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New York Standards

New York 2nd Grade ELA Standards

All 27 New York English language arts standards for 2nd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is one click away under each one.

27 standards

Reading Standards (Literary and Informational Text)

9 standards
Key Ideas and Details
2R1
Make up and answer questions that show you understand the important ideas and details of a text, like why the main character ran away.
Official wording
Develop and answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of key ideas and details in a text. (RI&RL)
2R2
Name the main topic or central idea of a text, retell its key details, and sum up parts of it in a few sentences.
Official wording
Identify a main topic or central idea and retell key details in a text; summarize portions of a text. (RI&RL)
2R3
Describe how characters react to big events and problems in a story, and how ideas or events link together in a nonfiction text, like steps in a frog's life.
Official wording
In literary texts, describe how characters respond to major events and challenges. (RL) In informational texts, describe the connections between ideas, concepts, or a series of events. (RI)
Craft and Structure
2R4
Explain how an author's word choices create feelings or help readers see, hear, smell, taste or touch, like crackling leaves or a gloomy sky.
Official wording
Explain how words and phrases in a text suggest feelings and appeal to the senses. (RI&RL)
2R5
Describe how a text is organized, including how its opening sets things up and how its ending wraps them up.
Official wording
Describe the overall structure of a text, including describing how the beginning introduces the text and the ending concludes the text. (RI&RL)
2R6
Point out how pictures, headings, captions and details show the author's view or reason for writing, like captions in a guide to caring for a puppy.
Official wording
Identify examples of how illustrations, text features, and details support the point of view or purpose of the text. (RI&RL)
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
2R7
Use what pictures and text features like labels and diagrams show to explain a story's characters, setting or plot, or a text's topic.
Official wording
Demonstrate understanding of story elements and/or topics by applying information gained from illustrations or text features. (RI&RL)
2R8
Explain which reasons an author or illustrator gives to back up each point, like the reasons a book offers for why we should recycle.
Official wording
Explain how specific points the author or illustrator makes in a text are supported by relevant reasons. (RI&RL)
2R9
Relate a text to your life, other texts and people or events in the world, like linking a book about a storm to a storm you remember.
Official wording
Make connections between self and text (texts and other people/ world). (RI&RL)

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills

2 standards
Phonics and Word Recognition
2RF3
Sound out words by telling long from short vowels and vowel teams, decode two-syllable words, use roots, prefixes and suffixes, and read all common sight words.
Official wording
Know and apply phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.aDistinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words (including common vowel teams).bDecode short and long vowel sounds in two-syllable words.cDecode regularly spelled two-syllable words.dRecognize and identify root words and common suffixes and prefixes.eRead all common high-frequency words by sight.
Fluency
2RF4
Read second-grade texts aloud accurately, at a good pace and with expression across repeated readings, using context and rereading to fix mistakes.
Official wording
Read grade-level text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.aRead grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.bUse context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

Writing Standards

6 standards
Text Types and Purposes
2W1
Share your opinion in writing about a topic or experience, backing it with clear reasons and facts that fit, like why the class needs a pet fish.
Official wording
Write an opinion about a topic or personal experience, using clear reasons and relevant evidence.
2W2
Write to inform by introducing a topic, building points with facts, using subject words like habitat or predator, and ending with a closing sentence or section.
Official wording
Write informative/explanatory texts that introduce a topic, use facts and other information to develop points, use content-specific language, and provide a concluding statement or section.
2W3
Write a real or made-up story with details about what characters do, think and feel, order words like first, then and later, and a clear ending.
Official wording
Write narratives which recount real or imagined experiences or a short sequence of events, including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings; use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
2W4
Respond creatively to a text, author, theme or event from your life, like writing a new ending as a play or painting a favorite scene.
Official wording
Create a response to a text, author, theme or personal experience (e.g., poem, play, story, artwork, or other).
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
2W6
Come up with questions and help with class research to answer them and build knowledge, like finding out why leaves change color.
Official wording
Develop questions and participate in shared research and explorations to answer questions and to build knowledge.
2W7
Answer a question by recalling what you have experienced or gathering facts from sources the teacher provides, like books about the weather.
Official wording
Recall and represent relevant information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Speaking and Listening Standards

6 standards
Comprehension and Collaboration
2SL1
Join group conversations by listening closely, taking turns, linking your comments to what others said, asking for more explanation, and respecting differences.
Official wording
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse peers and adults in small and large groups and during play.aFollow agreed-upon rules for discussions and participate by actively listening, taking turns, and staying on topic.bBuild on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others through multiple exchanges.cAsk for clarification and further explanation as needed about topics and texts under discussion.dConsider individual differences when communicating with others.
2SL2
Retell or describe the main ideas and details from texts and media of many kinds, like a read-aloud, a podcast or a short video.
Official wording
Recount or describe key ideas or details of diverse texts and formats.
2SL3
Ask and answer questions about a speaker's message, then tell whether you agree or disagree with the speaker's opinion and give reasons.
Official wording
Develop and answer questions about what a speaker says; agree or disagree with the speaker’s point of view, providing a reason(s).
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
2SL4
Describe a person, place, thing or event with details that matter, saying ideas and feelings clearly, like what made a trip to the zoo fun.
Official wording
Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Common Core SL.1.4
2SL5
Add pictures, recordings or other visuals to a presentation to make your ideas and feelings clearer, like a slide show about a family tradition.
Official wording
Include digital media and/or visual displays in presentations to clarify or support ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
2SL6
Share thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly and change how you talk to fit the setting, like speaking differently to the principal than to a friend.
Official wording
Express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly, adapting language according to context.

Language Standards

4 standards
Knowledge of Language
2L3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
Official wording
Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.aCompare academic and conversational uses of English.
Common Core L.2.3
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
2L4
Figure out unknown or multiple-meaning words using sentence clues, prefixes like un- and re-, root words, the parts of compound words, and glossaries or dictionaries.
Official wording
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.aUse sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.bDetermine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell).cUse a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root (e.g., addition, additional).dUse knowledge of the meaning of individual words to predict the meaning of compound words (e.g., birdhouse, lighthouse, housefly; bookshelf, notebook, bookmark).eUse glossaries and beginning dictionaries to determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases.
2L5
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.
Official wording
Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.aIdentify real-life connections between words and their use.bUse words for identification and description, making connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that are spicy or juicy).cDistinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs (e.g., toss, throw, hurl) and closely related adjectives (e.g., thin, slender, skinny, scrawny).
Common Core L.2.5
2L6
Put new words from talks, books and read-alouds to work, including describing words like gentle and quickly, when speaking and writing about what was read.
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 L.2.6

The official New York documents

New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards, Copyright 2017, New York State Education Department, used with permission.

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

The plain-English lines are EMStudio's own explanations, shown beside the official wording. They are not part of the standards.