Language Arts curriculum, second grade

Mr. E is in second(ish) grade this year! I am really loving our LA curriculum, that I mashed together from several sources, so I thought I’d share what we’ve been using. *These are my honest opinions and I am not receiving any kind of compensation for reviewing and/or sharing any of these products, this is just for my records and to be helpful/informative to anyone looking for some great resources.*

I wanted to really try and follow Mr. E’s lead and give him things that would interest him and help him grow.  He has become a pretty strong reader, but I noticed he was struggling with certain phonics concepts, and with comprehension. So I went on a hunt for resources to help with comprehension, with a goal in mind to work extra hard on the phonics concepts he was struggling with.  How excited was I when I stumbled across this set of phonics based reading fluency AND comprehension passages!   I love that I can choose which phonics concept he needs to work on and only print out those specific passages.  The print is large and they are short, sweet, and to the point with LOTS of practice at the focused concept packed into each one. He likes that there’s only a few questions that are usually pretty easy to answer. We try and do one each week, he reads it aloud three times and usually answers one question with each reading.  I can already see a difference in his reading fluency, especially as it pertains to the phonics concepts we’ve been working to improve, and in his comprehension.  He is retelling stories better, understanding what he is reading better, and beginning to make some surprising inferences and conclusions.  Along with reading these passages we read lots of books. I read aloud with the kids in many different ways, they have free-reading time each day, and Mr. E and I have reading time together, in a book that’s he has chosen, sometimes curriculum related, sometimes not. Mr. E enjoys lots of picture books, but is also reading simple chapter books such as the Fly Guy series, the Magic Treehouse series, the Axel and Beast series, and anything else that strikes his fancy. Currently he is mostly interested in fiction, but I’m hoping to find some non-fiction he enjoys soon.

Last year we tried journaling, and while Mr. E seemed to enjoy it, it stressed me out that his sentences weren’t really complete sentences and he seemed to have little grasp or interest in the concept. How lucky that Facebook seemed to read my mind and showed me an ad for these differentiated sentence  building centers.  Each seasonal set has ten pages of three sentences each.  There’s two options for each page— emergent: short sentences with a simple subject and predicate for kids just starting to write, and early fluent: more complex sentences with quotes, proper nouns, adjectives, and more, for kiddos who need more of a challenge— there’s also two writing page options, one with a reading fluency and writing checklist, and one with just the writing checklist. The words for the sentences are on little cards with a picture so it’s easy to tell which words belong together and the pictures also hint at what each sentence is about. This has been a great activity that Mr. E has *mostly* enjoyed and that he can do basically by himself. To shake things up we sometimes tape the word cards onto DUPLO blocks and literally build the sentences into towers. Mr. E is starting to understand how to construct his own complete sentences, which he is using in his journaling.  We do one of these each week and it works out pretty well.

Spelling is by far Mr. E’s least favorite subject. We tried the spelling workout workbook last year and he fought so hard against it that I gave up, it just wasn't worth the tears. This year I bought a set of spelling lists, activities, and test here.  Each list includes flash cards, practice pages, and a test. Some of the lists also have fun activities like word shapes, but not every list. While these are editable I am not computer savvy enough to do that. The list are at the right level, and I like that each focuses on a particular phonics concept such as short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, blends, suffixes, etc.. However, I wish that every list had all the practice activities, not just some of them. E still fights pretty hard against spelling, so we try to make it more fun by playing games like hangman, go fish, tic-tac-toe, apple letters, and this great app (from what I can tell it’s only for apple devices).  We tried tests for several weeks, but I decided that it isn’t worth the tears and frustration for either of us, so we’ve given them up for the time being.  Instead we are focusing on learning the phonics concepts that build the words, practicing them in fun ways, and using words in context by journaling.

Handwriting is another beast in and of itself. It gets used so often that I can’t fathom how my son’s handwriting is still so poor! I tried to combat this by making copywork for him, but he hates this almost as much as spelling tests, so we do it sparingly. For the curious, I was having him copy the 13 Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (found in the Pearl of Great Price). Instead I have revived the journal that we used last year.  This set is great because there’s lots of ways to use the prompts for every level of writer. There’s prompted pages for beginners, unprompted with suggested words, and free-writing pages. Each month is themed, and there is options for dashed lines and non-dashed lines. These also incorporate art as there is drawing space on each page for the kids to illustrate their writing. Last year I guided this heavily by using the promoted pages and walking E through this sentences word-for-word. This wasn’t helping him learn to compose his own sentences, and I had to sit by him the entire time. Now I’m letting him write his “first draft” completely unaided, then I help him edit for complete sentences, grammar, and spelling using the incorporated checklist. Doing it this way allows him to work independently, he is able to sound out words and employ the skills we are working on with spelling, and he can see how proper sentences are built, all while practicing his handwriting. After we edit he rewrites his journal and draws a picture.  Most of his journals are only one or two sentences, but thats enough for some beginning practice, and i don't have to fight him on it.  I'm sure that, as we do it more, he will start to write more.

Last, but certainly not least is this nifty little tool that we discovered last year, the learning palette.  This little learning tool is disguised as a game and Mr. E loves to play it.  It is a board with colored discs that we call cookies and doughnuts.  You place a question card on the board then place the corresponding disc to each question in the answer slot.  The best part, it's self-correcting, so he can do it completely by himself!  We also use the learning wrap-ups for some vocabulary fun with synonyms, antonyms, compound words, and homonyms.  These are key shaped cards with words down each side and a piece of string attached.  He reads the words and matches them to the word across with the string, for example in compound words he matches base to ball, snow to man, etc..  These also self correct.  I love learning tools that he can do independently, and its even better when he thinks they're a game!





LA is definitely the area I struggle with Mr. E the most.  In the beginning he was never super interested in letters, more with numbers and shapes.  My hope is that, by incorporating engaging and accessible activities, I can strengthen this area and even make it fun and interesting for Mr. E.  He is definitely discovering a love for reading by being allowed to read books that he finds fun and interesting.  Hopefully this can also help some of you sort through the millions of options out there for teaching LA to your kiddos.