Theme: Stories Near and Far from the Past Realistic Fiction and Poetry Winter Traditions
Throughout this unit, students will be engaged in a variety of stories centered around winter traditions and celebrations from diverse cultures around the world. Students will be able to
Recount stories from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral. (RL. 2.2)
Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. (RL.2.3)
Determine the meaning of vocabulary. (RL 2.4)
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters. (RL 2.6)
Use information from a text to demonstrate understanding of the characters, setting, or plot (RL 2.7)
Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story from different cultures (RL 2.9)
Students will also build upon their knowledge of informational writing, by naming a topic they know a lot about, providing information on the topic and a conclusion.
Foundational Reading and Skills In this unit, students will built their ability to demonstrates a command of conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing and speaking. They will know and begin to apply grade level phonics and world analysis skills in decoding words. They will also improve their ability to read with accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Writing In this unit, students will build their skills with informational/explanatory writing. They will write, focusing on facts, participate in shared research and writing projects, and use their writing to recall and retell information.
Humanities This unit builds on the students’ analysis of the games children play in different countries and parts of the world and helps students analyze the lives of children in different cultures. Students observe and record how they spend their time and compare and contrast those observations with those of their peers as well as with those of their peers in partner schools around the world. They learn the concepts of rights and responsibilities and use those as categories to examine how they and other children spend time. They prepare presentations that they will share in class and with peers in other countries using telecommunication technologies. They then study childhood in urban and rural areas and examine school attendance and the education experience of students in different countries and regions. This unit also introduces the concept of child labor around the world.
Essential Questions
How can students compare and contrast holiday traditions across cultures?
How can students recount stories, including fables and poems from diverse cultures and determine their central message, lesson or moral?
RL.2.2. Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral. RL.2.3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. RL.2.4. Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. RL.2.5. Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. RL.2.6. Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud. RL.2.7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. RL.2.9. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. RL.2.10. By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories and poetry, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. Foundational Reading RF.2.3. Know and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-‐ syllable words
Know spelling-‐sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams.
Decode regularly spelled two-‐syllable words with long vowels.
Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes.
Identify words with inconsistent but common spelling-‐sound correspondences.
Recognize and read grade-‐appropriate irregularly spelled words.
RF.2.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Read on-‐level text with purpose and understanding.
Read on-‐level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
Use context to confirm or self-‐correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
Writing
W.2.2. Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section. W.2.5. With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing. W.2.6. With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers. W.2.7. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record science observations). W.2.8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Speaking and Listening SL.2.1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about second grade topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Follow agreed-‐upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion)
Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.
SL.2.2. Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. SL.2.3. Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to clarify comprehension, gather additional information, or deepen understanding of a topic or issue. SL.2.4. Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences. SL.2.5. Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. SL.2.6. Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. (See grade 2 Language standards 1 and 3 on pages 26 and 27 for specific expectations.)
Language L.2.1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Use collective nouns (e.g., group).
Form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns (e.g., feet, children, teeth, mice, fish).
Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.
Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy).
L.2.2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing
Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names.
Use commas in greetings and closings of letters.
Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.
Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words (e.g., cage, badge; boy, boil).
Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.
L.2.3. Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. a. Compare formal and informal uses of English. L.2.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple meaning words and phrases based on second grade reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.
Use sentence-‐level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a
known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell)
Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of and unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).
Use knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).
Use glossaries and beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
L.2.5. Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
Identify real-‐life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).
L.2.6. Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and begin read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy.)
Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).