What does a 2nd grader learn in English and Reading?

Your child will strengthen phonics and spelling patterns, read aloud more smoothly, and understand stories and nonfiction by finding key details, lessons and main topics. They will also learn grammar and new vocabulary, and write short narr

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36 weeks, 72 lessons, in 9 units. Every school and state does it a little differently, so think of this as the usual path.

Phonics: Short and Long Vowel Sounds

Reviews the sounds letters and letter groups make so your child can read and spell common words with confidence.

Standards: Common Core RF.2.3, RF.2.4

Week 1: Short vowel sounds in simple wordsAt home: Write cat, pet, sit, hop and bug on paper and take turns reading them quickly.
Week 1: Digraphs: sh, ch, th and whAt home: Go on a hunt around the kitchen for items with these sounds, like dish, cheese and thumb.
Week 2: Beginning blends like bl, st and trAt home: Say a blend, such as st, and see how many words you can think of, like stop, step and star.
Week 2: Ending blends and endings: -nd, -mp, -ck, -ngAt home: Have your child read a few words like lamp, sock and ring, then write them from your dictation.
Week 3: Long vowels with silent eAt home: Write cap, kit and hop, then add an e to each to change the word (cape, kite, hope).
Week 3: Long a spelled ai and ayAt home: Read rain, tray, play and mail together and sort them by spelling on two lists.
Week 4: Long e spelled ee and eaAt home: Write a silly sentence using three words like feet, beach and green.
Week 4: Long o spelled oa and owAt home: Read boat, coat, snow and grow, then draw a quick picture of one of them.

Word Endings and Spelling Rules

Shows how adding word parts changes spelling and meaning, which helps your child spell and read many new words.

Standards: Common Core RF.2.3.d-f, L.2.2, L.2.4

Week 9: Adding -s and -es to make pluralsAt home: Collect things like a box and a dish and write how many you have: two boxes, three dishes.
Week 9: Doubling the last letter: hop becomes hoppingAt home: Write hop, sit and run and add -ing to each, doubling the last letter.
Week 10: Dropping silent e before -ingAt home: Change make to making and ride to riding, then use each in a sentence.
Week 10: Changing y to i: baby becomes babiesAt home: Write a list of pets or toys that end in y and make them plural, such as puppy and puppies.
Week 11: Three sounds of -ed endingsAt home: Read jumped, played and wanted aloud and listen for the different endings.
Week 11: Prefixes un- and re-At home: Act out words like unlock, unwrap, redo and refill with household items.
Week 12: Suffixes -ful and -lessAt home: Talk about how careful and careless are opposites, and think of other pairs like hopeful and hopeless.
Week 12: Compound wordsAt home: Play a game, saying a word like sun and finding a partner such as flower to make a new word.

Reading Fluency and Understanding Stories

Builds smooth, expressive reading along with the skills to understand and retell stories.

Standards: Common Core RF.2.4, RL.2.1-2.7, RL.2.9

Week 13: Reading smoothly with accuracyAt home: Have your child reread a favorite page three times and notice how it gets smoother.
Week 13: Reading with expression and stopping at punctuationAt home: Read a sentence ending with a period, a question mark and an exclamation point in different voices.
Week 14: Asking who, what, where, when, why and howAt home: After a bedtime story, ask your child one question that begins with each of these words.
Week 14: Understanding characters and their feelingsAt home: Pick a character from a favorite book and talk about how they feel and how you can tell.
Week 15: Retelling a story: beginning, middle and endAt home: Have your child retell a story using the words first, next and last.
Week 15: The lesson or message of a fableAt home: Read a short fable together and ask your child what the character learned.
Week 16: Setting, problem and solutionAt home: Ask where and when a story happens, what went wrong and how it got fixed.
Week 16: Comparing two versions of the same storyAt home: Watch or read two versions of a tale like The Three Little Pigs and name one thing that is the same and one that is different.

Grammar: Nouns, Verbs and Describing Words

Teaches the parts of speech and capitalization rules your child needs to write clear, correct sentences.

Standards: Common Core L.2.1, L.2.2

Week 17: Common and proper nounsAt home: Name a person, place and thing at home, and write which ones need a capital letter.
Week 17: Capitalizing days, months and holidaysAt home: Write the day, month and an upcoming holiday on a calendar with capital letters.
Week 18: Irregular plural nouns like foot and feetAt home: Show one tooth in a picture, then two, and say the plural out loud. Try mouse, child and man too.
Week 18: Collective nouns: a flock of birdsAt home: Make up a game matching groups with names, like a team of players or a bunch of grapes.
Week 19: Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, ourselvesAt home: Use sentence starters like "I can dress ___" and let your child fill in the right word.
Week 19: Irregular past tense verbsAt home: Say what you did today, using words like ran, ate, saw and went.
Week 20: Adjectives that describe nounsAt home: Pick an object, such as a sock, and list five adjectives to describe it.
Week 20: Adverbs that describe verbsAt home: Act out walking slowly, quietly and quickly, and name the adverb for each.

