English Language Arts — Grade 2

Vessels in Greek art: Museum pre-visit

This lesson will focus on what vessels are, where we can find them in our everyday world, and the concept that vessels are containers that hold something. This lesson is the first lesson of two.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts)

By Katie O'Connor.

Narrowing the focus: What's the main event?

In this lesson, students will learn how to narrow the focus of their personal narrative down to one main event by selecting a more specific title. Good stories are focused on one topic or main event. The reader should be able to tell the most important thing that the story is about. Instead of writing a story about a whole vacation that describes many events, it is a good strategy to write a story about one thing that happened on the vacation-one main event.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–3 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Marvelous metamorphosis

Most kids love insects. This integrated unit will enable students the opportunity to observe, identify, and describe the life cycle a mealworm goes through during his metamorphosis into a grain beetle.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts and Science)

By Pam Maness.

Make that chocolate sundae!

The student will write detailed directions for making and eating a chocolate sundae. S/he will then create and eat a sundae.

Format: lesson plan (grade 1–2 English Language Arts)

By Landa Latta.

Leaves

Students learn about the changing leaves with a hands-on approach. This cross-curricula thematic unit is designed for students to explore, read, write and much more.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Getting hooked: Introduction for a narrative

Students will be able to identify techniques for writing an introduction for a narrative and use them effectively.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts)

By Leann Kelley.

Geography centers

A geography unit in which students investigate and compare their hometowns and other cities. The unit incorporates nine centers: math, science, social studies, reading, writing, computers, puzzles and games, art, and listening. They all have activities that are integrated with the geography unit.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies)

By Laurie Perry.

Economic resources using thinking maps

This lesson uses several literature selections in order to identify and classify natural, human, and capital resources. Students will work together in small groups to gather information and individually complete a Thinking Map. The assessment includes completing a Tree Map individually and sharing group information with the rest of the class. This lesson will take two days.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Robin Campbell.

Collecting family stories

Students will interview relatives and compose a family story on the computer. This lesson was completed in conjunction with two other lesson plans (art and media) using the same theme but could be used alone. Student work from all three lessons was compiled in a student portfolio.

Format: lesson plan (grade K–5 English Language Arts, Guidance, and Social Studies)

By Amy Honeycutt, Chris Furry, and Diana Hicks.

The bear who wouldn't sleep

Intermediate-level ESL students will apply facts from a content-based reading passage to create a short story about a bear who doesn't hibernate with his family.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts)

By Donna Kauffman.

The Red-eyed Tree Frog and Hyperstudio

Students will read The Red-eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley then plan and put together a Hyperstudio which retells the story.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Computer/Technology Skills and English Language Arts)

By Jody Shaughnessy.

The Legend of the Blue Bonnet

Students will create their own version/retelling of The Legend of the Blue Bonnet by Tomie dePaola

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts)

By Shari Peacock.

Resources on the web

Writing workshop: Helping writers choose and focus on a topic

This lesson from ReadWriteThink helps young writers bring greater focus to their writing. Students use a timeline to break a larger topic into several events or moments. They then select an event to write about from the timeline. Students first work with... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

When I was young

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students learn about how history has been preserved through oral storytelling. Students interview a family or community member to find out what life was like when they were young, and share this person's story with the class. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–4 English Language Arts and Theater Arts Education)

Provided by: ArtsEdge

What's the difference? Beginning writers compare e-mail with letter writing

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students explore the differences between e-mail and letter writing by contrasting and identifying different forms, and experimenting with their own e-mail and letter compositions. This lesson incorporates an “E-Mail... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

What is history? Timelines and oral histories

This lesson from EDSITEment aims to help students understand history and recognize that the past is different depending on who is remembering and retelling it. There are four activities, in which students construct a timeline based on events from their... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 1–2 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Using web-based bookmarks to conduct Internet research

Students listen and respond to a read-aloud of The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown, and then use the structure of her writing to write poems describing “important things” about classmates. The teacher introduces... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–3 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Telling a story about me: Young children write autobiographies

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students learn to develop ideas collaboratively, plan writing projects before executing them, and compose sentences related to a specific topic. The lesson teaches these skills while drawing from the lives of first- and second-grade... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Teaching audience through interactive writing

This ReadWriteThink lesson supports young writers in learning about audience. Through interactive writing, students work together to create an invitation letter for a group of their peers. In addition, students work independently to create invitation letters... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Teaching about story structure using fairy tales

The teacher guides students through read-alouds of fairy tales in this unit that introduces the concept of the beginning, middle and end of stories. After students use storyboards to identify common plot sequences in fairy tales, they work in groups to... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink