I wonder: Writing scientific explanations with students

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 2

• Goal 1: The learner will develop and apply enabling strategies and skills to read and write.
  • Objective 1.03: Self-monitor decoding by using letter-sound knowledge of all consonants and vowels.
• Goal 2: The learner will develop and apply strategies and skills to comprehend text that is read, heard, and viewed.
  • Objective 2.01: Read and comprehend both narrative and expository text appropriate for grade two by:
    • determining purpose (reader's and author's).
    • making predictions.
    • asking questions.
    • locating information for specific reasons/purposes.
    • recognizing and applying text structure.
    • comprehending and evaluating author's decisions and word choice.
    • determining fact and opinion.
    • recognizing and comprehending figurative language.
    • making inferences and drawing conclusions.
  • Objective 2.02: Use text for a variety of functions, including literary, informational, and practical.
  • Objective 2.03: Read expository materials for answers to specific questions.
  • Objective 2.04: Pose possible how, why, and what if questions to understand and/or interpret text.
  • Objective 2.05: Self-monitor own difficulties in comprehending independently using several strategies.
  • Objective 2.06: Recall main ideas, facts and details from a text.
  • Objective 2.07: Discuss similarities and differences in events, characters and concepts within and across texts.
• Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
  • Objective 3.01: Use personal experiences and knowledge to interpret written and oral messages.
  • Objective 3.02: Connect and compare information within and across selections (fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama) to experience and knowledge.
  • Objective 3.03: Explain and describe new concepts and information in own words (e.g., plot, setting, major events, characters, author's message, connections, topic, key vocabulary, key concepts, text features).
  • Objective 3.04: Increase oral and written vocabulary by listening, discussing, and composing texts when responding to literature that is read and heard. (e.g., read aloud by teacher, literature circles, interest groups, book clubs).
• Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
  • Objective 4.04: Use oral communication to identify, organize, and analyze information.
  • Objective 4.05: Respond appropriately when participating in group discourse by adapting language and communication behaviors to the situation to accomplish a specific purpose.
  • Objective 4.06: Plan and make judgments about what to include in written products (e.g., narratives of personal experiences, creative stories, skits based on familiar stories and/or experiences).
  • Objective 4.07: Compose first drafts using an appropriate writing process:
    • planning and drafting.
    • rereading for meaning.
    • revising to clarify and refine writing with guided discussion.
  • Objective 4.08: Write structured, informative presentations and narratives when given help with organization.
  • Objective 4.09: Use media and technology to enhance the presentation of information to an audience for a specific purpose.
• Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.
  • Objective 5.01: Spell correctly using:
    • previously studied words.
    • spelling patterns.
    • analysis of sounds to represent all the sounds in a word in one's own writing.
  • Objective 5.02: Attend to spelling, mechanics, and format for final products in one's own writing.
  • Objective 5.03: Use capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphs in own writing.
  • Objective 5.04: Use the following parts of the sentence
    • subject.
    • predicate.
    • modifier.
  • Objective 5.06: Use correctly in written products:
    • letter formation, lines, and spaces to create readable documents
    • plural forms of commonly used nouns
    • common, age - appropriate contractions.
  • Objective 5.07: Use legible manuscript handwriting.