The instructional materials for Grade 2 meet the expectations of including shared and read-aloud texts in terms of quality and engagement. The majority of the texts are of publishable quality and worthy of careful reading and listening. The texts consider a range of cultures and interests and provide students the opportunity to engage with strong academic vocabulary, vibrant illustrations, and texts that they can identify with.

Examples of high-quality texts include:

• In Unit 1, students read “Jobs Around the World” by Christina Vila which is a social studies article that includes vibrant photos and examples of jobs that will engage students.
• In Unit 2, students read Twilight Hunt by Narelle Oliver which is a realistic fiction “seek and find” text that includes evocative language and images of nature in the evening, such as moths.
• In Unit 3, students read Frog Brings Rain by Joseph Bruchac, which is a traditional tale of the Navajo about fire and weather. There are strong verbs throughout the text and colorful illustrations.
• In Unit 4, students read a variety of Aesop’s Fables that contain rich vocabulary and important morals. The illustrations are age-appropriate.
• In Unit 5, students read Day and Night by Glenn Plean which is a nonfiction text about the earth's’ movement and how we get day and night. This text teaches the concept of antonyms and includes bold illustrations and text features along with science vocabulary, such as earth and axis.
• In Unit 6, students read Stone Soup, based on the Chinantec Tradition and rewritten by Justin Kiernan. This classic folktale, used for close reading, is previewed with song lyrics that outline the story.
• In Unit 7, students read Odd Couples by Amy Sarver, which is a science article about animals that pair up and help each other in the world. This text contains high-interest information, exciting animal photos, and good content vocabulary.
• In Unit 8, students read America is... by Louise Borden which is a literary nonfiction text about various places and features of the United States. There is rich vocabulary about America, such as freedom and pledge. It includes many features of our country such as skyscrapers, swamps, and bayou.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials reflecting the distribution of text types and genres required by the standards at each grade levels. Students are exposed to various texts throughout the program. The whole group and read aloud texts include a mix of nonfiction and fiction texts with a variety of genres including folktales, scientific texts, poems, articles, and plays.

Examples of fictional texts include:

• Unit 1: “The Adventures of Taxi Dog” by Debra and Sal Barracca- poem
• Unit 2: “Clever Creatures”  by Douglas Florian- poem
• Unit 3: Lila and the Secret of Rain by David Conway- tale
• Unit 4: The Smell of Fish and the Sound of Rice by David Lee- folktale
• Unit 5: "What Makes the Seasons?" by Megan Montague Cash- poem
• Unit 6: Domino Soup by Carmen Agra Deeedy- play
• Unit 7: Go to Sleep Gecko by Margaret Read McDonald- folktale
• Unit 8: "America: A Weaving" by Bobbi Katz- poem

Examples of nonfiction texts include:

• Unit 1: Working Her Way Around the World by Clare Cavanaugh- photo essay
• Unit 2: A Frog has a Sticky Tongue by Pamela Graham- science fact book
• Unit 3: "Make Rain" by Mimii Mortezai- science experiment
• Unit 4: "Giving Back" by William Albert Allard- human interest feature
• Unit 5: A Tree for All Seasons by Robin Bernard- science book
• Unit 6: Mi Barrio by George Ancona- photo essay
• Unit 7: "Why Bees are Friends" by Michelle Brown- persuasive article
• Unit 8: America Is... by Louise Borden- literary nonfiction

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that anchor and support materials for the core text(s) provide opportunities for students to engage in a range and volume of reading to support their reading at grade level by the end of the school year.

Throughout the year, students engage in a broad range of text types and disciplines as well as a volume of reading to achieve grade-level reading proficiency. Throughout the week, students hear a read aloud and participate in small reading groups. There are also learning stations that students go to where students may listen to a text, read a text in unison with a group of other students, or read with a partner.  Students also read independently at various times throughout the week.

In addition, students are exposed to a broad range of text types and disciplines throughout the year during read alouds, small groups, learning centers, and independent reading. Units have a shared reading and a close reading pairing each week with additional supplemental texts. There are also leveled readers related to the topic of each unit for small group and independent reading.

