2Nd Grade Curriculum - Communication Arts

Could be they will be writing a bit after Christmas.. 3rd grade is where the writing and the reading to learn kicks in.

One thing you could star helping him with is his fine motor skills. He will need to build up his hand and finger strength.. Look up some of the therapies.. They can be fun.. He will not realize that they are hand exercises ..
Give him a piggy bank and have him sort the coins. Then have him stack them into stacks. Of 10. Have him sort buttons by colors and place them in containers.

Give him some kitchen tongs and see what odd things he can pick up, just using tongs. Then give him clothes pins.. Have him do the same.

Give him a box of large paper clips.. Have him make a large chain. Then give him a box of little paper clips.. Same thing..

Have him button every shirt in the house. Have him hang clothes to dry.

Have him make cookie dough into balls, then have him make a thumb or finger print in each.. Have him put jam or candy in the center...

All of these are therapies.. They will help him build up his hands for writing..

My daughter is in second grade in the K12 program, which is a curriculum used by online schools in almost every state. We are enrolled in MNVA.

I would say one in every four units in her "Writing Skills" class (they have separate classes for Literature and Comprehension, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing Skills, and Handwriting.) is a composition unit. Of course the in between units are grammar, etc (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc), but the composition units she's had lately were "Write a friendly letter" and "Compose a paragraph." They go through a MULTIPLE step process in doing these, and the paragraph thing only brought her to the end of her first draft...she has three MORE units on paragraphs spread out through the remaining semester where she will be proofreading, embellishing, rewriting, and publishing, etc. Even last year they had to write a researched report on an animal assigned to them by their "teacher", and I'm sure they'll do something similar this year as well.

I don't know if you mean "Communication Arts and Science" to be one thing or if you're also concerned about his Science curriculum. In science, we have finished complex units on simple machines, force (including measuring force, which even I thought was a bit much at this age), magnetism, the scientific method, the digestive system, and we're getting ready to start a unit on geology.

My biggest concern for public schools is that they don't seem to teach history AT ALL. Again, in second grade history, my daughter has already learned about the rise and fall of Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and is now working her way through the Dark Ages...and the lessons go into an amazing amount of detail for this age. She loves it. Her stepsister, who is in fifth grade at a private school, has not had a history class yet, while my daughter started history in K.

If you have the time and energy, at least check out the k12 program at www.k12.com ...you can see if your state has a virtual academy, and submit a form to be able to check out examples of their curriculum at the appropriate grade level.

(Oh, and reading...what books are they reading? I didn't cover that, but we have read Peter Pan, Knights of the Round Table, Balto, The Long Way Westward, Sam the Minuteman, etc etc for Literature, as well as an extensive collection of fables and poetry.)

I see you're in Pittsburgh, as am I, so hopefully I can answer your question a bit for you.

From what you've described, the work you are seeing is pretty solid for 2nd grade. My son is in 3rd this year, and this is the first year he has consistent "report" or writing work. In the spring of 2nd grade, they were given 2 projects to do, each one had a short writing portion, but not an essay. It was more like Ven Diagramming and listing of facts. The proofreading bit is pretty good for 2nd grade, we only saw a small amount of that last year.

You probably don't realize what all they do writing wise in a day, because so much of it is on worksheets like you describe.

In 2nd grade, they are still working to make sure they understand basic spelling, sentences, story ideas, that sort of thing. Watch out for 3rd grade. It's a HUGE difference. Parts of speech, syllable break down, root word, definitions, all at one time. Proofreading, re-writing, and short answer questions on tests and worksheets. Keep in mind, 3rd grade is the start of PSSA testing, so there will be a ton of emphasis next year on LA/CA stuff.

From what you describe, you're in a good spot. LA/CA doesn't get much past the basics until middle grades, but they will do a lot of SSR and writing starting in 3rd grade.

Hope this helped a bit!

I'm trying to think on this. I'm homeschooling right now using K12 and I feel in some ways it's a little more advanced then public schools. Ones in 6th (11) ones in 3rd (8) and ones in 1st (6),

So thinking back to last year, my DD (the 3rd grader) was pretty independent. I don't really remember any reports, but i think there were some small ones. Mainly getting the idea of how things where done. Honestly she was doing most of it on her own, reading, writing the whole nine yards.

What your son is doing is what my son is learning now in 1st grade, although it irks me some because he is still learning a lot of his phonics. It's almost to much info at once.

My public school kids...I can't really remember.

Funny you should write this, I too have issues with the state of our curriculum, but I have a different POV. (I am also in Pittsburgh.)

In 4th grade, writing has become a central part of the curriculum for the first time in my daughter' education because of the PSSA's (teaching to test). My issue is that the kids are expected to write, capitalize, punctuate, and propely use all 8 parts of speech yet they have never been taught all 8 parts of speech.

As of 4th grade, our kids still have not been taught what a prepositional phrase is. To add insult to injury, my daughter's reading teacher has actually told them that a "good sentence" must have 8 words in it. You'd think that would be a great segue to the teaching of prepsitional phrases, but it is not. I swear they are supposed to learn by osmosis.

I have brought this up with the "grammar" teacher, but she gave me some line about a 'top down' approach of teaching English rather than the 'bottom up' approach that I grew up with.

It has been a VERY frustrating year for me. Don't get me wrong, my daugher is an A student and in the gifted program, but honestly she isn't learning anything.

