Course Title: Second Grade Safety/Digital Learning    Department: Business/Technology

 Course Title: English Language Arts (ELA)   Department: ELA

Grade 2 English Language Arts courses are aligned with PA Core Standards which encompass reading and responding to fiction and nonfiction texts. Students are taught to be strategic readers and use appropriate strategies to construct the meaning of the text.  Students also learn to read fluently with appropriate expression. As students’ reading rate increases, comprehension is emphasized. Additionally, students practice writing skills with a focus on narrative, informative, and persuasive pieces. Students also receive weekly phonics, grammar, and vocabulary instruction. Speaking and listening skills are practiced through collaboration and oral presentations.  

---

 Course Title: Physical Education Grade 2    Department: Health and Physical Education

 
Course Title: Library-2    Department: Library

Course Title: Math Grade 2    Department: Math

• Operations and Algebraic Thinking Unit focuses on applying addition and subtraction concepts, number patterns, and adding and subtracting two-digit numbers.

• Number & Operations in Base Ten Unit focuses on place value to 1,000 and adding and subtracting three-digit numbers.

• Measurement & Data Unit focuses on money, data analysis, time, and customary and metric lengths.

• Geometry Unit focuses on geometric shapes and equal shares.

Course Title: General Music- Grade 2    Department: Music

 Grade Level: 2    

Time Per Day/Week: 40 minutes/ 5 days a week     Length of Course: Year

Primary Resources: Resources developed by teachers aligned with PA Fine Arts Standards/National Core Arts Standards

Units of Study:

Unit 1: Music Literacy: (see 12-step literacy process in the course description)

• Pitch: Discover and practice first, two-tone music (sol-mi) then three-tone music (la-sol-mi) using simple melodies and/or melodic patterns.
• Rhythm: quarter notes, eighth notes, quarter rests, time signature, barline, double barline, repeat sign.

Unit 2: Performance Skills: 

• Tuneful singing
• Playing instruments
• Movement/dance

Unit 3: Listening and Analysis: 

• Form (Continual compare/contrast, ABA form, Rondo form)
• Music Vocabulary (tempo and dynamics)
• Evaluating Performances, Instruments Families (Identification/Classification)

Unit 4: Musical Contexts: Different focus at each grade level

• Connections to History (Composers, Styles of Music)
• Connections to Culture (Patriotic Music, Music of other countries)
• Connections to other disciplines (Dance, visual arts, math, literature)

Unit 5: Creativity: (Personal application of literacy and performance skills)

• Improvisation
• Composition
• Artistic Synthesis (incorporate movement, literature, and visual art)

Curriculum-Based Assessments: Topic Tests, Performance and project-based assessments using rubric criteria

•  
• Standardized Assessments: N/A
•  
• Description of Course: 
• In second-grade general music, students continue to develop their “tuneful, beat-ful, artful” musical skills that were introduced in first grade via the First Steps in Music curriculum by John Feierabend, while simultaneously developing a repertoire of familiar folk songs and/or composed music to sing, move to and play on instruments.  Students start to build upon familiar music literacy skills by adding additional rhythmic concepts (half note, half rest, and 2/4 time signature) and beginning to recognize and name pitches in the major scale (sol-mi, later add la). Music Literacy is taught using the Conversational Solfege process by John Feierabend, which follows this 12-step sequence. 

• Students will enhance the above performance skills by learning multiple part arrangements (pitched and unpitched percussion) to familiar songs. 

  Music creativity is explored through the above literacy process as students improvise and compose their own music. Creativity also happens as students partake in classroom performances of familiar songs which they have arranged themselves as they choose their own instrumentation (pitched and unpitched classroom percussion) and incorporate original poetry or other literature as part of the performance. These activities are in line with the Orff-Schulwerk approach.

  Throughout the year, students will discover how repertoire and concepts connect with the history of music, including famous musicians/composers, styles of music, music from other countries and how music is related to other areas of learning and culture.  Students will continue to build their music vocabulary to describe what they hear using appropriate musical terminology.

•  
  Course Title: Science - Grade 2    Department: Science
•  
• Grade Level: 2 
•  
• Time Per Day/Week: 30 minutes/day, 5 days/week    Length of Course:  25 - 30 days per unit of study
•  
• Primary Resources: Amplify Science, 2018
•  
•  
•  
• Units of Study: 
• Plant and Animal Relationships: Investigating Systems in a Bengali Forest
• Properties of Materials: Designing Glue
• Changing Landforms: The Disappearing Cliff
•  
• Curriculum-Based Assessments: Science notebooks
•  
• Standardized Assessments: N/A
•  
• Description of Course: 

• Plant and Animal Relationships: Students investigate a mystery that really occurred in a broadleaf forest habitat in northeastern India.  Assuming the role of plant scientists, students examine what plant structures allow a plant to get what it needs to grow, and how plants depend on the parts of their habitat to get them to new places, where there are ample sunlight and water. Investigations support students in developing an understanding that habitats encompass more than the place where an animal lives: habitats contain a diverse array of plants and animals that depend on one another for survival.

  Properties of Materials: Students take on the role of glue engineers and use engineering design practices to create a glue for school use, which serves as the design problem for the unit. Hands-on investigations support students in developing an understanding of how certain materials respond to heating and cooling and how properties of ingredients affect the properties of mixtures. Repeated opportunities for planning, making, modifying, and testing glue designs and observing properties of possible glue ingredients allow students to gather evidence and create successful glue mixtures.

  Changing Landforms: Students examine changes in the cliffs by Oceanside Recreation Center, which serves as the anchoring phenomenon for the unit. This unit focuses on the idea that Earth’s materials and features even materials as hard as rock change due to erosion. Students take on the role of geologists and investigate how wind and water can cause changes in landforms. Repeated opportunities for students to observe evidence of erosion in the models they use and in the photos and maps they examine, in addition to multiple opportunities to engage in discourse help students, understand that Earth and its features and materials can and do change

•  

•  
• Course Title: Social Studies - Grade 2    Department: Social Studies
•  
• Grade Level: 2    
•  
• Times Per Day/Week: 30 minutes/4 times per week    Length of Course: 2 nine weeks
•  
• Primary Resources: Viola, Herman J. Social Studies: Neighborhoods. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
•  
•  
• Units of Study:
• Unit 1: Citizenship - Our Community and Beyond
• Unit 2: Economics - Goods and Services
• Unit 3: America’s History - Native Americans
• Unit 4: Cultures in Our World
• Unit 5: Civics - Everyday Heroes
• Unit 6: Pittsburgh - Then and Now
  
  Curriculum-Based Assessments: Curriculum and Teacher-created Worksheets, Formative Assessments, Unit Projects
•  
• Standardized Assessments: N/A
•  
• Description of Course: 
• Second-grade social studies are taught throughout the entirety of the school year. Through authentic texts and projects, students will explore topics in history, economics, civics, and world cultures. Unit 1 focuses on various communities and how members of those communities work cooperatively toward a common goal. Unit 2 explores economic systems and distinguishes between people’s needs and wants. Unit 3 investigates America’s past, such as the challenges faced by early settlers, and the similarities/differences among several Native American tribes. Unit 4 teaches students map skills and different world cultures, with a focus on holiday traditions. Unit 5 explores the idea that heroes are well-known, or ordinary people you look up to for their admirable qualities and that students can be a hero, too.  Unit 6 teaches that Pittsburgh has a rich historical and cultural history. The students will explore the city’s three rivers, its impact on the industrial revolution, and its transition from the “Steel City” into its awarded title, “The Most Livable City.”