English Language Arts (ELA)
In ELA we focus on reading, writing (including spelling and grammar), listening and speaking. We use the Science of Reading and the Superkids curriculum to guide our ELA instruction.
Phonics Code
Daily ELA lessons systematically introduce students to the phonics code in order to build their decoding (reading) and encoding (writing & spelling) skills.
Students engage in daily reading experiences designed to build their:
accuracy (ability to decode or sound out words)
sight word recognition (also called memory words)
fluency (ability to read smoothly, with expression, at a natural pace quick enough to support understanding)
comprehension (recall and understanding)
AND love of reading!
PA
Second graders also do daily Phonological and Phonemic Awareness (PA) exercises. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words. For example, being able to tell if two words rhyme with one another is a phonological awareness skill. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. For example, an exercise may ask a student to identify the first sound they hear in bug /b/ and then change that sound to /m/ to make mug. Phonological and phonemic awareness are very important foundational skills for reading.
Writing
During writing lessons, students have many opportunities to use the writing process: plan, draft, revise, edit, illustrate, publish/share their work. They write different types of texts, including letters, opinions, arguments, informative research projects, personal narratives, how-to pieces, and other creative writing pieces. Second graders are expected to write in complete sentences that begin with capital letters and end with appropriate punctuation. Students build their keyboarding skills with the fun computer program Keyboarding Without Tears (available on the AP Launchpad).
Language & Comprehension Building
A variety of resources are used to develop students' vocabulary, background knowledge, listening comprehension, and oral language skills. Students are exposed to a wide variety of authors, genres, and topics through read-alouds from a wide range of books and kids periodicals, such as Scholastic News. Selected topics from the CKLA Listening & Learning read-alouds are also presented.
During read-alouds, students are encouraged to listen carefully, make predictions, ask questions, make observations, summarize what they have learned, and discuss critical thinking questions with one another. During independent work time students further build these skills with resources such as Brain Pop Jr., Flocabulary, Tumblebooks, Storyline Online, Mystery Science, World Book Kids, and Pebble Go. These resources can all be accessed by students at home through the AP Launchpad.
WIN
WIN stands for Whatever I Need time. WIN is a time for students to meet in small groups with teachers. Small groups allow teachers to provide students with more customized instruction, targeted to meet the strengths and needs of each child. WIN expands this time to include targeted instruction in math and other areas, in addition to reading.
WIN is also a time when your child may work with an AIS teacher, speech & language therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, counselor, or SPED educator.
When students are not meeting with a teacher, they rotate to different centers for a variety of independent learning activities.
WIN stands for Whatever I Need time. WIN is a time for students to meet in small groups with teachers. Small groups allow teachers to provide students with more customized instruction, targeted to meet the strengths and needs of each child. WIN expands this time to include targeted instruction in math and other areas, in addition to reading.
WIN is also a time when your child may work with an AIS teacher, speech & language therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, counselor, or SPED educator.
When students are not meeting with a teacher, they rotate to different centers for a variety of independent learning activities.
