2nd Grade - Content

Last updated: 2003

Introduction
Most students enter school confident in their own abilities and they are curious and eager to learn more. They make sense of the world by reasoning and problem solving. Young students are active, resourceful individuals who construct, modify, and integrate ideas by interacting with the physical world as well as with peers and adults. They learn by doing, collaborating, and sharing their ideas. Students' abilities to communicate through language, pictures, sound, movement, and other symbolic means develop rapidly during these years.

Literacy requires an understanding of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in many forms including print and electronic images. Today, more than ever, students must have the ability to think critically while applying new information to existing knowledge. Therefore, school literacy programs need to involve students in learning to read and write in situations that foster critical thinking and the use of literacy for independent learning in all content areas.

Young students are building beliefs about what mathematics is, about what it means to know and do mathematics, and about themselves as mathematical learners. Mathematics instruction needs to include more than short-term learning of rote procedures. Students must use technology and other mathematical tools, such as manipulative materials to develop conceptual understanding and solve problems as they do mathematics. Students, as mathematicians, learn best with hands-on, active experiences throughout the instruction of the mathematics curriculum.

Language Arts and Mathematics are the tools for doing work in other areas. These content areas need to be integrated into other curriculum areas to provide students with optimal learning. The curriculum becomes more relevant when content areas are connected rather than taught in strict isolation. For this reason, the content areas of the Arts, Health Education, Library Media, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Technology have been integrated to enable teachers to teach more efficiently and students can learn in a real-life context that enhances lifelong learning.

The Kindergarten through Second Grade Core describes what students should know and be able to do at the end of each of the K-2 grade levels. It has been developed, critiqued, and revised by a community of Utah teachers, university educators, State Office of Education specialists, and an advisory committee representing a wide variety of people from the community. The Core reflects the current philosophy of education that is expressed in national documents developed by the: International Reading Association, National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics, National Standards for Arts Education, Information Power, National Association for Sport and Physical Education, American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Council for the Social Studies, International Society for Technology and Education, and Early Childhood Standards.

Organization of the K-2 Core
The Core is designed to help teachers organize and deliver instruction.

• Each grade level begins with a brief course description.
• The first column consists of the Language Arts curriculum that encompasses Reading, Language, Writing, Spelling, and Handwriting.
• The subject areas of: The Arts, Health Education, Library Media, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, and Technology have been integrated and are found in the central column.
• The third column consists of the Mathematics curriculum.
• The K-2 LEARNING GOALS describe the goals for students to gain knowledge and understand their world. They are found at the beginning of each grade level and are an integral part of the Core and should be included as part of instruction.
• A STANDARD is a broad statement of what students are expected to understand. Several Objectives are listed under each Standard.
• An OBJECTIVE is a more focused description of what students need to know and be able to do at the completion of instruction. If students have mastered the Objectives associated with a given Standard, they have mastered that Standard at that grade level. Several Indicators are described for each Objective.
• An INDICATOR is a measurable or observable student action that enables one to assess whether a student has mastered a particular Objective. Indicators are not meant to be classroom activities, but they can help guide classroom instruction.

Guidelines Used in Developing the K-2 Core

The Core is:

Consistent with the Nature of Learning
The main intent at the early grades is for students to value learning and develop the skills to gain knowledge and understand their world. The Core is designed to produce an integrated set of K-2 Learning Goals for students with specific goals in all content areas.

Coherent
The Core has been designed so that, wherever possible, the ideas taught within a particular grade level have a logical and natural connection with each other and with those of earlier grades. Efforts have also been made to select topics and skills that integrate well with one another appropriate to grade level. In addition, there is an upward articulation of concepts, skills, and content. This spiraling is intended to prepare students to understand and use more complex concepts and skills as they advance through the learning process.

Developmentally Appropriate
The Core takes into account the psychological and social readiness of students. It builds from concrete experiences to more abstract understandings. The Core focuses on providing experiences with concepts that students can explore and understand in depth to build the foundation for future learning experiences.

Reflective of Successful Teaching Practices
Learning through play, movement, and adventure is critical to the early development of the mind and body. The Core emphasizes student exploration. The K-2 Learning Goals are central in each standard. The Core is designed to encourage instruction with students working in cooperative groups. Instruction should connect lessons with students' daily lives.

Comprehensive
The K-2 Core does not cover all topics that have traditionally been in the K-2 curriculum; however, it provides a basic foundation of knowledge and skills in all content areas. By emphasizing depth rather than breadth, the Core seeks to empower students rather than intimidate them with a collection of isolated and eminently forgettable facts. Teachers are free to add related concepts and skills, but they are expected to teach all the standards and objectives specified in the Core for their grade level.

Feasible
Teachers and others who are familiar with Utah students, classrooms, teachers, and schools have designed the Core. It can be taught with easily obtained resources and materials. A Teacher Resource Book (TRB) is also available for teachers and has sample lessons on each topic for each grade level. The TRB is a document that will grow as teachers add exemplary lessons aligned with the new Core.

Useful and Relevant
This curriculum relates directly to student needs and interests. Relevance of content areas to other endeavors enables students to transfer skills gained from one area of instruction into their other school subjects and into their lives outside the classroom.

Reliant Upon Effective Assessment Practices
Student achievement of the standards and objectives in this core are best assessed using a variety of assessment instruments. Performance tests are particularly appropriate to evaluate student mastery of thinking processes and problem-solving skills. A variety of classroom assessment approaches should be used by teachers in conjunction with the Criterion Reference Tests (CRT) that are administered to first and second grade students in Language Arts and Mathematics, and with the pre- and post tests administered in kindergarten. Observation of students engaged in instructional activities is highly recommended as a way to assess students' skills as well as attitudes towards learning. The nature of the questions posed by students provides important evidence of their understanding.

Engaging
In the early grades, children are forming attitudes and habits for learning. It is important that instruction maximizes students' potential and gives them understanding of the intertwined nature of learning. Effective elementary instruction engages students actively in enjoyable learning experiences. Instruction should be as thrilling an experience for a child as seeing a rainbow, growing a flower, or describing a toad. In a world of rapidly expanding knowledge and technology, all students must gain the skills they will need to understand and function responsibly and successfully in the world. The Core provides skills in a context that enables students to experience the joy of learning.