Second Grade

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Second Grade

• How can I help my child to become a better reader?

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4 Main Components of Reading

• Fluency
• Accuracy
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary

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Fluency/ Prosody

• Fluency is the ability to read text accurately
  and quickly. (Like when you talk.)
• Prosody is the use of expression and tone while
  reading.
• Many times very fluent readers lack comprehension
  because they read too quickly and sometimes
  substitute unknown words for what they think is
  right. Helping children slow down and spend time
  figuring out the correct word will ultimately
  help sharpen the picture in their mind of what is
  happening in the story.
• On the other hand, pointing to the words slows
  him/her down instead of helping him/her read! It
  is only necessary to point to words at emergent
  levels.

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Accuracy

• Make sure your child is reading at his/ her
  level. A book that is too challenging will become
  frustrating and does not promote comprehension.
  If too much time is spent on decoding, the
  meaning will be lost.

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What prompts can I use to help my child read?
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Use Picture Clues!

• Pictures help your child figure out words that
  he/she cannot yet sound out.
• They help your child make meaning of the story.
• Children build their vocabulary as they look at
  the pictures and discuss what they see!

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Look at the punctuation marks!

• Punctuation marks help tell the story. Remind
  your child to look at them while reading.
  Phrasing is also very important.

Help!
I can help you.
Can I help you?
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Get your mouth ready to make the first sound.
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Blend the sounds to figure out an unknown words.

• c a t

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Look for a little word in a big word or a part
that you know.
c am p
b all
th at
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Think of a word that makes sense. Does the
first letter sound match?
The fish swims in the ______.
lake
pond
water
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Read the sentence or word again to make sure it

• Looks right
• Sounds right
• Makes sense

The cat is small.
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Comprehension Strategies

• Predict
• Character Traits/ Setting
• Main Idea
• Problem/ Solution
• Plot
• Retelling
• Genre
• Authors Purpose
• Mental Images/ Visualizing

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Its all about the preview

• A key to good comprehension is to help your child
  preview what they are going to read BEFORE they
  start reading.
• When you preview a book, you are gathering
  information to help you when you read.
• Previewing is VERY important because it gets
  you thinking about the story.
• Previewing activates your schema you make
  connections to things you already know.
• Start your preview by gathering clues from the
  selection that will tell you if you are about to
  read.

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If you are reading fiction Look for who the
characters are and figure out their names.
Decide what the setting is or might be. Make
connections if you can to something in your life
or to another story youve read or heard. See
if there is a table of contents or a glossary to
help you think about events that will happen or
figure out new words. If you are reading
non-fiction Read the table of contents to
think about what things you might learn. Look
for photos and read the labels or captions that
go with them. Search for words in bold print or
italics. Use a dictionary or the glossary to
figure out what they mean and how to say them.
Read the introduction and conclusion if there is
one. Together these sections will summarize the
selection. Look for diagrams, close ups,
cutaways, graphs, maps, or any other features of
the text it can be helpful to read these things
first.
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Prediction

• Make a guess about what will happen and tell
  why you made that prediction.
• Children should also be making predictions on
  what will happen next, how a character might
  change, what a character might do, etc. Their
  predictions should make sense with the details
  given in a story. They may need prompting to do
  this at first, but should come naturally with
  time.

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Character Traits/ Setting

• People or animals in the story---notice details
  about how they look, feel, and act to describe
  character traits
• Setting is when and where the story takes place.

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Main Idea

• What the text is mostly about
• Supporting Details- The details that support the
  main idea.

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Problem/ Plot/ Solution

• Beginning of Story- Character(s), setting,
  problems are introduced.
• Middle of Story- Character(s) tries to solve the
  problem/ plot
• End of Story- Problem resolution

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Retelling

• Sequence of most important events
• Ex First, ______. Next, ______.
• Then, ________. Last, _______.

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Genre/ Text Features

• Fairy Tales
• Poetry
• Fiction
• Nonfiction
• Text Features such as titles, headings, captions,
  graphic features.

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Authors Purpose

• Persuade
• Inform
• Entertain

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Mental Images/ Visualizing

• Make a picture or mental image This can be done
  after your child reads a small selection of text.
  The key to help students progress in their
  comprehension is to break the text into small
  increments. Once they train themselves to stop
  and visualize often, they can read for longer
  periods and do this naturally. Students can draw
  what they read or describe to you verbally what
  they saw in their mind. Tell them to think about
  the story as if it were a movie.

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Comprehension Questions Ideas

• Ask higher level questions
• Instead of What color was her dress?
• Ask What do you think that (character) meant
  by________?
• Help your child to create a timeline if the
  events in the story.
• Help your child create puppets to help re-tell
  the story.
• Help your child make a comic strip of the story.
• Help your child to come up with 5 questions that
  somebody who has read the book should be able to
  answer.
• Create a new story. (Ex continuing the story
  with the same characters)
• Change one element (characters, setting, problem,
  or solution) to create a new story. How would the
  story be different?

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Extend the story ideas

• Rename a character (Pick a character and give
  it a new name retell a part of the story using
  the characters new name)
• Add a character (Invent a new character for the
  story and retell a part of the story including
  this new character)
• Think of a new beginning (Retell the story with
  a new beginning)
• Change an event (Pick something that happens in
  the story and change it)
• Add an event (Add something new to this story)
• Change the ending (Revise the ending for the
  story)

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Engaging children in conversations about what
they read promotes comprehension.

• When children engage in conversations about what
  they read, they build understandings about how to
  comprehend.
• Consequently, teachers and parents should
  involve students in activities such as
  discussions of text and writing in response to
  text.

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Parent-child book discussion ideas

• Text-to-text connection (Does anything in this
  story make
• you think about something else you have read?)
• Pick a page to read aloud (Why does this part
  impress you as a reader?)
• Something you liked (Share something you liked
  about the story and explain why)
• Something you didnt like (Share something you
  didnt like
• and explain why)
• Something interesting to discuss (Pick an event
  in the
• story and discuss why it was interesting to you)
• Something you noticed about how this author
  writes (Find something specific in the story that
  shows the authors voice)

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Curriculum HighlightsReading

• Predicting
• Background/ Prior Knowledge
• Connections (text-to-self, text-to-text,
  text-to-world)
• Visualizing/ Mental Images
• Setting
• Character Traits
• Order of Important Events
• Plot/ Story Problem/ Solution
• Retelling
• Authors Purpose
• Topic/ Main Idea/ Supporting Details
• Comparing Story Variants (characters, setting,
  resolutions)
• Inference
• Poetry

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Curriculum HighlightsGrammar/ Word Study

• Capitalization/ Punctuation
• Complete Sentences Sentence Types (declarative,
  interrogative, exclamatory)
• Compound Words
• Base Words Adding ed, -ing, -s or es
• Long/ Short Vowels
• Synonyms and Antonyms
• Verbs (present, future, past tense)
• ABC Order (to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd letter)
• Using a Dictionary and Glossary
• Nouns ( common, proper, plural, possessive)
• Pronouns
• Contractions
• Abbreviations
• Prefixes and Suffixes
• Adjectives (including comparatives -er, -est)
• Adverbs
• Time Order/ Transition Words (ex first, next,
  then, last)
• Prepositions

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Writing

• Reading and writing go together. Reading provides
  a good model for writing.
• Second graders write
• Personal narratives that include a beginning,
  middle, and end
• Brief compositions about topics of interest
• Short letters with appropriate conventions
• Brief comments on literary or informational texts
• Persuasive statements about issues important to
  them for the appropriate audiences
• Short poems that convey sensory details

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Activities to Support Writing at Home

• Write a friendly letter (pen pals with friends or
  family members)
• Make a list
• Write a picture story
• Keep a journal or diary
• Thank you notes
• Write about what they read

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Spelling

• Encourage your child to recognize and use
  patterns in spelling, rather than memorizing the
  words.
• Stretch out the sounds in the words.
• Spell the best you can and move on (Dont let
  spelling hinder their writing).
• Play hangman with spelling words.
• Play scrabble or other word games.

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But most important of all
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Read to your child, Read with your child,or
Listen to your child read every night!