Units of Study for Writing, Grade 2 with Trade Book Pack, 2nd edition

The second-grade units are written with seven-year-olds in mind. These youngsters are chomping at the bit for something new. They feel very big now and want work that feels big and important. That’s what they’ll get—this series invites second-graders into author studies that help them craft powerful true stories, science investigations and lab reports, and finally, into some very grown-up writing about reading. Across the writing genres, children learn to understand—and apply to their own writing—techniques they discover in the work of published authors.

In Lessons from the Masters: Improving Narrative Writing students learn how to create engaging narratives by stretching out small moments and writing in detail.

Unit 2, Lab Reports and Science Books, uses inspirational nonfiction texts to help students design and write about experiments and other scientific information. Unit 3, Writing About Reading, has students read closely and gather evidence from texts to craft persuasive arguments. The final unit, Poetry: Big Thoughts in Small Packages helps children explore and savor language. Students learn to use line breaks to express the meaning and rhythm they intend and use visualization and figures of speech to make their writing more clear and powerful.

The Grade 2 Trade Pack includes three age-appropriate trade books that are used in the units to model effective writing techniques, encourage students to read as writers, and provide background knowledge.

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson
• Forces and Motion by John Graham
• Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems by Kristine O’Connell George and Kate Kiesler