Students write a multi-paragraph persuasive piece by developing their opinion on an issue and providing reasons/evidence that support their topic.

 Students will craft a persuasive presentation of information for a cause they believe needs to be improved to convince the citizens within their home community. Students are encouraged to explore pamphlets, petitions, and commercials to best find the way that they will present their information. Additionally, students will be selecting their own, school-appropriate, topics to address. The linking factor will be a persuasive outline for each assignment.** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

In this unit, students grapple with common second grade themes through reading the easily relatable series Pinky and Rex. Through connecting with Pinky and Rex, students will learn that it's okay to be different and to be proud of who they are, no matter what others may think. Students will also learn about what it truly means to be a good friend and how friends can support and stick up for one another in a variety of ways. They will also see that it's okay for boys and girls to be friends, even best friends. This unit builds onto multiple units from first grade in which students learned what it means to be a good friend and a good person. It is our hope that this unit deepens the understandings developed in previous grades by giving students characters to connect with. These connections are especially important for students who are struggling with some of the same issues and aren't sure how to process or talk about them.

In reading this unit is a transition from units that were predominately read aloud into a unit that is almost entirely shared or independent reading. Pinky and Rex are perfect texts for second graders, not only because of the important themes they teach but because of the way in which James Howe develops character and plot over the course of the series. As readers, students will be challenged to notice the descriptive details James Howe includes to show how characters feel in response to different problems and challenges. They will also be challenged to notice how a character's dialogue shows what they are truly feeling and how the different'said' words James Howe includes deepens that understanding. Students will also begin to analyze why certain words in a text are written in italics and what that shows about how a character is feeling. This deep dive into character will allow students to truly understand the characters and the lessons that they are learning. By reading four books in the series, students will also have the chance to see how characters develop over the course of multiple texts. By the fourth text, students will have a deeper, more nuanced understanding of all three characters.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842) focuses on expanding vocabulary, developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening writing skills.

This is a planet themed graphic organizer. This organizer will pair well with any space themed passage in which the students are expected to summarize. Also includes text snippets for modeling and gudided practice for the teacher to show how to look for a "who" and "what" in a passage.

In this unit, students explore how plastic pollution is choking the world's oceans. Students learn about the history of plastic, how plastic ends up in the ocean, how plastic in the ocean impacts the ecosystem, and why it's so hard to remove plastic from the ocean once it's there. In the second half of the unit, students explore a variety of solutions for reducing plastic waste and reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. Students will learn about large policy-based changes that can be made and also explore smaller voluntary actions they can take that will make a difference. Finally, students end the unit doing a research project aimed at educating others about the dangers of plastic and its impact on the environment.

In reading, this unit serves as the foundational informational unit of the year. Students will be challenged to explain the relationship between two or more scientific ideas, determine the meaning of domain-specific words, and understand the reasons and evidence the author uses to support a particular point. Since this is the first informational unit, routines and procedures for active annotation, discussion, and writing about reading should be introduced so that students are able to show understanding of the text and standards in multiple modes.

This vocabulary exercise introduces students to the works of Edgar Allan Poe while also expanding their vocabulary of the words Poe invented. Students will identify meanings, parts of speech, and parts of the word through context clues in the text and using word-reference materials.

This video is part of the Learn and Grow with WHRO TV series. Watch Caroline Doughty teach about writing a persuasive letter.

In this unit, students explore the power of reading and writing around the world. Over the course of the unit, students will grapple with and explore the power involved with education and reading, and why so many people across the world seek the power to read. Students will also discover that not all people have equal access to education and that in many places receiving a high-quality education is not an easy feat. As a connection to the informational unit on continents, when the setting is clearly defined by the author either in the author's note or directly in the text, make sure to reference it and challenge students to notice features of the culture or country. It is important to note that many of the texts in this unit are fiction; therefore, large generalizations about an entire culture or country should not be made based on the books alone. Students should, however, be challenged to think about the ways in which the author portrays the characters' struggles and desire for education and what we can learn from the characters' experiences. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with other units in the sequence, will begin to open students' eyes to the world around us and the ways in which values are similar and different around the world.

In reading, it is assumed that students are inquisitive consumers of the text and are able to retell stories, including key details, using both the illustrations and words as a guide. Therefore, in this unit students will be pushed further to notice more nuanced central messages, particularly related to the idea of education and reading. Students will also be pushed to notice the words and phrases an author includes to suggest feeling and appeal to the senses. In Unit 3, students were exposed to the skill of compare and contrast by comparing and contrasting similar versions of the same story. In this unit, students will be pushed to the next level by comparing and contrasting more nuanced experiences and messages across multiple stories.

In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. In every piece of writing, students should be expected to correctly answer the question and provide details from the text to support their answer. In this unit, students will begin to learn how to explain their evidence and thinking in a way that shows a deeper understanding of the question or text. By the end of the unit, most students should be able to score a 3 on the Reading Response rubric.

Learning Objectives:Students will research what to do in case of an emergency, namely a hurricane. Students will develop vocabulary.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) focuses on developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

This unit challenges students to view history with a critical lens, and to notice how there is always more than one side to a story. The unit begins with the Mayflower and helps students develop an understanding of why so many colonists decided to leave England and travel to the New World. Students will explore the hardships faced by the colonists, both on the ship and once they arrive in the New World, and how the colonists persevered and relied on the geography and environment to meet their needs. Students will then learn about the Wampanoag, the people who were on the land before the Pilgrims arrived. They will learn about what the Wampanoag valued, how they viewed the Pilgrims, and how the arrival of explorers and settlers negatively influenced their tribe. Then students will be pushed to analyze what really happened at the first Thanksgiving, and whose story is being told. Students will realize that the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving contains many myths that don't accurately reflect the Wampanoag and what really happened in 1621.

Students will find, evaluate, and select credible sources to create a research product.

Students will find, evaluate, and select credible sources to create a research product.

Students will research and then compose a researched-based persuasive essay. Students will debate with opponents of their topic in front of their teacher and peers. ** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

This resource provides ideas for how students can engage with a variety of sources that tackle controversial issues as they work to consider and support their own opinion. It provides scaffolding for the original resource from which it is remixed to help students prepare to write an argument essay on a controversial topic.