2nd Grade – Essential Lessons

for Capitalization, Grammar & Punctuation

Essential skill Skill derived from: Pages

End sentences with punctuation: . ! ? Rubric (for 1st Grade) 1

Use apostrophes to form contractions and to show possession Rubric/CCSS 2-5

Punctuate simple dialogue of speech with quotation marks Rubric 6-7

Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences CCSS 8-9

Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what’s modified CCSS 10-13

Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names CCSS 14-15

Units of Study – Language Conventions Rubric for:

Grade 2

Punctuation The writer used quotation marks to show what characters

said.

When the writer used words such as can’t and don’t, she put in the

apostrophe.

Conventions Lesson Template

Part Prompt Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that…

Notice using mentor text: published teacher student

Choose 1-2: See how _________(published author) does this? See how I do this? See how _________(classmate) does this?

Why

This matters because…

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might try this out? Show your writing partner where you might try this out.

Conferring with individuals

Remember how we…

Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Essential Lesson #1: End sentences with punctuation: . ! ?

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers put a period, exclamation point, or questions mark at the end of sentences to show readers when to stop for a bit and how to read the writing.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Remember when we read Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant (Making Meaning text)? Take a look at pages 14 and 15. Do you see periods, exclamation points, and question marks?” Re-read the pages emphasizing the expression all three punctuation marks convey. Say: “Do you see how the different marks change the way I read? It’s important that you do that in your writing too.” Look at _______________(student) writing piece. See how s/he put a period/exclamation point/question mark here and here. Read a few sentences emphasizing the correct use of punctuation. Note: Teachers may also decide to model this with his/her own writing.

Why

“This is important because these marks help your reader know how to read your writing. They’ll know they’re supposed to read it with emotion or extra loudness or they’ll know a question is being asked and their voice should go up.”

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might add ending punctuation such as a period, exclamation point, or question mark?

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about ending punctuation? Can you add/ find a place in your writing right now where you might add ending punctuation such as a period, exclamation point, or question mark? Refer student to a chart, mentor text, or example.

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Use apostrophes to form contractions and to show possession – Part 1

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers use contractions to join two words into one by taking out a letter (or letters) and replacing it with an apostrophe.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“It’s time to talk about contractions. Hey! I just used a contraction when I said it’s!” Write the words it is and it’s on the board. “When we join those two words into one word and use an apostrophe to show that one or more letters have been left out, it’s called a contraction.” “Take a look at this list of contractions.” Read a few contractions and point out how two words were joined into one using an apostrophe. “Save this tool in your writing folder to use as you write.” “Now look at how I used a contraction here in my writing. It sounds more like how we talk when I used _____ instead of ____ ____.”

Why

“This is important because not only will you see contractions in many books, contractions make our writing sound more like how we talk.”

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might use a contraction so your writing sounds more like how we talk?

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about contractions and how using them can make our writing sound more like how we talk? Can you change these two words into a contraction using the tool I gave you?

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Use apostrophes to form contractions and to show possession – Part 2

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers use apostrophes in a word to show when something belongs to only one person or thing.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Writers let readers know that something belongs to only one person

by adding ‘s to the end of a person’s name. Listen to me read this

short piece of writing here.” (see below for sheet to place under doc camera) Read through the writing, pointing out the use of possessive apostrophes. Optional: “Now look at how I (or a student from your room) used an apostrophe in my writing. Do you see how we can use an apostrophe to make a contraction AND to show when something belongs to only one person?”

Why

“This is important because apostrophes will show the reader who owns something and contractions make our writing sound more like how we talk.”

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might use an apostrophe to show ownership?

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about how to use ‘s to show when something belongs to only one person or thing? Look at this sentence/word here. Let me show you how to use an apostrophe s for this part.

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Arjun’s bike was laying on the ground

in front of his house. His mother came

outside and said, “Arjun! Come and put

your bike away!” Arjun came out and

looked confused.

“I think that is Selena’s bike, not

mine.” he said slowly.

Suddenly, Arjun’s best friend Jeremy came running down the sidewalk. He had heard everything.