Examples of the various disciplines a student might read in various units include:

• In Unit 2, students read or hear:
• Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann, which is an animal fantasy
• Twilight Hunt by Narelle Oliver, which is realistic fiction
• "Camouflage in the Ocean" by Ryan Simmons, which is a science article
• A Frog has a Sticky Tongue by Pamela Graham, which is a fact book
• "Clever Creatures" by Douglas Florian, which is a poem
• In Unit 4, students read or hear:
• Maria and Baker’s Bread by Daphne Liu, which is a folktale
• Aesop’s Fables retold by Shirleyann Costigan, which is a fable
• Wisdom of the Ages, which is a proverb
• In Unit 6, students read or hear:
• The Brother Who Gave Rice by Dori Jones Yang, which is a folktale
• Domino Soup by Carmen Agra Deedy, which is a play
• "Stone Soup" by John Forster and Tom Chapin, which is song lyrics
• "In a Mountain Community" by S. Michele McFadden, which is a human interest feature
• Mi Barrio by George Ancona, which is a photo essay
• In Unit 8, students read or hear:
• A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting, which is realistic fiction
• "America: A Weaving" by Bobbi Katz, which is a poem
• Celebrate Independence Day by Deborah Heiligman, which is a social studies book
• America.. by Louise Borden, which is literary nonfiction
• "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie, which is song lyrics
• "Celebrating Our Country’s Flag" by David Torres, which is a history article

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria that most questions, tasks, and assignments are text-based, requiring students to engage with the text directly (drawing on textual evidence to support both what is explicit as well as valid inferences from the text).

The materials include opportunities for students to discuss the text by being asked text-dependent and text-specific questions. Students are asked specific questions related to the text and at times, are asked retell questions. These questions are found for both shared reading and decodable texts. Students are asked questions about the text, but also about the text features, including visuals.

Examples of text-dependent questions include:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, students read Market Day and answer questions: "What does the boy’s dad sell at his stand? What happens after people pet Sam? Why was this day fun for the boy?"
• In Unit 2, Week 2, students read the decodable reader, The Best Trick, and answer questions: "What trick helps the bug blend in on page 5? Using the visual on page 14, which animals can hide in the woods?"
• In Unit 3, Week 3, students read the decodable text, Play Pumps, and answer questions: "Why do people in some countries use a lot of water every day? What happens if people do not have clean water?"
• In Unit 4, Week 4, students hear Aesop’s Fables and answer questions: "Why the lion laughed when the mouse says she will help him someday? How will the mouse be able to save herself from being eaten?"
• In Unit 5, Week 2, student hear Day and Night and are asked if the sun really moves - up and down in the sky.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, students read Domino Soup and are asked how Abuelo tricks people into cooperating with his plans and how important that will be to the story.
• In Unit 7, Week 3, read the decodable, Big Partners, and answer questions: "Why birds often partner with mammals? What does a capybara look like? Why are birds good partners for capybaras?"
• In Unit 8, Week 4, students read Exploring National Symbols and answer questions: "Why do some flags have stars in rows and others have them in a circle? Why does Uncle Sam wear stars and stripes?"

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials providing frequent opportunities and protocols for evidence-based discussions (small groups, peer-to-peer, whole class) that encourage the modeling and use of academic vocabulary and syntax.

The materials provide practices and protocols for opportunities to discuss and interact with the curriculum content and vocabulary. The Best Practices Routines, which are the speaking and listening protocols, are located in the front of the Teacher Edition. There are protocols for partner discussions, group conversations, and presentations. Clear directions and protocols are provided and supported by the Academic Talk Flip Chart. Group conversations are scaffolded with roles that are clearly defined and supported with sentence stems to help students fulfill their role in the discussion.

The partner discussion protocol includes sentences stems and opportunities for each partner to talk. The group conversation protocol includes roles for each student including a facilitator, encourager, timekeeper, and note taker. There are also sentence stems to help students with the discussion. At the end of the discussion, the class comes back together and students share what their groups discussed.

The presentation protocols are outlines for students and include criteria such as stand up tall, speak clearly and loud enough for everyone to hear, and introduce the presentation. The protocol also includes directions for listeners and includes listen attentively, ask questions if you do not understand something, and make eye contact. The Cooperative Learning suggestions in the text also provide support for partner and group discussion configurations that can be used with the protocols.

