Common Core ELA2nd GradeLanguage

L.2.6: Use New Words and Describing Words

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.6 · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

Make a Vocabulary Worksheet All 40 2nd Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

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).

Common Core State Standards, Grade 2, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What L.2.6 Means in Plain English

Second graders take words from read-alouds, books and class talk and put them back to work when they speak and write about what they read. After hearing that a hummingbird hovered and darted, a child retells it with those words, plus describing words like tiny and rapidly.

First graders (L.1.6) used new words and joining words like because to show how ideas connect. Second grade’s addition is adjectives and adverbs that describe, like gentle hands or ran quickly. Third grade (L.3.6) adds academic words and words for time and place, like beneath or afterward.

L.2.6 I Can Statements

I can use new words from our read-aloud when I retell.
I can describe things with words like tiny and shimmering.
I can tell how something moved with words like rapidly.

L.2.6 Worked Example

One three-sentence read-aloud about a hummingbird, two retellings, and only one of them keeps the book’s words.

Prompt

After the read-aloud: “A hummingbird hovered beside the red flowers. Its tiny wings beat so rapidly that they hummed. Then it darted away, its feathers shimmering green.” Tell your partner what the hummingbird did.

Not Yet“The bird stayed by the flowers. Its wings went fast. Then it went away.”Every fact is right, but the child swapped the book’s words back to everyday ones: stayed for hovered, fast for rapidly, went for darted. The new words never got used.

Meets the Standard“The hummingbird hovered by the red flowers, like it was stopped in the air. Its tiny wings beat so rapidly they hummed. Then it darted away, and its feathers were shimmering green.”Hovered, rapidly, darted and shimmering all come back in the child’s own retelling, and “like it was stopped in the air” shows hovered is understood, not just echoed. Tiny and shimmering describe the bird, and rapidly describes how the wings move.

Moves to Use

Listen for new words in the read-aloud and say them back.Use the book’s words when you retell, not your everyday ones.Describe a thing with an adjective: tiny wings, shimmering feathers.Describe an action with an adverb: beat rapidly, landed gently.Use the word again somewhere new: in writing, at recess, at home.

Common Mistakes with L.2.6

Swapping new words for old ones

“It went fast” for a book that said the wings beat rapidly

Try this: Post the read-aloud’s three best words on the board, and ask partners to use at least two of them in their retelling.

Echoing without understanding

“It hovered,” said confidently, then “hovered means flying away fast”

Try this: Have students act out or explain each new word in their own words right after using it, like stopped in the air for hovered.

One-day words

Shimmering appears in Tuesday’s retelling and never again all year

Try this: Keep a word wall from read-alouds and award a tally whenever a student uses one in writing or in talk outside reading time.

Where L.2.6 Fits

Comes BeforeL.1.6Use words from conversations and reading, including conjunctions like because to show simple relationships.

AlongsideL.2.5Tell apart close verbs and adjectives, like toss and hurl, which sharpens the describing words students borrow.SL.2.2Recount key ideas from a read-aloud, the moment new words most often get put back to use.

Comes NextL.3.6Use grade-level conversational, academic and subject words, including words for time and place.

Practice L.2.6

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolTurn the read-aloud’s new words, like hovered, darted and rapidly, into a sheet with a definition, a sentence and a picture for each.Read-aloud wordsGrade 2

Make a Worksheet

Sentence Scramble GeneratorFree ToolScramble sentences from this week’s read-aloud so students rebuild them with the new describing words in place.Read-aloud sentencesGrade 2

Make a Scramble

Quick Check

Which new words from the read-aloud does the strong retelling use?
Hovered, tiny, rapidly, darted and shimmering.
In “Its tiny wings beat so rapidly they hummed,” which word is an adjective and which is an adverb?
Tiny is an adjective, because it describes the wings. Rapidly is an adverb, because it tells how they beat.
How does the strong retelling show the child understands hovered?
It adds “like it was stopped in the air,” the child’s own explanation of the word.

L.2.6: Other Names

L.2.6CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.2.6