Second graders also have opportunities to be read to every day from a novel chosen for the class to enjoy. As students write their own stories, they also read their work to classmates, so they hear peers' writing and receive feedback. Children also go to the Library every week to listen to the librarian reading books, check out books, and share book ideas with friends.

In Lit Clubs, which meet weekly for an hour to discuss literature, children meet with students from other classes and grades, discuss books with adults, and share their thoughts about content.

Second graders learn from novel writers, picture books, and the poems they read. Whether writing prose or poetry, they weave these techniques into their own writing. Children learn about organization, word choice, sensory details, vivid verbs, repeated phrases, and similes. Through these crafts, they learn how to help the reader visualize and feel the emotion of a story or poem.

Writing mechanics are also important. Children practice proofreading their work and their classmates' writing while looking for spelling mistakes, capitalization, and basic punctuation.

When editing with a teacher, they receive individual and small-group mini-lessons on topics such as serial commas, incomplete sentences, and spelling rules and are reminded of these rules when proofing their work. Students gradually build both proofreading skills and the understanding that writing isn't complete until it is correct. Students also apply writing mechanics in writer's notebooks and in letter writing.

In addition to integrating correct spelling into creative writing, the class participates in a spelling-inquiry study. Teachers ask big questions about why words are spelled a certain way and work together to find the answer. As spelling is connected to a word's meaning, the class discusses words that share the same base, the base's original meaning, and the meanings of prefixes and suffixes.

Second graders work together to create word sums by breaking a word down into the prefix, base, and suffix, and investigating what happens to the spelling when each part is added to the base. This analysis helps children understand there's a reason words are spelled in certain ways, and it is up to the class to investigate and prove spelling theories to find answers.

Building a sequence of problem-solving experiences in a gradually enlarging spiral provides the opportunity for students to use multiple methods for solving problems with ever-increasing depth of understanding and higher levels of thinking. Second-grade teachers value and expect a capacity for logical thought and multiple approaches. Students learn math skills through a variety of mediums such as hands-on projects, games, pattern blocks, word problems, and more.

Additionally, they retell and illustrate each story in their "Theme Books," which reflects their learning across time. Throughout the study, students continue practicing their reading-comprehension strategies in both fiction and nonfiction reading. Fiction reading focuses on cultural stories, and nonfiction reading includes reading about animals, biographies, and geography (landforms, locations, and biomes).

There is a "no-tears" policy in second grade, which means that if a child becomes very frustrated and perhaps even brought to tears due to difficulties with his/her homework, he/she doesn't need to finish that part of the homework. If this happens, please send a note with your child the next day that explains the issue so the teacher can provide further support at school.