2nd Grade ELA (Colorado Academic Standards)

Standard 1: Oral Expression and Listening

• RWC.2.1.1 Join conversations and learn by listening closely and actively. (being checked)
  • 1. Take part in group and partner talks on grade 2 topics with peers and adults.
  • 1.a. Follow shared discussion rules such as taking turns and listening respectfully.
  • 1.b. Link your comments to what others have said.
  • 1.c. Ask for clearer explanations of the topics and texts being discussed.
  • 2. Retell or summarize key ideas and details from read-alouds or media.
  • 3. Ask and answer questions about a speaker's points to clarify and deepen understanding.
• RWC.2.1.2 Give presentations that stay on topic and can be discussed afterward. (being checked)
  • 1. Tell stories or recount experiences with accurate facts, descriptive details and clear sentences.
  • 2. Share knowledge in small or whole-class discussions to develop a topic.
  • 3. Stay focused on the topic being discussed.
  • 4. Make audio recordings of stories or poems, adding drawings or visuals when helpful.
  • 5. Use complete sentences when the task or situation calls for more detail.
  • 6. Use subject-specific vocabulary to ask questions and share information.

Standard 2: Reading for All Purposes

• RWC.2.2.1 Use specific skills to read and understand literary texts fluently. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Use self-checking strategies such as rereading, predicting and questioning to build meaning.
  • 1.b. Answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about key story details.
  • 1.c. Retell stories, including folktales from many cultures, and identify the central lesson.
  • 1.d. Explain how characters react to big events and challenges.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Explain how repeated sounds, rhymes and lines create rhythm and meaning.
  • 2.b. Describe a story's overall structure, including how it opens and ends.
  • 2.c. Recognize different characters' points of view, using different voices when reading dialogue.
  • 2.d. Identify how word choices such as sensory details and figures of speech add meaning to poems.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Use pictures and words to understand characters, setting or plot.
  • 3.b. Compare two versions of the same story by different authors or from different cultures.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. By year's end, read grade 2–3 stories and poems well, with support for harder texts.
• RWC.2.2.2 Use specific skills to read and understand informational texts fluently. (being checked)
  • 1. Key ideas and details
  • 1.a. Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about key details.
  • 1.b. Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text and the focus of each paragraph.
  • 1.c. Summarize the main idea with relevant, important details from varied texts.
  • 1.d. Explain links among historical events, science ideas or steps in a procedure.
  • 2. Craft and structure
  • 2.a. Work out what words and phrases mean in a text on a grade 2 topic.
  • 2.b. Use text features such as captions and headings to find key information quickly.
  • 2.c. Identify a text's main purpose, such as what the author explains or describes.
  • 2.d. Read a text to do a task, such as following a recipe or playing a game.
  • 3. Integration of knowledge and ideas
  • 3.a. Explain how images such as diagrams add to and clarify a text.
  • 3.b. Describe how reasons support the author's points.
  • 3.c. Compare the key points of two texts on the same topic.
  • 4. Range of reading and text complexity
  • 4.a. Change reading speed to suit the type of text and the purpose.
  • 4.b. By year's end, read grade 2–3 informational texts well, with support as needed.
• RWC.2.2.3 Use spelling patterns and word meanings to decode words accurately. (being checked)
  • 1. Use grade-level phonics and word analysis to decode words.
  • 1.a. Tell long and short vowels apart in regularly spelled one-syllable words.
  • 1.b. Know the sounds of more common vowel teams.
  • 1.c. Read multisyllable words accurately and smoothly.
  • 1.d. Decode regular two-syllable words that have long vowels.
  • 1.e. Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
  • 1.f. Recognize words with inconsistent but common spelling-sound patterns.
  • 1.g. Read grade-level words with irregular spellings.
  • 2. Read accurately and fluently enough to understand.
  • 2.a. Read on-level text with a purpose and understand it.
  • 2.b. Read grade-level text aloud accurately, at a good pace and with expression.
  • 2.c. Use context to check or fix word reading, rereading when needed.
  • 2.d. Read grade-level passages smoothly, attending to pauses, tone and punctuation.
  • 3. Compare formal and informal uses of English.
  • 4. Work out unknown or multiple-meaning words with flexible strategies.
  • 4.a. Use sentence context as a clue to meaning.
  • 4.b. Work out a new word made by adding a known prefix to a known word.
  • 4.c. Use a known root to understand an unknown word with the same root.
  • 4.d. Predict compound word meanings from their parts.
  • 4.e. Make new words by adding affixes to base words.
  • 4.f. Use print or digital glossaries and beginner dictionaries to check meanings.
  • 5. Show understanding of word relationships and shades of meaning.
  • 5.a. Link words to real-life uses, e.g. describing foods as spicy or juicy.
  • 5.b. Tell apart shades of meaning in related verbs and adjectives.
  • 6. Use words learned from talk, reading and being read to, including adjectives and adverbs.
  • 7. Choose the strategies that work best for decoding multisyllable words.

