1. Reading Literature
Welcome to this presentation about the top 5 ideas your child will learn during the first quarter of second grade.
Top 5 Big Ideas Your Child Will Learn in the First Quarter of Second Grade

2. Ask and Answer Questions Such as Who, What, Where, When, Why and How
Big idea 1 is about asking and answering questions about text.  Being able to ask questions with a literary text, is just as important if not more important than answering questions.  Students who pose questions are interacting in a meaningful way with the text they are reading. 1

3. How you can help your child:
Read a book with your child and ask who, what, where, when, why and how questions.
Have children come up with their own questions about the story during and after reading.
You can help your child by asking him or her questions about text.  Some questions you could consider asking your child include, “Who won the dancing contest?” “What did the giraffe do that was unusual?”  Ask your child to find evidence in the text to support his or her answer. 
What is the story about? 1

4. Identify Morals/Lessons in Fables and Folktales
Big idea two is being able to identify morals/lessons in fables and folktales. Fables and folktales inspire creative thinking and writing. Fables are short stories, usually with animals as the characters, that illustrate a specific moral and teach a lesson. Folktales are stories that have been passed down from generation to generation through storytelling. There is often some basis in fact. 2
Folktale or Fable?

5. How you can help your child:
Help your child identify the characteristics of fables and folktales
Model thinking out loud to show your child how you figure out the moral or lesson of a fable or folktale
Encourage the exploration of fables from diverse cultures
Point out clues in a fable or folktale that help the reader discover the lesson or moral. Talking out loud as you think through this will provide a great example for your child. When reading fables or folktales encourage your child to think about how the lessons or morals could be applied to his or her life or actions. Check out fables and folktales from different cultures at your public library.
What’s the moral? 2

6. Notice different characters’ points of view within a story.
Big idea three is recognizing different characters’ points of view. Students will work to identify the point of view or perspective of different characters within a story. 3

7. How you can help your child:
Help your child look for clues in the story that reveal a character’s thoughts or feelings. 
Have your child try writing a story from different view points.
Help your child speak in different voices to represent different characters when reading aloud dialogue.
Help your child to understand that just like people, different characters have different thoughts, feelings, and opinions.  Often times a character’s actions or words show the reader that character’s point of view.  For example, a character who sings and skips all the way to school, most likely has a positive point of view about school. 3

8. How do characters respond to major events and challenges in a story?
Big idea number 4 is being able to explain how characters respond to major events and challenges in a story. Your child will be expected to describe how characters respond to major events and challenges. 4

9. How you can help your child:
Plot Map
Discuss how characters change (beginning, middle, and end of the story).
Examine the character’s actions and motivations.
After reading a literary piece for the second time, have your child build a major events plot map to record the most important happenings. Help your child identify a problema character faces and what he/she does in response to that problem. 4

10. Determine the meaning of words and phrases How do words and phrases create a beat in stories, poems and songs?
Big idea number 5 is being able to determine the meaning of words and phrases. Your child will analyze stories, poems or songs to determine the meaning of words and phrases and how they supply rhythm and meaning. The author uses alliteration in a piece of text to create rhythm and mood. It helps the reader to focus on a particular section of the text. 5

11. How you can help your child:
Alliterative poems and rhymes
While reading literary text, encourage your child to look through the text to identify words and phrases that are interesting and ask your child to explain why. Select poems and rhymes with alliteration, or repeated beginning sounds, to read with your child. Help your child see how repeating the same sounds at the beginning of words is similar to rhyming words at the end of lines of poetry. 5

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