinking skills
Utilize the strategies of inferring, comparing, and evaluating of text
Use information from simple tables, maps, and charts to increase comprehension of a variety of age-appropriate materials, both
fiction and non-fiction
Identify story elements (e.g., characters, setting, problem, solution)
Engage in discussion through retelling and analysis
Investigate literature from a variety of time periods/cultures/genres
Make text to self, text to text, and text to world connections
Explain how major children’s authors and illustrators express their ideas

Writing

The Shurley Method of Grammar uses rhythm and a set of specific questions to classify sentences orally, identifying each sentence part as well as the overall sentence structure. Students learn how to expand, improve, and edit their writing.

Continue to focus and maintain the following conventions:

• Appropriate capitalization
• Appropriate punctuation
• Concept of a noun
• Concept of a complete sentence

Focus on:

• Parts of a friendly letter
• Concept of verb

Introduced and focused on:

• The stages of the writing process (e.g.,
   prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and
   publishing)
• The development of paragraphs exhibiting
   the traits of good writing (e.g., ideas,
   organization, sentence fluency, voice, and
   word choice)
• Developing a narrative, expository,
   persuasive, creative, and research piece of
   writing
• Utilizing available technology to support
   the writing process

Religion

Silver Burdett Ginn: This is Our Faith focuses on the Liturgical Sacraments and parts of the Mass. Harcourt Brace’s Celebrating Our Faith emphasizes the sacramental year for our young Catholics with the celebration of First Reconciliation in the fall and First Eucharist in the spring. The Family Life curriculum broadens students’ awareness of God’s gift of life, in conjunction with respecting others as well as ourselves.

Spelling

Spelling Connections: Zaner-Bloser

Proofread one’s own work and the work of others; revise accordingly

Correctly spell appropriate high frequency (commonly misspelled) words (e.g. said, friend, what)
Correctly use and spell phonemic word families (e.g., all, ball, call)
Use of Spalding method for phonemic awareness of words

Mathematics

Houghton-Mifflin Math explores more of the spectrum of mathematical ideas through a deeper understanding of key mathematical concepts and in-depth study of all the content strands of mathematics.
     The curriculum allows students to construct an understanding of mathematics from their own experience and includes practical routines to build arithmetic skills that are essential for building number sense, estimation skills, and flexibility in a problem-rich environment. Important concepts or skills recur with variations throughout the curriculum, and concepts are introduced and revisited in a variety of formats providing considerable practice.
     Our focus is to have students recognize that there are various ways to accomplish a task and to use the best tools and strategies for solving problems. This is done by establishing a framework for dialogue about mathematics between the teacher and students.
     Content strands include:

Number concepts, addition, subtraction and graphing
Numbers through 100
Geometry and fractions
Adding two digit numbers
Subtracting two digit numbers
Money and Time
Measurement
Numbers and operations through 1,000

Social Science

Harcourt Brace, Science and Harcourt Brace/Making a Difference
The purpose of science is to provide students with balanced, relevant, hands-on opportunities and experiences to better understand science and promote scientific literacy. (Life, Earth, and Physical)
Second Grade Science topics include:

Life – Life Cycles
Earth – Water Cycles, Space & Weather
Physical – Matter and Energy

The purpose of Social Studies is to develop an awareness of the world around us.
Second Grade Social Studies units include:

Our country’s history
Needs, wants, and goods of our economy
Communities and citizenship
Concept of government

Maps to identify landforms and bodies of water

Enrichments

• Physical Education
Students learn, develop, and apply skills needed for participation in personal fitness and lifetime activities that contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

• Visual Arts
Students grow creatively, intellectually, and aesthetically through the application of media techniques and processes as well as knowledge of art elements and principles of design.

• Music
Students develop an understanding of the relationship of music to other disciplines and cultures through experiencing variations in rhythms, music styles, melodies, and performances.

• Library
The library curriculum teaches students the basic skills needed to become independent library patrons. The curriculum fosters a love of reading and literature, but also emphasizes library organization, using the electronic catalog to locate books of interest, and the use of standard library materials such as books, encyclopedias, and almanacs to locate information.

General Information

Technology
The goal of technology education is to provide students with the opportunity for technological literacy starting with the elementary curriculum.
Our emphasis with students is the application of technology across all grade levels and curricular areas as well as the development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

Reporting to Parents
Classroom progress is reported through quarterly report cards and mid-quarter progress reports. Weekly parent newsletters and informal parent-teacher communications are also utilized.

Testing
Our achievement-testing program assesses the strengths/needs of our instructional programs and measures the achievement of individual students. Tests utilized annually by all schools of the Diocese of Lake Charles include Stanford Achievement Test for grades K - 8, Explore/ACT Test for 8th graders only. Otis Lennon School Ability Test is administered in odd numbered years.

Homework
Homework at the elementary level begins in an informal fashion but becomes more formal and requires more time and effort as the child progresses through each grade.
Parents are expected to be sufficiently interested in their child’s education to commit the time and energy needed to monitor/supervise the child’s home study and thereby insure that he/she makes a reasonable effort to complete homework assignments.

Promotion
Students must meet the following criteria:
~Demonstrate competency in all areas of the
Stanford Achievement Test (SAT)
~Attend the required number of instructional days
~Attain adequate skills needed as determined by the teacher and administration