Your Second-Grader and Reading
In Your Child's Classroom
Building fluency and meaning
Your second-grader is becoming a more fluent reader and reading more for meaning. She should have many opportunities to read - silently on her own, aloud in groups, aloud with a partner - and listen to books read aloud. She rereads stories to increase her fluency, reading quickly and accurately with expression.
Decoding words
Your second-grader is able to recognize a growing number of words, using his knowledge of word structures and letter-sound relationships. He uses a variety of strategies to read. He not only uses skills to hear and say separate sounds in words, but also uses patterns to decode words. He can read new words by breaking them into syllables. He is learning the meaning of many prefixes and suffixes to read and understand words.
Reading chapter books
Your second-grader is reading more complex material. She is learning to read across subject areas, including social studies, science and math. She is reading books that have several chapters and beginning to develop a larger vocabulary by reading a variety of books. She is taught specific words from selections she reads in class.
In second grade, your child is able to use the parts of a book to find information. She can identify the table of contents, index, glossary, title page, introduction and preface. She understands that there are different purposes for reading: for pleasure, to get directions and to gather information. She is able to select books at her reading level that interest her.
Reading specialist Jennifer Thompson recommends using the "five-finger test" to choose a book at the appropriate reading level: "Have your child open the book to any page and if she finds five words that she does not know; the book is too difficult."
Doing research
Second-graders learn to use books to research different subjects and answer questions about a topic. They use encyclopedias, informational books and the Internet to do research and locate information. "Reading informational text is critical for second- and third-graders," says Thompson. "Most of the federally mandated tests contain a great deal of nonfiction reading. Children need to learn to read nonfiction for understanding and need to be taught how to use all of the conventions of nonfiction to assist with understanding. These include the table of contents, index, glossary, captions, illustrations, bold print, diagrams, charts and graphs."
Reading aloud
Second-graders should still get many opportunities to listen to books read aloud. Listening to a teacher or parent read provides a model of fluent reading and fosters a love of books. It also helps your child understand vocabulary and language patterns in texts. Books read aloud are often discussed before, during and after the reading to increase involvement and understanding. Your second-grader should also have many opportunities to practice reading with fluency by reading aloud himself. He also reads aloud in groups and with a partner.
Reading for meaning
Your second-grader is learning strategies to draw meaning from what is read. She will recognize the sequence of events in a story and their cause and effect, as well as anticipate the possible outcome. She can retell familiar stories, summarizing the main ideas and plot, and identifying the characters and settings. She is asked to compare and contrast characters in stories to her own life and to characters in other stories she has read. She asks and can answer questions about the text, such as who, what, when, where, why and how.
She is learning to use the illustrations, text and her prior knowledge to make predictions and grasp the meaning of the story. She can use prefixes, suffixes and roots to determine the meaning of a word. She is also learning to use a dictionary and thesaurus to discover the meanings of words.