“Actually, that bike is mine!” Jeremy said.

Arjun’s mother said, “I’m so sorry, Jeremy!”

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Punctuate simple dialogue of speech with quotation marks (used mostly

in Narrative Writing)

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers use quotation marks to show when characters are talking.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Remember when we read Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant? Look at pages 22 and 23. Poppleton and Cherry Sue are talking to each other. You can tell because Cynthia Rylant used what we call quotation marks that look like this (refer to chart or tool).” “Now look at my writing. Can you find my quotation marks? List to me read it so you can clearly see a character is talking.”

Note: You may have a student or two share his/her quotation marks rather than use your own writing.

Why

This is important because quotation marks show us that characters are talking helping our reader read our writing with fluency and expression.

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might add quotation marks?

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about using quotation marks to show that characters are talking? What is your character saying? Show me how you put quotation marks around what the character says. Note: you can scaffold this by teaching dialogue tags to students who have already mastered quotation marks. Dialogue tags show how a character is speaking. Susan whispered, “_____.” “I love to eat bacon!” John yelled.

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound

sentences

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers often change the way they write sentences so they sound differently to make writing more interesting and strong.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Let’s talk about sentences! When we join two sentences we want to include all of the details, but we don’t need to repeat anything. Look at this simple sentence.” NOTE: you could use a cut up sentence strip and as kids get better with this skill they can re-arrange the words to produce more complex sentences.

The boy watched the movie.

If I wanted to add more details, I don’t need to repeat “The boy watched the movie.” again – I would add an adjective like this:

The little boy watched the movie. NOTE: Consider stopping here for this lesson and continuing on with the rest the next day.

I can even add another detail about the boy without repeating anything … like this:

The action movie was watched by the little boy.

Do you see how I moved the little boy to the end of the sentence? I also told you what kind of movie the little boy watched.

Why

This is important because writers need to change the way they write sentences so they sound differently to make writing more interesting and strong.

Try it out / Link

With a partner talk about using the words I listed here along with an adjective or adverb or two AND try to use one of these words too: because so and but. Ask pairs to share.

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about switching parts of our sentences around and adding more details to make it sound more interesting? Let’s try that here.

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Share with a partner: make a sentence

using the words below (and adding an

adjective or adverb) and one of these

special words:

store I to went the

because so and but

----------------------------------------------------------

Example:

I quickly went to the park but it was

closed.

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on

what’s modified – Part 1

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers make their writing stronger and easier to understand by adding powerful words –these words are called adjectives.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Remember when we read McDuff Moves In by Rosemary Wells? (Making Meaning text). Listen to this (read pages 1-4 emphasizing the adjectives little, white, soft, and warm). Think about these powerful words: little, white, soft, warm. Rosemary uses little and white to describe McDuff; soft to describe the earth, and warm to describe the place to sleep.

“These words are adjectives. Adjectives are powerful words that describe people, places and things. Little, white, soft, warm – I’ll bet she could have used other adjectives as well like tiny or cozy. There are thousands of adjectives! I’m thinking of a few word that describes our classroom right now….messy, busy, exciting!

Optional: Look at my writing piece. See how I put adjectives in to describe ______ (Read a few sentences emphasizing your adjectives and use a think aloud to show how you decided to use adjectives.

Why

This is important because adjectives are like jewels – they make our writing sparkle and help the reader visualize our writing pieces.

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might add an adjective – a word that describes a person, place, or thing.

I have a challenge for you! Let’s see how many adjectives you can collect from your independent reading books and our classroom library. Let’s make a list of adjectives to put in our writing folder. Note: you could decide to just handout the adjective list below and skip this part.

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about how adjectives – words that describe – help our readers understand our writing better? Look the adjectives I used in my writing. Can you tell me a few words that describe _______ in this piece? Why would that be a good adjective? Find another place to add an adjective.

