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Kentucky Standards

Kentucky 2nd Grade ELA Standards

All 33 Kentucky English language arts standards for 2nd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Kentucky Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

33 standards

Reading Foundational Skills

2 standards
RF.2.3
Tell long and short vowels apart, read and spell two-syllable long-vowel words, use more vowel teams and word parts like re- and -ful, and spot common odd spellings.
RF.2.4
Read a range of grade-level texts with purpose, reread aloud until it flows, check words against context and self-correct, and read tricky sight words like though instantly.

Reading Standards for Literature

9 standards
RL.2.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about a story, and back up inferences with details from it.
RL.2.2
Use details stated and hinted in a story, like a fable or folktale from another culture, to figure out its message, lesson or moral.
RL.2.3
Describe how story characters react to big events and challenges, and how that shapes the story.
RL.2.4
Describe how beats, rhymes, alliteration and repeated lines give rhythm and meaning to a story, poem or song.
RL.2.5
Describe how the parts of a text build its whole, like a story's beginning, middle and end, a poem's stanzas, or a play's scenes.
RL.2.6
With help, notice how characters see things differently, using a different voice for each when reading dialogue aloud, and how their views shape the story.
RL.2.7
Explain a story's characters, setting and plot using its pictures and words, whether in a book or on a screen.
RL.2.9
Tell how two or more versions of one story, from different authors or cultures, are alike and different, like Cinderella tales.
RL.2.10
Read rich grade-level stories independently, using background knowledge and strategies like retelling to understand and analyze them.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

10 standards
RI.2.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about a nonfiction text, and support inferences with facts from it.
RI.2.2
Use facts stated and hinted in a nonfiction text to work out its central idea.
RI.2.3
Describe how people, historical events, science ideas or steps in a how-to text connect across a text.
RI.2.4
Figure out school words and phrases in a grade-level text, like compare or habitat, and how they shape the meaning.
RI.2.5
Name and describe text structures like time order and description, and explain how sentences and paragraphs connect to build the whole text.
RI.2.6
Identify an author's main purpose, like what the text answers, explains or describes, and how it drives what the text includes.
RI.2.7
Name what is learned from pictures, charts and words in a nonfiction text and explain how it adds to understanding.
RI.2.8
Describe how the reasons in a text back up particular claims the author makes, like why recess matters.
RI.2.9
Describe how facts from several texts on one topic or theme relate, like two books about volcanoes.
RI.2.10
Read rich grade-level nonfiction independently, using background knowledge and strategies like note-taking to understand and analyze it.

Handwriting

1 standard
HW.2.1
Begin learning to form every capital and lowercase cursive letter.

Composition

6 standards
C.2.1
On paper or digitally, write an opinion on a topic or text that introduces it, organizes reasons with details, links paragraphs and ends with a closing.
C.2.2
On paper or digitally, write to introduce a topic, develop it with detailed facts, join ideas with words like because and next, and end with a closing section.
C.2.3
On paper or digitally, write about one or more real or made-up events in order, with actions, thoughts and feelings, time words like after that, and a clear ending.
C.2.4
With adult help, use different digital tools to create and share finished work, sometimes with classmates, like a class blog post.
C.2.5
Work with the class to research a topic and write about it together, building knowledge, like a shared report on plants.
C.2.6
Use first-hand experiences or provided sources to find answers to questions or to come up with new ones, like how seeds sprout.

Language

5 standards
L.2.1
Use group nouns like flock, plurals like mice, myself and herself, past forms like went, adjectives and adverbs, and build and reshape simple and compound sentences.
L.2.2
Capitalize holidays, brands and places, use commas in letters and emails, use apostrophes in can't and Sam's, apply spelling patterns, and self-check with a dictionary.
L.2.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
Common Core L.2.3
L.2.4
Figure out a new word in 2nd grade reading from its sentence, a prefix like un- in unhappy, a root like add in addition, its parts like birdhouse, or a dictionary.
Common Core L.2.4
L.2.5
Connect words to real life, like naming foods that are spicy or juicy, and tell apart close words like toss, throw and hurl or thin, slender and scrawny.
Common Core L.2.5

The official Kentucky documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Kentucky's standards, not the official wording, which Kentucky Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.