This page will guide you in helping your child meet 2nd-grade reading expectations. These recommendations are based on the science of reading.

Parents and Teachers! Check out the skills children need in their grade!

Home support plays a critical role in a child’s academic success, especially during the early years when they develop foundational skills. By actively engaging in your child’s learning journey, you can reinforce what they are taught in school, boost their confidence, and help create positive learning habits. The resources here will empower you with practical tools to make learning fun, effective, and meaningful at home.

1. Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Master phonological and phonemic awareness. These activities can be done with eyes shut—no print should be in front of the child. Print and follow this! If children cannot hear and manipulate sounds in their heads, they won’t be able to read and spell!

Blending and segmenting are the most essential phonemic awareness activities because these skills directly correlate to reading and spelling. You can find these activities by following this link, but you can blend and segment any word! For example, ask your child to blend these sounds into a word: /c/ /a/ /t/. To segment, have your child separate the individual sounds. For example, the word “plant” can be segmented into the sounds /p/, /l/, /a/, /n/, /t/.

It would also be ideal to teach your child nursery rhymes. It is unfortunate that so many children no longer know these classic nursery rhymes. Rhyming helps children experience the rhythm of language, recognize sounds in words, anticipate what is coming next, and more! There are many cute free online videos of nursery rhymes, and the library has beautiful nursery rhyme books.

2. Phonics

Check out phonics by grade level. Be sure your child has mastered the K and Grade 1 columns as well.

Please also read my Wilson Fundations page to learn about second-grade phonics expectations. Your child’s school may use a different curriculum, but all curricula tend to cover the same content.

3. Tapping, Blending, Spelling

Teach tapping out and blending sounds to form words. Here is an AMAZING activity! Watch the video clip below. (This is not my video.) Word lists are also below.

Say it
Stretch it
Spell it
Change it

Go DOWN the lists, changing 1 sound each time.

Use these templates:

Word Chains with 3 Sounds -CVC words (c-a-t) & CVC words with digraphs (c-a-sh)
Word Chains with 4 Sounds -for blends (p-l-o-p)

Word Lists:

CVC Words 1
CVC Words 2
Consonant Digraphs (even though these have 2 letters—th, wh, sh, ch, ck—they make 1 sound, so the 2 letters go in one box. w/i/sh)
Initial Blends
Final Blends
Initial and Final Blends 1
Initial and Final Blends 2
Magic e
Long and Short Vowels 1
Long and Short Vowels 2
Consonant Differentiation

4. Read Decodable Texts—Tap and Blend to Figure Out Unknown Words!

Read, reread, reread, and reread free decodable and sight word stories. Talk about the stories as a quick comprehension check.

In my search for specific grade-level decodable texts online, I noticed that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has made some decodable grade-level reading resources available to students. You can find these resources on the Sweet Home School District’s website. Please locate the grade 2 decodable readers.

My favorite passages, however, are from UFLI.

UFLI Decodable Passages: Reinforcing Phonics Through Reading and Writing
Learn phonics through the UFLI passages. UFLI passages align with systematic phonics instruction, providing students with targeted practice on each new phonics skill. Every word in a passage can be decoded and should also be written, reinforcing sound-spelling patterns through both reading and writing. As skills build, students develop accuracy, fluency, and confidence with connected text.

ALL UFLI Decodables on One PDF 8-128 (There are no decodables for lessons before 8.)
Supplemental Decodable Texts—these are more challenging.

Research indicates that decodable texts are the most effective way to learn to read.

Decodable text falls under the phonics approach of the science of reading. When students decode words, they break them down and figure out how to pronounce them. Teaching beginning readers how to sound out words is crucial for accurate reading and spelling.

Always have your child read each story 3 times for fluency and accuracy.
Having your child point to each word with 1:1 correspondence is essential because students tend to guess or memorize these simpler texts.
Your child should be able to figure out unknown words independently by sounding them out. Not all words can be perfectly sounded out, but most words have at least parts that can!

When reading any text…

No more than 10 errors per 100 words, including those you assisted your child with, is acceptable.
The child must also demonstrate comprehension. Grades 2 and up should retell, state the author’s lesson, and describe the most important event and why.
Reading at an appropriate rate (words per minute) is essential. When fluency is achieved, comprehension can occur.

