Language & Literacy
By second grade, most students can read and write at a basic level. They tackle more and more texts in and out of the classroom as they work to become rapid and accurate readers.
The more fluent children become at one level, the more likely they are to become fluent at the next. Children need to be able to read words at each level effortlessly before they’ll really comprehend what they read.
At this stage children also become better story writers as they learn to write basic sentences and short narratives about an event or a character. Children’s handwriting often becomes smaller and neater, and the cursive alphabet may be introduced. Second graders experiment with different voices, writing some stories from a personal viewpoint, and others in the third person. They more frequently use the correct spelling of words that they know, and use punctuation more regularly.