Colorado State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 2

CO.1. Oral Expression and Listening

1.1. Discussions contribute and expand on the ideas of self and others. Students can:

1.1.a. Use precise language to express ideas, opinions, and feelings

1.1.b. Use content-specific vocabulary to ask questions and provide information

1.1.c. Give oral presentations about personal experiences or interests using clear enunciation and adequate volume

1.1.d. Maintain focus on the topic

1.1.e. Contribute knowledge to a small group or class discussion to develop a topic

1.2. New information can be learned and better dialogue created by listening actively. Students can:

1.2.a. Listen to formulate thoughts and generate clarifying questions

1.2.b. Ask and answer questions, and express knowledge, experiences, thoughts, and opinions

1.2.c. Improve their own communication by actively listening

CO.2. Reading for All Purposes

2.1. Fluent reading depends on specific skills and approaches to understanding strategies when reading literary text. Students can:

2.1.a. Demonstrate use of self-monitoring comprehension strategies: rereading, checking context clues, predicting, questioning, clarifying, activating schema/background knowledge to construct meaning and draw inferences

2.1.b. Summarize using sequence of events and story elements of texts read or read aloud

2.1.c. Read text with fluency, accuracy, and proper expression attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation

2.1.d. Read high-frequency words with accuracy and speed

2.1.e. Identify how word choice (sensory details, figurative language) enhances meaning in poetry

2.2. Fluent reading depends on specific skills and approaches to understanding strategies when reading informational text. Students can:

2.2.a. Identify and use common text features (title, captions, bold, key words, table of contents) to support understanding text and to answer questions

2.2.b. Read text to perform a specific task (such as follow a recipe, play a game)

2.2.c. Summarize the main idea using relevant and significant detail in a variety of texts read or read aloud

2.2.f. Adjust reading rate according to type of text and purpose for reading

2.3. Decoding words with accuracy depends on knowledge of complex spelling patterns and morphology. Students can:

2.3.a. Read multisyllabic words accurately and fluently

2.3.b. Decode complex spelling patterns (irregular vowel patterns and words, common word endings)

2.3.c. Determine how a basic prefix or suffix changes the meaning of a word in context

CO.3. Writing and Composition

3.1. Exploring the writing process helps to plan and draft a variety of literary genres. Students can:

3.1.a. Write personal narratives or simple stories that have a clear beginning, middle, and end

3.1.b. Organize ideas using pictures, graphic organizers, or story maps

3.1.c. Write simple, descriptive poems

3.1.d. Write with precise nouns, active verbs, and descriptive adjectives

3.1.f. Use a knowledge of structure and crafts of various forms of writing gained through reading and listening to mentor texts

3.1.g. Develop characters both internally (thoughts and feelings) and externally (physical features, expressions, clothing)

3.2. Exploring the writing process helps to plan and draft a variety of simple informational texts. Students can:

3.2.a. Write letters and ''how-to's'' (procedures, directions, recipes) that follow a logical order and appropriate format

3.2.b. Organize informational texts using main ideas and specific supporting details

3.2.c. Organize ideas using a variety of pictures, graphic organizers or bulleted lists

3.2.d. Use relevant details when responding in writing to questions about texts

3.2.e. State a focus when responding to a given question, and use details from text to support a given focus

3.2.f. Apply appropriate transition words to writing

3.3. Appropriate spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation are used and applied when writing. Students can:

3.3.a. Use and apply commas (in a series, in dates, between the name of a town and state, and in the salutation and closing of a letter) and ending punctuation (period, exclamation point, and question mark) correctly

3.3.b. Capitalize beginnings of sentences and proper nouns (names of days, months, and holidays, the pronoun I and salutation/closing of a letter)

3.3.c. Spell high-frequency words correctly

3.3.d. Spell words that follow learned rules and patterns with accuracy

3.3.e. Write with precise nouns, active verbs, and descriptive adjectives

3.3.f. Apply accurate subject-verb agreement while writing

3.3.g. Vary sentence beginnings

3.3.h. Edit for correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and complete sentences

CO.4. Research and Reasoning

4.1. Reference materials help us locate information and answer questions. Students can:

4.1.a. Identify a variety of resources and the information they might contain (dictionary, trade book, library databases, Internet web page)

4.1.b. Identify a specific question and gather information for purposeful investigation and inquiry

4.1.c. Use text features to locate, interpret, and use information (table of contents, illustrations, diagrams, headings, bold type)

4.1.d. Use a variety of multimedia sources to answer questions of interest

4.2. Questions are essential to analyze and evaluate the quality of thinking. Students can:

4.2.a. Ask primary questions of depth and breadth

4.2.b. Acknowledge the need to treat all viewpoints fair-mindedly

CO.5. Prepared Graduate Competencies in Reading, Writing, and Communicating: The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting.

5.1. Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others, and contribute ideas to further the group's attainment of an objective

5.2. Deliver organized and effective oral presentations for diverse audiences and varied purposes

5.3. Use language appropriate for purpose and audience

5.4. Demonstrate skill in inferential and evaluative listening

5.5. Interpret how the structure of written English contributes to the pronunciation and meaning of complex vocabulary

5.6. Demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational, literary, and persuasive texts

5.7. Evaluate how an author uses words to create mental imagery, suggest mood, and set tone

5.8. Read a wide range of literature (American and world literature) to understand important universal themes and the human experience

5.9. Seek feedback, self-assess, and reflect on personal learning while engaging with increasingly more difficult texts

5.10. Engage in a wide range of nonfiction and real-life reading experiences to solve problems, judge the quality of ideas, or complete daily tasks

5.11. Write with a clear focus, coherent organization, sufficient elaboration, and detail

5.12. Effectively use content-specific language, style, tone, and text structure to compose or adapt writing for different audiences and purposes

5.13. Apply standard English conventions to effectively communicate with written language

5.14. Implement the writing process successfully to plan, revise, and edit written work

5.15. Master the techniques of effective informational, literary, and persuasive writing

5.16. Discriminate and justify a position using traditional lines of rhetorical argument and reasoning

5.17. Articulate the position of self and others using experiential and material logic

5.18. Gather information from a variety of sources; analyze and evaluate the quality and relevance of the source; and use it to answer complex questions

5.19. Use primary, secondary, and tertiary written sources to generate and answer research questions

5.20. Evaluate explicit and implicit viewpoints, values, attitudes, and assumptions concealed in speech, writing, and illustration

5.21. Demonstrate the use of a range of strategies, research techniques, and persistence when engaging with difficult texts or examining complex problems or issues

5.22. Exercise ethical conduct when writing, researching, and documenting sources