Words Correct Per Minute for Grade 2

To calculate words correct per minute, follow this formula.

___ words in the passage read correctly divided by ___ seconds it took to read X 60 = __ WCPM

For example, say your child read 207 words correctly. The child read it in 3 minutes and 25 seconds, which is 205 seconds. 207 divided by 205 is approximately 1.0 words per second x 60 = 60 WCPM!

What Counts as an Error?

Mispronounced words
Skipped words
Words read out of order
Substitutions
Words not self-corrected within 3 seconds

Do NOT count:

Repetitions
Self-corrections (if within a few seconds)

This table shows approximate percentile ranks for correct words per minute at 3 points during the school year. The average 2nd grader should be reading 50 words correctly in the fall, 84 in the winter, and 100 words by spring.

* WCPM = Words Correct Per Minute

5. Master Sight Words

Master a few sight words each day. Second graders should know the pre-primer (pre-kindergarten), primer (kindergarten), grade 1, and grade 2 sight words for reading and spelling. These are best learned in context. They should read, reread, and reread:

Decodable-Dolch-Sight-Word-Stories-Preprimer-Grade-3

Best reading specialist website how to teach reading

For more practice, write each pre-primer, primer, and first and second-grade sight word in your own simple sentence for your child to practice reading.

Here are more sight word stories.

6. Vocabulary for 2nd Graders

Second graders need to know the meanings of these words, which are taken from the Marzano list.

And these words’ taken from WORDS TO KNOW BY GRADE LEVEL.

7. Spelling

Teach decoding and spelling in this reading and spelling order. Please ensure each column is mastered before proceeding.

Your child should also be able to spell the Dolch words as listed under #5, “Master Sight Words.”

8. Are you looking for a tech option?

Lexia Core 5 is a well-respected app used in many schools. It is available as a home version and costs $175 for a one-year subscription. My school uses it, and I highly recommend it!
Lexia Core 5 is a research-proven computer program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities, helping them make the critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn. It has 21 levels, spanning from preschool through grade 5. It is based on the science of reading. Each level comprises five areas, including automaticity/fluency, comprehension, phonics, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Each level should be completed within 5.5 to 9 hours.
9. Read Aloud or Listen to Online Texts—Put the Closed Captioning On
Read aloud more complex books to your child, or have your child listen to books online—not decodable texts—on topics they enjoy to instill a love of reading, improve listening comprehension, and grow vocabulary. Second-grade reading and listening comprehension is based on:
Making Connections—Links background knowledge and examples from the text to enhance comprehension.
Questioning—Asks and answers different questions; finds evidence in the text to support questions and answers.
Visualizing/Sensory Imagery—Demonstrates multi-sensory images that extend and enrich the text; demonstration may be through any modality or medium.
Determining Importance—Identifies at least one key idea, theme, or concept, linking it to the text’s overall meaning. Uses supporting details from the text to explain why it is essential.
Monitoring Comprehension—Identifies difficulties. Articulates the need to solve the problem and identifies the appropriate strategy using meaning, visual, and structural cues. (Sound out words when stuck!)
Predicting/Inferring—Independently makes predictions and interpretations and draws conclusions; clearly explains connections using evidence from the text and personal knowledge, ideas, or beliefs.
Retelling/Summarizing/Synthesizing—Retells text elements in a logical sequence with some extension to the overall theme, message, or background knowledge; refers to characters by specific name and uses vocabulary from the text.

Here are Grade 2 Common Core State Standards Question Stems you can use as discussion starters with your child, but make talking about books fun! However, the CCSS is used in the classroom.

We administer the free DIBELS 8 test 3 times a year. Each section is a 1-minute test, but the MAZE is 3 minutes.

Read 3-letter short vowel nonsense words. These can be sounded out, for example, “sil,” “tob,” “paj,” “zev,” and “nud.” The goal is for the child to recognize these chunks automatically.
Read actual words—sight words.
Oral reading fluency: Can the child correctly read 94 words in a story with at least 96% accuracy by the end of the school year?
Maze Comprehension: This test is 3 minutes long. The student reads a story that is missing words. Each time a word is missing, the student selects the correct missing word from three words.

The minimum scores to pass:

Here are other free literacy assessments to assess your child!