Second Grade

By the end of second grade your child should be able to do the following:

Listening
Follow 3-4 oral directions in a sequence
Understand direction words (e.g., location, space, and time words)
Correctly answer questions about a grade-level story

Speaking
Be easily understood
Answer more complex “yes/no” questions
Ask and answer “wh” questions (e.g., who, what, where, when, why)
Use increasingly complex sentence structures
Clarify and explain words and ideas
Give directions with 3-4 steps
Use oral language to inform, to persuade, and to entertain
Stay on topic, take turns, and use appropriate eye contact during conversation
Open and close conversation appropriately

Reading
Have fully mastered phonics/sound awareness
Associate speech sounds, syllables, words, and phrases with their written forms
Recognize many words by sight
Use meaning clues when reading (e.g., pictures, titles/headings, information in the story)
Reread and self-correct when necessary
Locate information to answer questions
Explain key elements of a story (e.g., main idea, main characters, plot)
Use own experience to predict and justify what will happen in grade-level stories
Read, paraphrase/retell a story in a sequence
Read grade-level stories, poetry, or dramatic text silently and aloud with fluency
Read spontaneously
Identify and use spelling patterns in words when reading

Writing
Write legibly
Use a variety of sentence types in writing essays, poetry, or short stories (fiction and nonfiction)
Use basic punctuation and capitalization appropriately
Organize writing to include beginning, middle, and end
Spell frequently used words correctly
Progress from inventive spelling (e.g., spelling by sound) to more accurate spelling
Resource:  http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/secondgrade.htm