Tonight’s Purpose Build Confidence for the “Next” Grade

Overview Tonight’s Topics Changes in growth and development Major shifts in academic expectations Purposes for homework Future Topics “Curriculum” expectations in each subject area Teacher/classroom routines Analysis of “grade-level” work

What Should I Expect and Why? Here’s the “What” Here’s the “Why” Children carry out many tasks independently Children work in partnerships to complete tasks Children work on assignments for a longer period of time Children self-select goals, assess, and reflect often It’s a sign of maturity Peer learning promotes social skills and builds community It builds stamina and develops skills for perseverance Instills accountability and autonomy

What’s New in Second Grade? Students copy some of their own homework daily Students will be responsible for unpacking and packing their backpacks and homework folders Students record the times when they sign in and out for the bathroom Reading Logs Appearance of the log Logging will be done in school and at home Students record information on their own Reading Notebook Responses to literature will be more frequent The types of responses will change from simple summaries to more analytical responses

What Else is New in 2 nd Grade Math curriculum is primarily Go Math based. Children will be responsible for knowing their addition and subtraction facts through 20. Children will be learning to choose the strategy that works best for them.

Homework In second grade, homework has several purposes. Practicing a skill or strategy learned at school Math assignments, independent reading, reading responses, word study, and grammar work are examples of these type of assignments. Communicating with parents about what work is being done at school, and how your child understands this work Reviewing your child’s assignments, and noticing how prepared he or she is to complete assignments, is a great way to informally assess how well your child is doing in school. Developing strong work habits and time management In addition to daily homework assignments the social studies homework will be project based. Therefore, time will need to be managed according to due dates and the length of assignments.

What Can We do Over the Summer? Promote Responsibility & Independence Give your child some jobs Vary the jobs according to your child’s success Praise your child for a job well done Ask your child how s/he could do a better job next time Increase Writing Stamina Talk to and listen to your child Buy your child a journal Write about experiences over the summer Monitor your child’s entries and praise them frequently Increase Reading Stamina Increase your child’s independent reading time by a few minutes each week Read high-interest books to your child Take a look at the Common Core Standards at 12-common-core-learning-standards