In order to communicate efficiently, second-graders must learn grammar and punctuation. They must be able to correctly construct a sentence and identify nouns and verbs. Time is added as a grammatical construct, and they must be able to write about events that happen in the past, present and future using the correct grammatical sentence structures. During the second grade, students start to improve their own work through feedback. Get your second-grader to read his writing out loud. Help him to identify grammatical errors and ask him to correct his errors. If he is not able to correct his own errors, explain the grammar rule that applies and get the student to practice examples of the grammar rules.
Capitalization, periods, commas and question marks are aspects of punctuation that second-graders should master. These basic punctuation points will aid in the effective communication of ideas. Getting the student to read her writing aloud, using the punctuation for pause or infliction, will help her understand its importance. Feedback is essential to help students correct punctuation errors. Contractions are another form of punctuation they need to master. Here the student needs to understand which two words have been contracted and where to put the comma. Exercises here will include getting the student to contract or expand words.
Comprehension is an important addition to the second-grade writing quiver. Here students must pick out the beginning, middle and end of their stories. They begin to draw out the main ideas from their writing. Most importantly, they will start to communicate their own thoughts and feelings. To this end, students will begin to write poems, stories and reports. Book reports will get them to identify the beginning, middle and end of books they have read. They must identify the main points or ideas. They will use book reports to communicate their ideas on how the characters in stories were feeling. Poems are used to get students to communicate their feelings and to start to explore adjectives and how they can be used to describe things. Stories help students communicate a series of events and organize their thoughts into a beginning, middle and an end. The stores need to be planned and drafted before a final copy is written, which teaches planning skills and organization of thought.
Cursive writing will be introduced to students during the second grade. At first they should practice writing each of the letters individually. Once they have mastered individual letters, the can start forming words that link each letter together. The children should focus on writing neatly before they focus on writing quickly. Spelling is also a key development of second-grade writing. Regular spelling tests help students learn to spell words correctly. Dictionary use will help with this endeavor. Second-grade students must learn to use the dictionary by themselves. You can help with spelling by getting your second-grader to look up words that they have spelled incorrectly. Dictionary use will also help students expand their vocabulary as they look up words they don't know.