Second Grade

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

4 Main Components of Reading

• Fluency

• Accuracy

• Comprehension

• Vocabulary

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.

AccuracyMake 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.

What prompts can I use to help my child

read?

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!

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!

Can I help you?

I can help you.

Get your mouth ready to make the first sound.

Blend the sounds to figure out an unknown words.

c a t

Look for a little word in a big word or a part that you know.

c am pb all

th at

Think of a word that makes sense. Does the first letter sound match?

The fish swims in the ______.

lake pond water

Read the sentence or word again to make sure it…

• Looks right

• Sounds right

• Makes sense

The cat is small.

Comprehension Strategies• Predict

• Character Traits/ Setting

• Main Idea

• Problem/ Solution

• Plot

• Retelling

• Genre

• Author’s Purpose

• Mental Images/ Visualizing

It’s 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.

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 you’ve 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.

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.

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.

Main Idea

• What the text is mostly about

• Supporting Details- The details that support the main idea.

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

Retelling

• Sequence of most important events

• Ex: First, ______. Next, ______.

• Then, ________. Last, _______.

Genre/ Text Features

• Fairy Tales

• Poetry

• Fiction

• Nonfiction

• Text Features such as titles, headings, captions, & graphic features.

Author’s Purpose

• Persuade

• Inform

• Entertain

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.

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?

Extend the story ideas• Rename a character (Pick a character and give it a new name; retell a part of the story using the character’s 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)

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.

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 didn’t like (Share something you didn’t 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 author’s “voice”)

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• Author’s Purpose• Topic/ Main Idea/ Supporting Details• Comparing Story Variants (characters, setting, resolutions)• Inference• Poetry

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

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

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

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 (Don’t let spelling hinder their writing).

• Play hangman with spelling words.

• Play scrabble or other word games.

But most important of all…

Read to your child, Read with your child,

or Listen to your child read every night!