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North Carolina Standards

North Carolina 2nd Grade ELA Standards

All 39 North Carolina English language arts standards for 2nd grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.

39 standards

Reading Foundational Skills

3 standards
RF.2.2
Print every capital and small letter neatly and at the right size next to the others, like tall letters such as h and short ones such as n.
RF.2.4
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
Common Core RF.K.3
RF.2.5
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Common Core RF.1.4

Reading Literature

9 standards
RL.2.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about a story on your own, like why the fox tricked the hen.
Common Core RL.2.1
RL.2.2
Retell a fable or folktale from another culture, like The Tortoise and the Hare, and say what lesson or moral it teaches.
Common Core RL.2.2
RL.2.3
Explain how a character deals with a big event or problem in a story, like what a lost puppy does to find its way home.
Common Core RL.2.3
RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases give a story, poem or song its beat and meaning, like rhymes, repeated lines or words that start alike.
RL.2.5
Describe how a story is built, with a beginning that sets it up, a middle where events happen and an ending that wraps up the action.
RL.2.6
Tell how characters see things differently, using a different voice for each one when reading their dialogue aloud, like a squeaky mouse and a deep bear.
RL.2.7
Use both the pictures and the words of a book or e-book to explain who the characters are, where the story happens and what goes on in it.
Common Core RL.2.7
RL.2.9
Compare and contrast two or more tellings of one story by different writers or cultures, like Cinderella tales from around the world.
RL.2.10
By the end of the year, read stories and poems at the 2nd to 3rd grade level well and on their own for long stretches, linking them to what they already know.

Reading Informational

10 standards
RI.2.1
Ask and answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions about a story on your own, like why the fox tricked the hen.
Common Core RL.2.1
RI.2.2
Name what a text of several paragraphs is mostly about and what each paragraph focuses on, like a piece on bees with a paragraph on honey.
RI.2.3
Explain how the events, science ideas or steps in an informational text link up, like how each step in a recipe leads to the next.
Common Core RI.2.3
RI.2.4
Figure out what a subject word in a 2nd grade science or social studies text means, like habitat in a book about animals.
Common Core RI.2.4
RI.2.5
Use text features like captions, bold words, glossaries, indexes and menus to find key facts quickly.
RI.2.6
Figure out the main reason an author wrote a text, like to answer a question, explain how volcanoes erupt or describe a place.
RI.2.7
Explain how particular pictures add to a text and make it clearer, like a diagram of a butterfly’s life cycle.
RI.2.8
Point out the reasons a writer gives to support each idea in a text, like facts showing why recycling helps.
RI.2.9
Read two informational texts on one topic, like two books about volcanoes, and tell where their most important points agree and where they differ.
Common Core RI.2.9
RI.2.10
By year’s end, read second and third grade nonfiction well and independently for long periods, connecting it to their own knowledge and experiences.

Writing

6 standards
W.2.1
Write an opinion piece that introduces a topic or book, gives reasons joined by words like because and also, and ends with a conclusion, revising with help.
W.2.2
Write a short report that introduces a topic, like how plants grow, builds its points with facts and definitions, and ends with a closing sentence.
Common Core W.2.2
W.2.3
Write a story about one event or a few with details on actions, thoughts and feelings, time words like later, and an ending, revising it with help.
W.2.4
With adult help, use a range of digital tools to write and publish work, sometimes with partners, like making a class e-book about a field trip.
W.2.5
Join classmates in researching and writing, like reading about a local animal and putting together a shared poster or report.
W.2.6
Answer a question by drawing on something you remember or by finding the facts in books or websites the teacher gives you.
Common Core W.2.8

Speaking and Listening

5 standards
SL.2.1
Discuss 2nd grade topics and books in small and large groups, follow the rules, build on what others say and ask when something is unclear.
Common Core SL.2.1
SL.2.2
Retell the main ideas and details of a story read aloud, a talk or a video, like the steps shown in a video about making butter.
Common Core SL.2.2
SL.2.3
Ask a speaker questions to clear up a confusing part, learn more or go deeper into the topic, and answer questions about what was said.
Common Core SL.2.3
SL.2.4
Tell a story or share an experience with fitting facts and vivid details, speaking loud enough to hear in clear, complete sentences.
SL.2.5
Record yourself reading a story or poem, and add drawings or other visuals to a story or recount when they help make the ideas and feelings clear.
Common Core SL.2.5

Language

6 standards
L.2.1
Use second grade grammar, like plurals such as mice, past forms such as went, words like herself, a versus an, and their versus there, in clear sentences.
L.2.2
Capitalize holidays, brand names and places, use commas in letters and lists and apostrophes in words like can’t, and check spellings in 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 unknown and multiple-meaning words in second grade texts with sentence clues, prefixes and roots, related words and a dictionary, like unhappy.
L.2.5
Show they understand small differences between similar words, like tap, knock and pound, or warm, hot and scorching.
L.2.6
Use words learned from talking, reading, read-alouds and discussing books, including describing words like enormous and quietly.

The official North Carolina documents

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