Grade 2 · English

Grade 2 English

In grade 2, reading gets smoother and books get longer, so the question changes from “can you read it?” to “what was it about?” Here is what the year covers, where kids usually get stuck, and one way to help.

What your child learns this year

Every curriculum words it differently, but most grade 2 classes cover the same ground:

  • Reading fluently. Reading longer books smoothly, with expression, and rereading when something doesn't make sense.
  • Retelling and main idea. Saying what a story or article was mostly about, in order and in their own words.
  • Phonics and spelling. Vowel teams like ai and ee, word endings like -ing and -ed, and common spelling patterns.
  • Writing. A few sentences on one topic: a story, an opinion with a reason, or facts about something.
  • Grammar and punctuation. Capitals, periods and question marks, commas in a list, and apostrophes in words like can't.

Where kids usually get stuck

  1. 1Retelling every event. A summary that goes on as long as the story. The important parts get lost among the small ones.
  2. 2Reading fast without stopping when it stops making sense. Getting to the end of a page and not knowing what happened. Good readers stop and go back.
  3. 3Putting the apostrophe in the wrong place. It goes where the letters were taken out: can not becomes can't, not ca'nt.

One of Pip's tricks

Somebody Wanted But So Then

Use it when summarizing a story in one or two sentences.

  1. Somebody: who is the main character?
  2. Wanted: what did they want? But: what problem got in the way?
  3. So: what did they do about it? Then: how did it end?
  4. Say the five answers as one or two sentences.

Watch it work. Aisha hoped to win the snow-sculpture contest. At noon the sun came out, and her snow bear started to melt. She dragged it into the shade and packed on fresh snow. She won second prize. Somebody: Aisha. Wanted: to win the contest. But: the sun started melting her bear. So: she moved it into the shade and added snow. Then: she won second prize.

Why it works: the five words stand for the parts nearly every story has (a character, a goal, a problem, an action and an ending), so filling them in keeps what matters and drops the small details.

Try three

Tap a choice to see if it is right, with the reason.

  1. 1.“Leo wanted to grow a sunflower. But a squirrel kept digging up the seeds. So he put a wire cage over the pot. Then the sunflower grew taller than him.” What is the But part?

  2. 2.Which is the best one-sentence summary of Leo's story?

  3. 3.Which is spelled correctly?

How Sparkpip fits in

Pip, Sparkpip's tutor, works through stories and sentences like these with your child one small step at a time, using tricks like the one above.

Start freeSee how it works

Your curriculum

Sparkpip is built on the grade 2 English curriculum for your province or state. The official pages:

Also: Grade 1 English · Grade 3 English · Grade 2 math · Grade 2 science