Standard 3: Writing and Composition

• RWC.2.3.1 Write opinion pieces backed by reasons. (being checked)
  • 1. Introduce the topic or book being written about.
  • 2. State an opinion clearly.
  • 3. Give reasons for the opinion.
  • 4. Link opinion and reasons with words such as because or also.
  • 5. Write a concluding statement or section.
• RWC.2.3.2 Write informative texts with main ideas backed by details, facts and definitions. (being checked)
  • 1. Introduce a topic.
  • 2. Develop points with facts, definitions and details, including when answering questions about texts.
  • 3. Write a concluding statement or section.
  • 4. Write letters and how-to pieces such as directions or recipes in order and in the right format.
  • 5. Organize informational writing around main ideas and specific details.
  • 6. Use suitable transition words.
  • 7. Use technology to support the writing process.
• RWC.2.3.3 Write real or imagined stories with events in order and an ending. (being checked)
  • 1. Add details about actions, thoughts and feelings.
  • 2. Use time words to show the order of events.
  • 3. Give the story a sense of closure.
  • 4. Write simple descriptive poems.
  • 5. Use precise nouns, active verbs and descriptive adjectives.
  • 6. Use structure and craft learned from mentor texts in stories.
  • 7. Develop characters through their thoughts and feelings and outward traits such as looks and clothing.
• RWC.2.3.4 Revise and edit for clear ideas and correct spelling, capitals, grammar and punctuation. (being checked)
  • 1. Use standard English grammar when writing or speaking.
  • 1.a. Use collective nouns such as group.
  • 1.b. Use reflexive pronouns such as myself and ourselves.
  • 1.c. Form and use the past tense of common irregular verbs such as sat, hid and told.
  • 1.d. Choose adjectives or adverbs correctly depending on what is described.
  • 1.e. Make subjects and verbs agree.
  • 1.f. Build, expand and rearrange simple and compound sentences.
  • 1.g. Vary how sentences begin.
  • 1.h. Spell high-frequency words correctly.
  • 2. Use standard capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.
  • 2.a. Capitalize holidays, product names and place names.
  • 2.b. Use commas in letter greetings and closings.
  • 2.c. Use apostrophes in contractions and common possessives.
  • 2.d. Apply learned spelling patterns to new words.
  • 2.e. Check spelling with reference tools such as beginner dictionaries.
  • 2.f. With help, focus on a topic and improve writing by revising and editing.
  • 2.g. With help, use digital tools to create and share writing, alone or with peers.

Standard 4: Research Inquiry and Design

• RWC.2.4.1 Take part in shared research, gathering information from varied sources to answer questions. (being checked)
  • 1. Join shared research and writing, e.g. reading several books for a report or recording observations.
  • 2. Identify different resources and the kinds of information each holds.
  • 3. Name a specific question and gather information on it.
  • 4. Use text features such as contents pages and diagrams to find information.
  • 5. Use a range of multimedia sources to answer personal questions.
  • 6. Ask deep and broad essential questions.
  • 7. Recall experiences or gather information from given sources to answer a question.