Skip to main content
South Carolina Standards

South Carolina 2nd Grade ELA Standards

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

39 standards

Overarching Expectations

6 standards
ELA.2.OE.1
Read and write for school and for personal reasons over sustained stretches, like reading a short chapter book or writing a letter to a friend.
ELA.2.OE.2
Build, refine and share knowledge from written, spoken, visual, digital and interactive texts, like a nonfiction book, a podcast or an online map.
ELA.2.OE.3
Draw inferences from details and clues to understand a text more fully, like figuring out the season from what characters wear.
ELA.2.OE.4
Work together with others and listen actively, like nodding, asking a follow-up question and taking turns in a book club.
ELA.2.OE.5
Cite details from a text to explain and justify an answer, like naming the page that shows a character changed her mind.
ELA.2.OE.6
Produce quality work that follows the accepted format for the task, like a friendly letter with a greeting, body and closing.

Foundations of Literacy

8 standards
ELA.2.F.1.7
Change spoken words of up to six sounds by removing, adding or swapping the first, middle or last sound, then say the new word, like stamp to stomp.
ELA.2.F.3.4
Find the vowels to decode longer words with common syllable types, including vowel teams, consonant-le and schwa, using rules for dividing syllables, like nap-kin and ti-ger.
ELA.2.F.3.6
Build new longer words by taking out, adding or changing letter groups at the start, middle or end, like turning sunshine into moonshine.
ELA.2.F.3.7
Read longer words by breaking them into syllables, like reading fantastic as fan-tas-tic.
ELA.2.F.3.8
Read and spell multisyllable words with digraphs, blends like str, vowel teams like oi and igh, r-controlled vowels, changing endings, soft c and g, silent letters and contractions.
ELA.2.F.4.1
Read second-grade high-frequency words quickly and correctly, like because, would, through and again.
ELA.2.F.4.2
Read texts both aloud and silently, correctly and at a fitting pace, with expression and natural intonation, like lifting the voice at the end of a question.
ELA.2.F.4.3
Figure out words by blending sounds, comparing to known words, spotting chunks, applying phonics to new words, and using context and pictures to check and self-correct.

Applications of Reading

14 standards
ELA.2.AOR.1.1
Describe a story's main elements and put its important events in order, like what happens first, next and last.
ELA.2.AOR.1.2
Find similes, personification and idioms in a text and explain why the author used them, like a sun that smiles or quiet as a mouse.
ELA.2.AOR.2.1
Name a theme that a story states directly and explain it, like a character who learns that honesty matters.
ELA.2.AOR.2.2
Identify the central idea of an informational text, explain it and show the details that back it up, like a text on how volcanoes form.
ELA.2.AOR.3.1
Recognize how different characters in a story see the same events, like a wolf and a pig each telling about the same day.
ELA.2.AOR.4.1
Name and explain the reason an author wrote a text, such as to answer a question, explain how something works or describe something.
ELA.2.AOR.5.1
Describe how stories, plays and poems are built, like a story's beginning, middle and end or a poem's lines and stanzas.
ELA.2.AOR.5.2
Explain how text features like headings and diagrams add meaning to an informational text, and recognize a sequence structure, like steps in a recipe.
ELA.2.AOR.5.3
Notice when the author of an informational text shares an opinion and gives reasons to back it, like why kids should recycle.
ELA.2.AOR.6.1
Retell a text to deepen understanding, giving a story's main elements in order or an informational text's central idea and supporting details.
ELA.2.AOR.7.1
Work out word meanings using sentence clues like definitions and examples, glossaries and dictionaries, background reading, and words learned from talk and reading.
ELA.2.AOR.8.1
Judge how well an author's words work by asking questions about them and telling apart close meanings, like toss versus hurl or little versus teeny.
ELA.2.AOR.9.1
Use spelling patterns and endings that change a base word, like hop to hopping, and use prefixes like re- and un- to work out word meanings.
ELA.2.AOR.10.1
Explain how pictures, photos and maps help readers understand a printed or digital text, like a map that shows where events take place.

Research

2 standards
ELA.2.R.1.1
Ask and answer questions about printed and nonprinted sources to focus or widen thinking about a topic, like a book and a video on storms.
ELA.2.R.1.2
Put information from a given print or nonprint source in order, like listing the stages of a butterfly's life from a video.

Written and Oral Communications

9 standards
ELA.2.C.1.1
Write an opinion piece that states an opinion, backs it with reasons and details, uses transitions like for example and another reason, and ends with a conclusion.
ELA.2.C.2.1
Write an informational piece that introduces a topic, develops it with facts and details, and wraps up with a concluding statement, like a report on the water cycle.
ELA.2.C.3.1
Write a real or imagined story that sets up and describes characters and a setting, tells events in order with time words, and gives a sense of ending.
ELA.2.C.4.1
Write and expand correct simple and compound sentences, capitalizing holidays and places and using commas, quotation marks and apostrophes, plus adverbs, comparatives and conjunctions.
ELA.2.C.5.1
Plan, revise and edit writing to strengthen it, building on personal ideas and peers' suggestions, like adding a detail a partner asked about.
ELA.2.C.6.1
Print all capital and small letters clearly with even spacing between letters, words and sentences, like a neat final copy of a story.
ELA.2.C.7.1
Tell a story or recount an experience aloud with fitting facts and details, using eye contact, clear speech and good volume, and with adult help add digital tools.
ELA.2.C.8.1
Join structured discussions with classmates and adults about second-grade topics and texts by greeting, taking turns, replying with comments or questions, and restating others' ideas.
ELA.2.C.9.1
Listen for a speaker's opinion and name at least one reason given for it, like why a classmate thinks recess should be longer.

The official South Carolina documents

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