Examples of opportunities for evidence-based discussions but without the use of the protocols include, but are not limited to:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, Day 5, the wrap-up section has students work in groups to respond to the Big Question, “What does it take to survive?” Discussion question prompts include what are some ways animals hide from danger and what do you know about how animals hunt and find food.
• In Unit 4, Week 1, Day 5, in the wrap-up activity, students are to review the contents of their weekly folders. They then form groups and discuss the Big Question of the week.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, Day 2, students work as partners to discuss how people helped others in the poem, “Teamwork,” and the stories, The Brothers Who Gave Rice and “Star Team.” The teacher is directed to encourage the use of key vocabulary, including together, teamwork, cooperate, and share.
• In Unit 8, Week 3, Day 5, students are directed to review the contents of their weekly Folders and the unit concept map. They then form groups and use what they have learned to discuss the Big Question, "What does America mean to you?" The teacher circulates and prompts students with questions, such as "What do the different symbols of the United States tell you about the country? How do they make you feel?"

The materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials including a mix of on-demand and process writing (e.g. multiple drafts, revisions over time) and short, focused projects, incorporating digital resources where appropriate.

The materials include multiple opportunities for both on-demand and process writing tasks that span the year’s worth of instruction. In each lesson, students write either in response to the text or using the text as a mode. On the fourth week of every unit, there is a process writing task that includes narrative, expository, and opinion writing.

Examples of opportunities for students to participate in on-demand writing include:

• In Unit 2, Week 1, students write a journal entry where they make an inference about Little Skink from their story.
• In Unit 3, Week 3, Day 3, students think about the text and PlayPumps and why people build these machines. The students have the option of either writing a letter to their school community listing the reasons why it would or would not be a good idea to build a PlayPump near their school or to write a letter to a community in Africa and tell them what they think about the PlayPump by explaining the reasons for their opinions.
• In Unit 6, Week 3, Lesson 4, students are divided into groups and are given sections from the text, “In a Mountain Community.” Each group works together to write the main idea of the assigned section.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 3, after reading the text, students write whether they think Elephant was right or wrong when he said, “Some things you just have to put up with.”

Process Writing opportunities include students participating in longer writing projects over the course of several days to help students understand the writing process. These occur in Week 4 of every unit. For example:

• In Unit 1, Week 4, students write a descriptive essay story. On Day 1, they study a model, on Day 2 they prewrite, and on Day 3 they draft. Then one Day 4 they revise and edit, and on Day 5 they publish and present.
• In Unit 4, Week 4, students begin to write an interview. They begin by studying a model and then brainstorm by choosing a  topic and getting organized by creating their own sequence chain. Students then draft, revise by working with a partner, edit, and publish and present.
• In Unit 5, Week 4, students write a comparison. After studying a model and prewriting, they draft, revise with a partner, edit, and publish and present their writing.
• In Unit 8, Week 4, students write a personal narrative with an opinion. They go through the entire writing process starting with analyzing a model, prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, publishing, and presenting.

Students also have Power Writing to help build their writing stamina. They are given one minute to write as much as they can about a topic. For example,

• In Unit 3, Week 1, Day 1, students write as much as they can in one minute about rain.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 3, students write as much as they can in one minute about the word, connect.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials including regular opportunities for evidence-based writing to support recall of information, opinions with reasons, and relevant information appropriate for the grade level.

Throughout the materials, students have an opportunity to write about the text that they listened to or the text that they read. Students often work in partnerships to complete writing assignments about the texts. Students may be asked to summarize what they read, provide details, share opinions, or make inferences. Throughout the week, there are multiple opportunities for the students to write about the texts.

