Homework Expectations

Homework in Second Grade seeks to develop responsibility and academic ownership. Material will always relate to the topics being covered in class and will reinforce strategies and skills being learned. We hope to see a strong homework routine developed now so that students will be prepared and competent moving forward! Please help us by helping your child feel settled and comfortable at home -- we recommend a quiet space to work and positive reinforcement. Celebrate small accomplishments and and praise the good efforts of your children!

Reading -- In Second Grade, reading will be a part of nightly homework. We expect your children to be reading 20 minutes each night, and welcome more minutes should you please! In order to practice fluency, we encourage you to partner read with your children and to allow for read aloud time. Inside the communication folder that comes home nightly, you will find a reading log in which to record the book, minutes, and pages read. We will use this throughout the year to track your child's reading progress and achievements!

While practicing fluency is highly important, it is equally important to engage in conversation about text. Having a family book club is a great way to enjoy a common text, and studies show that the more children see adults reading and talking about their lives as readers, the more inclined they are to enjoy reading themselves. These rich conversation will help build strong readers and comprehension skills, while also instilling a love of books. We like to say that Second Grade is when "students read to learn, rather than learn to read" and we thank you for your partnership in growing our readers!

Here are a few questions to consider when talking to your children about their reading:

• What are you working on as a reader?
• Who are the characters in your story? Can you relate to them?
• What is the main problem in the story?
• Do you have any connections to what you're reading? What does it remind you of?
• What happened in the beginning, middle, and end?
• Can you describe the setting?

Math -- Math homework will be sent home several times a week, and we encourage your children to work through their homework independently prior to receiving help. Homework will review concepts covered in class and will be connected to our current unit of Investigations. Should your child have trouble with math at home, you can turn to the Investigations Parent Handbook for strategies, games, and tips. Please let us know if their is homework trouble at home so that we can best help in the classroom.

Additionally, we will send home "Parent Letters" throughout the year and we hope you will read these thoughtfully in order to stay up to date on what we are learning in the classroom.

Each evening, your child should spend 5-10 minutes practicing addition combinations. By the end of Second Grade, we expect students to have mastered addition combinations through +10 with a recall time of 3 seconds. Some good practice methods include flashcards, iPad apps (King of Math or Splash Math), or various online resources. Use time in the car, in the waiting room, or at the grocery store to practice these combinations! We will do "Mad Minutes" once a week to practice these combinations in class. These worksheets will be sent home so that you can note your child's progress.

Good facilitating questions:

• What are you being asked to find out?
• What does the problem tell you? Can you describe it in your own words? 
• What part of the problem is confusing?
• Is your strategy working? Why not?
• Have you double checked your answer?
• How do you know if your answer is correct?

If you're looking for other ways to incorporate math at home, consider having your child take responsibility for telling time and "staying on schedule," or encourage them to count your change after trips to the grocery store. Math is everywhere! Look for opportunities to add math into everyday life.

Word Study -- Occasionally, students will have Word Study homework. The homework will support the topics we are working on in class. We ask that you designate Thursdays as a night to review the new word wall words and word sort, if they have been assigned that week. We will have an assessment every other Friday.