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2nd-Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is strongly aligned to the standards.

Overview

Second-grade students read an adequately complex text, then write an informational piece about key ideas in the text. The assignment exposes students to a worthwhile text about changes to the Earth’s surface, and poses a question that focuses students on the key ideas. It allows students to develop the skill and craft of writing that explains or informs.

About the Text

Title and Author

"How Do Wind and Water Change Earth?" by Natalie Hyde

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

620L

Based on Lexile, which grades is this text intended for?

2-3

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

Yes

Is this text fiction or non-fiction?

Non-fiction

Is this text authentic or was it written for educational purposes?

Authentic

Does the text provide sufficient detail to build knowledge of a worthwhile topic and/or is it worth reading closely and re-reading?

Yes

Related Standards

We looked at how well the assignment aligned to the following standards:

RI.2.1: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt requires students to demonstrate understanding of the key details and facts in the non-fiction text, including how weather changes the Earth’s surface and impacts people.

RI.2.3: Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt requires students to demonstrate understanding and describe the connection between weather, changes in Earth’s surface, and the impact on people.

RI.2.10: By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

To respond to this writing prompt, students must read and comprehend the information and key ideas in the non-fiction text about changes to the Earth’s surface. The text is appropriately complex for second grade.

W.2.2: Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt and supporting rubric set clear expectations for student writing that reflect the demands of the Grade 2 standards. Specifically, students are asked to introduce the topic they are writing about, providing some relevant context; select relevant facts and definitions to develop their points; and draft an effective concluding statement or section.

L.2.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt provides an opportunity for students to use a variety of sentence structures.

L.2.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt provides an opportunity for students to correctly and consistently use upper- and lower-case letters; correctly use end punctuation; and generalize learned spelling patterns.

L.2.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g., When other kids are happy that makes me happy).

Why is this assignment strongly aligned to this standard?

The writing prompt provides an opportunity for students to use precise academic and domain-specific vocabulary acquired through reading and conversations about text (e.g., elements, erosion, crops, nutrients, surface, damage, environment).

Why is this assignment strongly aligned?

This assignment is strong because it has a strong text and a strong writing prompt:

The assignment allows students to read an engaging and worthwhile text that is adequately complex. The text contains useful information about changes to the Earth’s surface and offers complex vocabulary and beautiful photographs.

It requires students to read carefully and focus on important information in the text. Students are required to answer a question about the impact of weather on people, using evidence from the text.

It allows students to share what they learned in writing and practice the skill and craft of writing that explains or informs. The expectations for student writing are clearly communicated through the rubric, and reflect the demands of the grade-level standards. Students are asked to introduce the topic they are writing about, provide relevant context, select key facts and definitions to develop their points, and draft an effective concluding statement or section.

The task allows students to apply their developing language skills to their writing. Practicing the correct use of grammar and spelling is important for improving both reading and writing skills. (In this task, however, this opportunity appears to be incidental rather than intentional, as the directions do not include clear expectations for use of grammatical conventions beyond writing in complete sentences.)

Additional ELA Resources

Common Core ELA Standards
Read the standards and find out what they require of students.
Instructional Shifts in Literacy
Understand the key instructional shifts the ELA standards call for.
Student Work Review Tool – ELA
Use this tool to understand if an assignment is worthwhile for students.