Grade 2: Reading and writing skills

By grade 2, your child will have gotten used to school routines; they might even have a few best friends and start a journey toward self-discovery.

Your child, now in grade 2, will likely focus on reviewing the language skills they acquired in grade 1. Reading their textbooks would have gotten simpler, and they are on the path to further developing comprehension skills.

When presented with a story, a grade 1 child should be able to guess the plot lines mainly through the pictures and illustrations provided. In grade 2, your child will learn to identify a text's who, what, when, where, why, and how. Soon your child will be an independent reader and writer as they strengthen their core language skills. 

Now, let's look at what reading and writing skills your child can look forward to learning in grade 2. Remember that the Grade 2 curriculum can differ from state to state, but a common theme and pattern has been implemented to ensure every child meets overall education standards.

Reading and writing skills your child will learn in Grade 2

Reading

• Read and comprehend grade-appropriate stories and poetry– silently and out loud
• Read with expression
• Learn how to recount stories they read and retell main events, characters, and plot
• Be able to search for facts to answer questions
• Predict what will happen next in stories
• Read for fun and self-correct when needed
• Link speech sounds to written words
• Understand the concept of prefixes and suffixes
• Understand patterns of alliteration in a text

Writing

• Write coherent statements with proper use of capitalization and punctuation
• Write a journal
• Be able to write in paragraph forms
• Write stories with a set structure- a beginning, middle, and end
• Understand the first-person and third-person points of view
• Re-edit and improve their texts with correct syntax, spelling, and punctuation
• Be able to review a classmate's work

Besides reading and writing, your child will also learn to understand the basic rules of listening and speaking. For example, they will be taught to talk to their peers and wait for a response. You might even witness your child talking for many reasons, like when they have an opinion, to convince someone, or to tell a silly joke. 

For your child to grasp better what's happening in the classroom, they'll need to revisit what was taught in grade 1 in reading and writing and get tons of practice before school starts. One way to do this is to give your child simple activities or tasks. You can ask them to write down how they feel about something, give them their favorite bedtime story book to read aloud or talk about details of the characters and plots of an age-appropriate book.

Tip for parents: Talking to your child’s teacher to track your child’s learning progress will be an excellent way for you to help them learn and understand better.

Head on over to byjuslearning.com to learn more about our Active Learning approach to Math, Language, and Reading for children between Pre-K and Grade 3.  

Sources:

https://learning.ccsso.org/common-core-state-standards-initiative