Clymore Elementary School

Parents Night
Second Grade Reading, Writing, and Spelling

Dear parents,
Throughout this year we will be working on many aspects of reading, writing, and
spelling. We will be working hard to advance our skills. In reading, we will be working on
fluency and comprehension. To read with fluency means that the student is using correct
intonation, phrasing, correct words, self-correction, appropriate speed, and automaticity.
Fluency is built with practice. The more students read, the better their fluency is. Although we
will be working on advancing our fluency in class, I highly recommend that your student read at
home, both to his or her self and out loud. This will only give your student more practice,
therefore advancing their skills. Along with fluency, we will be working on comprehension
skills. Comprehension is the ability to understand what you read. When working on
comprehension, it is important that the student is reading text that is on their reading level. If
the student is reading a text that is too difficult, he or she will be too focused on trying to
decode the words than understanding what they are reading. Students with good
comprehension skills will know how text works, are active readers and think as they read,
approach reading with a purpose, have knowledge of the world and texts, and have good
vocabularies. At this level, we will be working on making predictions as we read and using
cause and effect. We will be observing what happens in text and making predictions using what
we know to make educated guesses. With this, we will be practicing pre, during, and post
reading strategies. Students will be fully engaged and working on their comprehension skills
before, during, and after they read something.
While we work on our reading skills, we will simultaneously be working on our writing
and spelling skills. Students will work on their sentence structure. They will work on their skills
to make sure they are using correct punctuation and capitalization within their sentences.
These are critical skills for students when writing. It is also a basic principle they will need as
they further advance their writing skills and abilities. Along with sentence structure, a good
writer needs to expand their vocabulary and spelling abilities. We will be conducting weekly
word studies to do so. Within the word studies, we will be doing many word sorts in which the
students will be able to make their own discoveries and form generalizations about how the
English language works. We will be working on separating and sorting words by pattern, sound,
and meaning. This will help expand students’ understanding of words by showing them the
rules of the English language, but also the occasional exception. Each week, students will be
performing sorts of various kids, such as picture sorts, word sorts, blind sorts, writing sorts,
concept sorts, and spelling-meaning sorts which are known as homophones. As we do each of
these diverse activities throughout the year, students will expand their vocabulary skills, which
will contribute to their reading and writing skills.

I look forward to a great year with everyone!

Sincerely,
Miss Rocke