I look at the work my daughter is doing, and I know she is not being taught what she needs to know. One exercise they did on compound sentences contained a bunch of imperative sentences. I asked my daughter if they taught her who the implied subject was. "No" Another sentence had the implied "that". I had to help her with that sentence as well because she punctuated it as two separate sentences. When I mentioned it to her teacher, she said that she gave them the hint that they may need to add words. Really??? A fourth grader is supposed to self teach themselves the implied that????

Sadly, our school's standardized test scores are good also so you THINK they are teaching and the kids are learning right? Wrong.

Another punctuating exercise they did had a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence. On the first sentence, my daughter put a comma after it. On a later sentence, she did not. Both were correct. Her teacher said that it is because she taught them to put a comma where they would take a natural break. So if they'd take a break great, if not that's great too! So much for the rule of putting a comma after an introductory article... I refer to it as 'hippie grammar' because her teacher has an 'anything goes' attitude.

As you can see this has been a bone of contention with me all year, and it doesn't look like it is going away. I was told by a teacher from another district that the state's curriculum is changing next year, and English may be back as a separate subject. We can only hope!

Do I think parochial school is the answer? No I really don't. Plus I'm not sure if your son would lose his gifted services which I think are important.

As you can tell, I could go on and on about the state of our currculum. I swear that those learning ESL may actually surpass our kids in knowledge because at least English is being taught to them! (Or so I hope!)

Hmm. We live in one of the highest ranking districts in CA.
I have never even heard the term "communication arts."
Is that a European expression?
Here we call it Language Arts, which basically covers reading, comprehension, writing, grammar, spelling, etc.
Our kids are FORCED to write (many before they even have the manual dexterity) starting in kindergarten.
Our most common term for this instruction during class time is called "writer's workshop."
Most of the writing is done in class at this time, and NOT sent home as homework, mainly because many kids really struggle with writing up until about 2nd/3rd grade, so the district thinks it's best to focus on that kind of work during the time when the most teacher, aide and parent volunteer time is available.
What does your child's teacher have to say?
What is on the grading rubric as far as writing goes? It should clearly address writing goals and expectations along with everything else.
I don't remember book reports and other highly structured writing projects beginning until 3rd or 4th grade for my kids, and for me personally, I don't remember starting these things until 5th grade. So, to me, your son sounds right on track.

It sounds like he's in a great program. The parochial schools often can't offer as many services. There isn't the money or as diversified a staff. The good news is that writing is something that can be done at home, easily! I agree it's important.

Just today my son (about your son's age) made his own book and wrote a story, with pictures too. This was his idea. He HATES academics and struggles. So, book-writing is the new thing. He loves it!

In 2nd grade my son also does the proof reading assignment. I don't know how many a week though...I feel like everything doesn't come home. Each week he is given spelling words and by now they are writing them 5xs each. They also have a writing assignment due on Fridays that corresponds with the reading that week. This week was about giving/receiving a gift; who was it for, what was the occasion, what did you feel. They only need to write 2-3 sentences. They use Singapore Math and have a worksheet four days out of the week. He just finished his first book report, but it was it was not in paragraph form...each section was broken up in different writing blocks. (I did my first book report in third grade)

Both of my sons did extensive journal writing in second as well as book reports several times a month. They also worked on how to write reports. I am surprised you don't have more writing at your school now because it will be included on the PSSA starting at third grade this year. That is always what motivates my district to emphasize something :-(

Here is what I suggest you do: Get it in your son's GIEP. You have so much that you can ask in that document. If you think your child needs enrichment in writing the dsitrict will be forced to comply. I would also talk to the GATE coordinator because there should at least be some written work involved in his pull out. In second grade ours did collaborative projects/presentations that required writing in addition to activities.

My daughter journalized everyday in kindergarten. They didn't have to spell correctly, so some of it was hard to understand.

She did one report on a Saint she picked, however it was simple.

This year in first grade, she writes a short story with her spelling words every week and has done a few short simple reports.

It looks like the writing focus is on when to use capital letters and punctuation.

She is in a parochial school.

You never mention the critical element here: Have you talked with the teacher about this and asked her what you are asking us?

The teacher probably can give you insight into how much they really do write, or where those worksheets fall in the bigger scheme of things, or what is ahead for the rest of the school year -- and there is a lot of the school year left to go; are you considering moving schools already based on just these few months of second grade?

Ask the expert -- the teacher. Don't go in defensive or upset. Just ask her to walk you through it and where it all fits into the rest of this year and what they expect for next year.

our district has a very tough writing program. last week the first graders were writing about their 2 favorite winter sports. this was very hard for the average student.

they have writers workshop once a week and write on many topics. this starts in kindergarten with a sheet that is preprinted "I can....." and the child writes something they can do.. and draws a picture. by the end of kinder .. children are expected to write 2 or 3 sentences on topic.

On the annual statewide assesment test.. the district gets top scores on writing at all grade levels.. but the math scores could be higher..

if you feel the district is not spending enough time on writing.. aske the teacher.. there may be things going on that you dont know about or see as take home work. but if that is the curriculum being taught.. you may have to supplement your child at home with writing activities.

i supplement both of my kids for certain things..

My daughter has a journal she keeps at school too. At her last parent teacher conference after about 3 months of school she had done a ton of journal entries. I'm not sure how often exactly they write but it was a lot. Her teacher offered for us to read some...I could have been there for a long time reading them all. I can't wait to see it at the end of the year! Other than that I don't see her coming home with writing pages that often. Although, once in awhile she does. She also is constantly working on proofreading and taking proofreading tests/quizzes. And also whenever she is writing outside of her journals like on her spelling tests she is being graded and/or corrected on her penmanship as well.