2nd Grade ELA Critical Concepts

Decoding

• I can read regularly spelled two-syllable words with short and long vowels.
• I can read regularly spelled words with affixes.
• I can read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words.

Analyzing Text Organization and Structure

• I can describe the major sections of a specific text.
• I can describe a relationship between several ideas, events, people, or processes in a text.

Text Features

• I can use text features to navigate a text.
• I can explain how an illustration contributes to a text.

Analyzing Main Ideas

• I can identify the main idea of a text.
• I can describe details in a text that support its main idea.

Analyzing Claims and Responses

• I can describe how reasons support a specific opinion in a text.

Analyzing Narratives

• I can describe how the setting affects the events in a narrative text.
• I can describe how a character responds to a major event in a narrative.

Analyzing Point of View

• I can describe differences in the points of view of characters in a text.
• I can describe what an author is trying to answer, explain, or describe in a nonfiction text.

Comparing Texts

• I can compare two versions of the same story.
• I can compare the main ideas in two texts on the same topic.

Analyzing Words

• I can determine the meaning of an unknown word using text features.
• I can determine the meaning of an unknown word using roots and affixes.
• I can compare the meaning of words and their synonyms.

Analyzing Language

• I can describe elements of a text that create rhythm, such as alliteration, repetition, and rhyme.

Generating Sentences

• I can generate simple and compound sentences.
• I can expand and rephrase complete sentences.

Generating Text Organization and Structure

• I can introduce an opinion or main idea at the beginning of a text.
• I can group similar facts, definitions, and examples together.
• I can restate an opinion or main idea to conclude a text.

Generating Claims and Responses

• I can restate an opinion about an experience.
• I can give multiple reasons for an opinion.

Revision

• I can replace informal words with formal words in a draft.
• I can expand descriptions and explanations in a draft.

Parts of Speech

• I can use collective and irregular plural nouns correctly.
• I can use reflexive pronouns correctly.
• I can use regular and irregular past tense verbs.
• I can use adjectives and adverbs correctly to modify words.

Spelling

• I can spell words using spelling patterns.
• I can spell frequently occurring words.

Editing

• I can edit for properly formed contractions.
• I can edit for capitalization.
• I can edit for correct use of punctuation.