In second grade, students are still learning how to be learners in a school but can begin to take on more independent work than in kindergarten and first grade. They develop more academically, emotionally, and socially as a result. I developed a set of core learning goals which I strove to incorporate into all my teaching. These goals are meant to maximize student growth and development as learners in the world. 

Students will acquire skills to become independent readers, writers, speakers, and listeners.

Growing students’ literacy skills is extremely important in second grade and can be seen in all of my units. Encouraging them to practice producing appropriate and sophisticated speaking and writing helps me assess their learning as well as language development. One skill we worked on frequently was being “an active listener” to everyone in our class, not only the teachers. This meant having a calm body, looking at whoever is speaking, and listening to understand what they are saying. Reading was another skill that Jacob Hiatt valued and made plenty of time and space for throughout the day. These four aspects of literacy are integral to students” development academically and intellectually. 

An example of how I had my students practice this core learning goal was with our “Daily 5” workshop. This is a time where students actively work on their reading and writing stamina by read-to-self, read-to-someone, or work-on-writing. Students had opportunities to write about their reading after completing a text set, write about their reasoning in math and science, and write about their lives in daily journals. Students read every day and picked new books weekly. They had access to an abundance of books from graphic novels and leveled readers to chapter books and textbooks. Every time I read a book as a class read aloud, I left it on the whiteboard so students would have easy access to further explore them during red-to-self. Another example of integration of literacy is having students express themselves through speaking by participating in turn and talks during many read alouds. They are always encouraged to speak clearly and in full sentences, and place an effort on using relevant vocabulary. By including speaking, listening, reading, and writing into every day, students developed and refined their literacy development and skills. 

Students will work collaboratively and independently across all areas of the curriculum.

It is essential that students learn to work effectively both independently and collaboratively. Because we built such a supportive classroom community, students built relationships that will continue long after this year ended. Students applied their collaboration skills to these friendships which allowed them to find new ways to work together which will carry with them. I worked to include collaboration in numerous ways throughout the year and in each day. Students worked with their table partners in math, solving problems and sharing materials and ideas. In science, they worked in partners in engineering, both building bridges and with Project Lead the Way assignments. In social studies, they used mixed small groups to learn more about the cultures within our classroom. Students used their peers as resources in addition to their teacher and their classrooms. This ability to listen to others, work across differences to come to a group decision, and compromise are all important skills practiced through collaborative group work in school. 

While collaboration was important to the learning within my classroom, students also were pushed to be independent learners as well. It is a bitter reality that students are often assessed in standardized tests as individuals, without help from their peers or teachers. In this way, even when students work in groups, everyone is responsible for their producing their own work. Students worked on their timed reading stamina as individuals and as a class. In many ways, they began to take responsibility over their own learning and education by being effective both within a group and on their own. 

Students will engage with the curriculum in a meaningful and authentic way.

This goal was met in numerous ways over the course of the year. When exploring new topics, I aimed to allow my students to access truthful materials and give honest answers. I referred to them as mathematicians, readers, authors, engineers, researchers, and more as we studied each subject. It was a goal to make sure when we explore each subject, we not only call ourselves by those titles, but we embody the concepts of them. This creates the authentic learning experiences for each discipline as well as gives students confidence to be successful as any type of learner. I designed each unit so that students were learning through exploration as well as discussing our essential questions. Students continually thought critically, used metacognition, and reflected on their learning, making our units meaningful and powerful.

Students will make connections, both personal and across disciplines, to the curriculum. 

This learning goal is important for all teaching because building connections expands students’ understandings of the content and themselves. I made sure to give countless opportunities for students to connect to the material in personal ways. When students make personal connections, or when the content relates to their own identities or life experiences, they are more likely to be engaged with the content. It is easier to recall and invest into topics that are of interest, thus being able to make genuine personal ties to school is a valuable tool for both students and teachers. It is also important that students can connect content to other lessons and information they have previously learned about. Students being able to apply knowledge and skills form one domain of learning to another is important because it makes them flexible learners. In our class this year, we often compared new ideas and vocabulary to familiar concepts previously covered. Students used a connection sign, a silent hand gesture, to model to the teacher that they have made a connection. When we saw these signs, we knew that students were being active learners and connecting the content in some way. This was encouraged and connections were shared aloud to further share ideas in our community of learners.