In the second grade, literacy development is marked by increased reading abilities and vocabulary expansion. It is beneficial to encourage free reading without limitations, including various genres such as novels and comic books.
Free Reading: encouraging independent reading will instill a good habit in students while also encouraging independence. Students are encouraged to read something they enjoy, this way their opinion of reading is based on the context of what they're reading and not a dislike for it because it's forced.
Book Reports: this can be carried in posters, written reports, or a presentation. Students can put their perspective on display as they present their opinions on what they have read. This encourages creativity and connection.
Group Discussion: as a class, students can openly discuss literature that they've read together. This will develop connections and alternative perspectives on context.
Paired Reading: students can pair up and read a book together. This will encourage literacy discussion and help students develop perspective on books.
Reader's Theater: after reader a book, students can create a play based on what they read. Each student can have a role and create props to make their story come alive. This will expand perspective and connection to text.
Developmental Concepts
Kohlberg: most 2nd graders will be in the conventional level of moral development. In this stage, students will be more likely to conform instead of being disliked. While this is part of development, in regards to literature, sharing thoughts about stories and books in the classroom is important. Student who conform to their peers may not share authentic feelings about literature being shared. To avoid this, students can write in individual notebooks on their thoughts about books that they read in the classroom.
Vygotsky:
Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding: through these two techniques, students can gain independence while learning with minimal support. Literature is a great subject to implement these techniques. Students can read independently, and have minimal assistance when it comes to book reporting, critical thinking, and/or group work regarding what they have read.
Sociocultural: students will be affected by culture. Knowing this, different types of literature and themes can be introduced into the classroom to offer wider exposure for students. Through this diverse exposure, cognitive development can increase. In regards to literature, students may read books about other countries, historical eras, diverse themes, and/or classic novels.
Piaget:
Cognitive Development: in 2nd grade, students would be considered to be in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development. At this stage, students will begin creating more logical thought and problem solve internally. In regards to literacy, students can critically think about literature independently and then discussing ideas with one another.
Adaption: assimilation can be introduced in the classroom through asking students to read a new type of literature or doing a group project. Accommodation can be implemented through problem solving. Students can be given a task to predict a specific book without reading it. They will need to come up with new techniques on how to predict what a book is about with limited exposure. Equilibration can be exercised when students are given a task that challenges their frustration level. This could be reading a more complex novel or creating a book report that includes critical thinking.
Schemas: in regards to literacy, 2nd graders' schemas may be expanded. Students may have basic print awareness or advanced reading skills. With these schemas, students may understand how to pick out a book, read it, and review it. To expand their schema, new skills can be introduced such as summarizing, book clubs, library searches, and book reports. The basic schema of reading has now expanded into multiple facets that can benefit students as they progress in their education.
Moral Development: 2nd graders (7-8 year olds) will have reached a point of questioning people of authority such as parents and teachers. Children of this age are willing to create rules and begin to distinguish between wrong and right (fairness). This is a great time to have students help create classroom rules. In regards to literacy, there could be a class discussion of rules and guidelines to follow when it comes to reading and class assignments.
Gender: "...teachers interact with boys more often than girls by a margin of 10 to 10 percent, depending on the grade level of the students and the personality of the teacher" (Brother Crouch PowerPoint). In the classroom, boys and girls perform differently. By tend to call out answers more, while girls tend to resort to a close group of friends. This being the case, a safe classroom environment is important. Creating a safe space for everyone to feel comfortable talking will create a great learning environment. There will be no limits to what students can read (no gender restrictions) and both gender roles will be explored and discussed in different literacy contexts.
Memory: "...learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills whereas memory is how we retain that what we learn" (Brother Crouch PowerPoint). For 2nd graders', their frontal and temporal lobes are developing quickly. They are beginning to develop a deeper self awareness. In the classroom, students can be expected to learn new material and store it. In regards to literature, some of the things being learned are skills that will benefit students in the long run. These can be stored in long-term memory and classified as nondeclarative. Not every student is going to like every book that is read in class. Some of the students may store those stories in short-term memory or their working memory. They will only refer to it during that school year, but possibly never again.