Examples include:

• In Unit 1, Week 1, students choose a character from Quinto’s Neighborhood and then can either explain the job of the character from Quinito's neighborhood or compare a character from Quinito's neighborhood to someone they know with the same job.
• In Unit 2, Week 2, students work with a partner to pick an animal or insect from Hide and Seek to write an inference that explains why the animal or insect has the ability to hide.
• In Unit 3, Week 3, students work in pairs to write about the causes and effects in This is the Rain.
• In Unit 4, Week 1, students work in pairs to pick a character from Maria and the Baker’s Bread and then fill out the character map in order to write about the character’s personality traits.
• In Unit 5, Week 1, students work in small groups to write about one of the natural events from When the Wind Stops. Students must explain how the natural event is part of a repeating cycle or a pattern.
• In Unit 6, Week 1, students write a summary of The Brother Who Gave Rice.
• In Unit 7, Week 1, students write down two important ideas from the story, The Hen, The Rooster, and the Bean.
• In Unit 8, Week 2, after reading a poem, students work in pairs to write two or three sentences about what they think the poem means.

The instructional materials reviewed for Grade 2 meet the criteria for materials including explicit instruction of the grammar and conventions standards for grade level as applied in increasingly sophisticated contexts, with opportunities for application both in and out of context.

In each week of each unit, there is a five-day grammar lesson sequence. The lessons begin with finding the grammar skill in text. The teacher then introduces the skill and the rule. On Day 4, there is a writing activity where the teacher models the skill in writing. The skill is often practiced using a Practice Master. There are many weeks that introduce and/or review previously taught skills. Over the course of the year, there are several grade level language standards that are not addressed in the grammar lessons.

Students have opportunities to use collective nouns. For example:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Day 2, the teacher introduces collective nouns and teaches the rule.

Students have opportunities to form and use frequently occurring irregular plural nouns. For example:

• In Unit 1, Week 2, Day 1, the teacher points out examples of irregular plural nouns in the Anthology. The teacher introduces irregular plural nouns and teaches the rule. On Day 3, the teacher reviews collective nouns and irregular plural nouns. On Day 4, the students complete sentences with the correct plural or collective noun.

Students have opportunities to use reflexive pronouns. For example:

• In Unit 6, Week 4, Day 1, the teacher introduces reflexive pronouns. The teacher points out that reflexive pronouns end in -self and -selves and teach the rule: A reflexive pronoun refers to the subject of a simple sentence.

Students have opportunities to form and use the past tense of frequently occurring regular verbs. For example:

• In Unit 7, Week 1, Day 2, the teacher introduces regular past tense action verbs and teach the rule: verbs in the past tense tell about actions that happened in the past, past tense verbs can be formed using -ed.

Students have opportunities to use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. For example:

• In Unit 3, Week 1, the teacher introduces adjectives, comparison adjectives and demonstrative adjectives.
• In Unit 3, Week 3, the teacher introduces adverbs and introduces adverbs that tell when.
• In Unit 3, Week 4, Day 1, the teacher introduces adverbs that tell where. On Day 2, the teacher introduces adverbs that tell how. On Day 3, the teacher teaches the rule of when to use adverbs and when to use adjectives. On Day 4, the teacher reviews the use of adverbs in writing.

Students have opportunities to produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences. For example:

• In Unit 4, Week 1, Day 4, the teacher models how good writers make sure their sentences have both a naming and telling part.
• In Unit 5, Week 3, Day 1, the teacher introduces compound sentences that are statements. On Day 2, the teacher introduces compound sentences that are commands.
• In Unit 5, Week 4, Day 2, the teacher introduces compound sentences that are questions. On Day 3, the teacher introduces turning statements into questions.
• In Unit 8, Week 4, Day 3, the teacher introduces rewriting sentences by adding prepositional phrases and teaches the rule: you can rewrite sentences to add more information by adding prepositional phrases.

Students have opportunities to capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. For example:

• In Unit 1, Week 3, the teacher displays a chart with the rules for capitalizing days of the week, months, and holidays. Students then apply the rules by playing a game using proper nouns.

Students have opportunities to use an apostrophe to form contractions. For example:

• In Unit 2, Week 3, Day 1, the teacher points out contractions in the Anthology text and then introduces contractions with am, is and are. Then the teacher teaches the rule: a contraction combines words and uses an apostrophe. On Day 2, the teacher introduces contractions with has, have and had.

Students have opportunities to consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings. For example:

• In Unit 8, Week 1, students review how to use a dictionary to check spellings. Students then practice using the dictionary to place words in alphabetical order.