Writing Narratives: Telling a Story

Guides your child through planning, writing and improving a short story about a real or imagined event.

Standards: Common Core W.2.3, W.2.5, L.2.1

Week 21: Choosing a small moment to write aboutAt home: Ask your child to pick one short memory, like a trip to the park, to tell you about.
Week 21: Planning with a beginning, middle and endAt home: Fold a paper into three parts and draw a picture for each part of a story.
Week 22: Writing a strong opening sentenceAt home: Have your child try two different first sentences for a story and choose their favorite.
Week 22: Using time-order wordsAt home: Describe making a snack using first, next, then and finally.
Week 23: Adding details about actions and feelingsAt home: Take a plain sentence like "I went outside" and add what you saw, did and felt.
Week 23: Using your five senses in writingAt home: Sit outside for a minute and write one thing you see, hear, smell and feel.
Week 24: Writing an ending that wraps up the storyAt home: Look at how a favorite picture book ends and think of another way it could have ended.
Week 24: Revising and editing with a checklistAt home: Reread a piece together, checking for capital letters, end marks and finger spaces.

Reading Informational Text

Helps your child understand nonfiction by finding the main topic, using text features and comparing sources.

Standards: Common Core RI.2.1-2.9

Week 25: Telling fiction from nonfictionAt home: Sort a few books at home into made-up stories and books with facts.
Week 25: Finding the main topic of a textAt home: After reading a short article, ask your child what it was mostly about.
Week 26: Using headings, bold words and captionsAt home: Open a nonfiction book and point out headings, bold words and photo captions.
Week 26: Using a table of contents and glossaryAt home: Ask your child to find a topic in a book by using its table of contents.
Week 27: Finding key details that support the topicAt home: After reading, have your child tell you three facts they learned.
Week 27: Reading diagrams, maps and labelsAt home: Look at a map or a labeled picture in a book and ask your child to explain what it shows.
Week 28: Spotting the reasons an author givesAt home: Read a short article and ask which facts the author used to prove their point.
Week 28: Comparing two texts on the same topicAt home: Read two short books or articles about an animal and discuss which facts appear in both.

Vocabulary and Word Meaning

Builds strategies for figuring out new words and choosing precise words when speaking and writing.

Standards: Common Core L.2.4, L.2.5, L.2.6

Week 29: Using context clues to find a word's meaningAt home: When you come across a new word in a book, reread the sentence together and guess the meaning.
Week 29: Synonyms: words with similar meaningsAt home: Pick a word like big and see how many words you can think of that mean almost the same.
Week 30: Antonyms: words with opposite meaningsAt home: Play a quick game where you say hot, up and open and your child answers with the opposite.
Week 30: Words with more than one meaningAt home: Talk about words like bat, bark and left and draw two different meanings of one.
Week 31: Shades of meaning in verbsAt home: Act out walk, stroll, march and tiptoe and talk about how each is a little different.
Week 31: Using a root word to figure out a new wordAt home: Find the root in words like unhappy, playful and replay and say what the word means.
Week 32: Using a dictionary to find words and meaningsAt home: Look up one new word together in a dictionary or picture dictionary.
Week 32: Choosing exact words in speaking and writingAt home: Replace a plain word like nice or good with a stronger one in a sentence.

Writing: Informative and Opinion

Teaches your child to share facts clearly and to state an opinion with reasons, two key writing skills for later grades.

Standards: Common Core W.2.1, W.2.2, W.2.7, L.2.1.f, L.2.2

Week 33: Writing a topic sentence and adding factsAt home: Pick an animal your child likes and write one topic sentence plus two facts about it.
Week 33: Finding facts in books to learn about a topicAt home: Choose a topic and find two facts in a library book or on a page you read together.
Week 34: Writing an informative paragraph with a closing sentenceAt home: Put the topic sentence, facts and a closing sentence together into a short paragraph.
Week 34: Joining short sentences with and, but and soAt home: Take two short sentences, like "I like pizza. I like salad," and join them into one.
Week 35: Stating an opinionAt home: Ask your child their favorite season or food and have them write one sentence saying so.
Week 35: Giving reasons with becauseAt home: Ask "why?" about an opinion and have your child answer with a sentence using because.
Week 36: Linking words: also, for example and another reasonAt home: Practice adding "also" or "for example" to extend an opinion at the dinner table.
Week 36: Writing a closing statement and sharing your opinion pieceAt home: Have your child read their finished opinion piece aloud to a family member.

Written with AI from what schools usually teach (like the Common Core for math and NGSS for science). Check your state's standards if you need to match them.