Language Arts
The language arts program consists of daily writing activities, grammar instruction and spelling. Writing takes many forms, including responding to fiction and non-fiction, sharing of personal experiences, and writing stories, poems, personal letters and book reports. Using the writing process, students gain practice with brainstorming, organizing ideas, drafting, revising and editing. WriteTrack and Daily Oral Language (DOL) methods expose students to more explicit language instruction into the classroom. Students learn to detect faulty sentence structure, punctuation errors and incorrect spelling. The teaching of dictionary skills and the memorization of basic sight words are also important components of language arts in Grade 2. Students also engage in a research-based, word study program, SPELL-Links, to address a wide range of phonological, orthographic, morphological and semantic needs.