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on

what’s modified – Part 2

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers make their writing stronger and easier to understand by adding powerful words –these words are called adverbs. Adverbs show how, when, where, the action takes place. Sometimes adverbs tell us how much and how often.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“Remember when we talked about how important it is to use adjectives – words that describe nouns – in your writing? It’s also important to include words that helps add even more to your writing. Let’s watch this quick video to learn more about words we call adverbs that help verbs come alive!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14fXm4FOMPM Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here

OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo8pzuE97EA Adverbs song

“Did you see how adverbs help your reader show how, when, where, the action takes place. Sometimes adverbs tell us how much and how often. Look at my writing piece. See how I put adverb here in to describe this verb? ______ Use a think aloud to show how you decided to use adjectives.

Why

This is important because adverbs help add detail – they help the reader visualize our writing pieces and make our writing stronger.

Try it out / Link

Can you find a place in your writing right now where you might add an adverb – words that show how, when, where, the action takes place? Use the chart to help you.

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about adverbs. Using our chart, can you add an adverb to this verb? Why would that be a good adverb? Find another place to add an adverb.

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Conventions Lesson 2st Grade

Lesson: Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names

Part Prompt

Teaching point

Today I want to teach you that writers capitalize holiday, products, and geographic names.

Notice using mentor text published teacher student

“You know that writers capitalize the first letter of the first word of a sentence. And you know that you always capitalize I when you are writing about yourself. And…of course you know that you should capitalize names of people, months, and days of the week. But did you know there are three other rules for capitals?”

Take a look at the list with three columns listing Holidays, Product names, and Geographic names.” Go through each list quickly explaining that these words should be capitalized to follow the correct rule.

Why

This is important because these words are special names.

Try it out / Link

Let’s add a few new words to the chart.

Conferring with individuals

Remember when we talked about how to follow the correct capitalization rules for holidays, products, and geographic names? Can you find the word that needs a capital in this sentence?

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Capitalize the first letter of these

important words! Holidays Product Names Geographic Names Christmas

Pepsi Issaquah

Halloween

Legos Sammamish

Diwali

Krispy Kreme America

Chinese New Year

Kleenex Lake Sammamish

Cinco de Mayo

Band-Aid Oregon

Kwanzaa

Chapstick Pacific Ocean

Ramadan

Jeep Cascade Mountains

Hanukah

Elmer’s Glue Seattle

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Other resources:

BBC Bite-sized Grammar videos – may not be available in

every location

Schoolhouse Rock! You Tube

Free posters!

Whole Brain Teaching – punctuation gestures video

Adverb Detective Game: For later in the year! Assign one student to

step outside the classroom door – s/he will be the Adverb Detective.

Choose an adverb for everyone else in the class to act out. (You may

consider creating a chart with a list of adverbs) The “Adverb Detective”

comes back into the room and must guess the adverb based on the

actions of the rest of the class.

Article: What works when teaching grammar?

Sentence Patterning Chart (K-2 version)

Do second: Adjective

Start here: Noun

Do Third: Verb

Do last: Prepositional phrase

Say to students: “the (noun) is so ____”. Use actions or motions or point to pictures to help them come up with words.

You or the teacher decide the noun. (must be a plural noun, capable of action).

Say to students: “the (noun) can _____”. Use actions/motions to help them come up with words.

Say to students: “where can the (noun) (verb)?

Color-coding is essential (black for noun etc…)

For the song, choose 3 adjectives, one noun, one verb and one prepositional phrase. Tune: Farmer in the Dell Adjective, adjective, noun Adjective, adjective, noun

Adjective, adjective, adjective, noun, verb, prep phrase Here are some examples that fit with K-2 units:

Adjective Noun Verb Prepositional phrase

Big Strong Small furry

animals

Crawl Eat Run growl

In the forest In my yard On the playground At the zoo

Adjective Noun Verb Prepositional phrase

Clean Dirty Yummy poisonous

liquids

Flow Spread Freeze

In the fridge In my cup In the air On the ground

Adjective Noun Verb Prepositional phrase

Happy Good Smart Respectful

readers

Make connections Understand talk retell

In the classroom At my desk Next to my friend At home