Brain: "Dopamine levels are ascending in the second grader’s brain. This neurotransmitter — which enables attention and motivation — increases its output when goals are attained. Your second grader will be ecstatically mind-enhanced if you help her carefully set, chart, and successfully reach her intellectual and physical ambitions" (https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/second-grader-brain-development/). With brain plasticity increased in 2nd graders, it's important to reinforce curriculum. For literacy, students will learn reading skills such as summarizing, predicting, note taking, and critical thinking. Students can also increase their vocabulary exposure from reading and increase their overall vocabulary usage. Repeating new vocabulary words and encouraging usage will help implement new vocabulary words in a student's long-term memory.
Why is reading important?
Critical Thinking: critical thinking is an essential skill that continues to develop throughout life. Being about to rationalize, think logically, and have creative perspective is important. Through reading, students can develop broader perspectives and empathy about situations and circumstances. Students can begin making connections to text and expanding their trains of thought.
Summarizing: being able to summarize is a life long skill. Reading a book and paraphrasing is excellent in the classroom. Students can read individual books and discuss with one another what their books were about. Students can further develop this skill later in life when they summarize their skills in a job interview or summarize what they did over the weekend.
Vocabulary: developing new vocabulary can be achieved through reading. Students who are exposed to new vocabulary have a wider array of words and can construct complex sentences. Through this, their speech skills increase and their communication improves. Vocabulary can be increased through reading and through usage. Encourage vocabulary usage through example.
Predictions: predicting is a skill that is useful in everyday life. Through predictions, students can be come more aware of clues and intuition to help them guess about what a book is about. Later in life, this skill can be further developed into predicting personal life choices.
Print Awareness: through print awareness, students can learn and identify concepts of a book such as a title, page number, author, etc. Students will learn how to properly hold a book, how to book mark a page, and how to identify page markers like chapters and breaks within a page.
Developmental Aspects
Gross Motor:
Muscle strength: students have an increased muscle strength. Encourage development of their physical abilities through physical games in the classroom.
Balance: students will display a better ability to keep their physical balance. Implement wiggle time or acting to encourage further development of this.
Rough and tumble games: more physical games and risky movements. Implement reader's theater to physical act out stories that are read in the classroom.
High energy: increased energy and hyperactivity. Implement some hands-on activities and breaks from curriculum. Literacy circle involving throwing a ball to each other and create a story. Students may have a one minute dance party or a wiggle break.
Fine Motor:
More detailed art/writing skills: refined skills. Encourage further development through details projects like an artistic book presentation/poster.
Increased speed and smoothness: fine motor skills refined. Implement more writing assignments or fine motor skills activities like arts and crafts.
Speech and Language:
Developing reading skills: increased reading abilities. Implement free reading in the classroom. Encourage reading and offer no limitations (novels, comic books, chapter books, etc.).
Expanding vocabulary: developing and learning new vocabulary words. Encourage vocabulary expansion through writing and reading in the classroom.
Social and Emotional:
Establishing friendships: connecting with peers. Encourage friendships and establishing connections through schoolwork with partnered projects and/or paired reading/discussions.
Increased independence with scaffolding: balance of independent work increased. Create assignments that can be completed independently and offer slight scaffolding when needed.
Organized play and group activities: beginning to establish friendships and sense of security among peers. Implement group activities and organized group tasks.
Cognitive:
Ability to complete assignments: increased desire to complete assignments/have closure. Introduce longer termed assignments like a book report or reading presentation. Implement reading a book as a class that may take a week or two to complete.
Greater attention span: focusing on more complex tasks and assignments. Introduce longer reading times, paired reading, and short book reports.
Egocentric: still focusing on self yet gaining perspective of others. Introduce characters of stories and developing the ability to empathize.
Decreased impulsivity: can focus on more serious topics/critical thinking. Implement more class discussions and introduce more complex topics such as contemplating a story's plot or theme.
