Year 2 is a very important year in a child’s life and what Year 2 learn in English will set the foundation for key stage 2.
As Year 2 is the final year in Key stage 1, this is the year where everything a child has learnt from Nursery up to this year is tested. Children will be encouraged to work more independently. They will have better co-ordination and be able to write more clearly. They will also be more articulate and be able to express themselves using more grammatically correct sentences, which will also come through in their writing.
English or Literacy as it is called in Primary, is made up of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, so these are the skills children need to develop. Therefore, let’s look at what Year 2 learn in English / Literacy.
What Year 2 learn in English
Phonics in year 2
Children started learning Phonics back in Nursery, but this year for most children this is the year they complete the phonics programme. If they have been going through the phonics phases in school, by the end of Year 2 most children complete phase 6.
At the beginning of Year 2, children should be able to read most of the letters and phonic sounds in the English language, for example: a,s, p, oo, ee, ai, sh, ff, ing, igh, and so on.
They should also be able to read unfamiliar words containing these sounds accurately and fluently without hesitation.
If they get stuck, they should be able to use their phonics and reading skills to sound out the words to make a word close to the one they need to say, then guess what the word actually is.
They should also be able to say common words such as band, stand, sleep, without needing to sound out the words and also know all the ‘tricky’ words from the year 1 and 2 word banks. (click here)
These include words like: the, those, could, Mr, Mrs, which cannot be sounded out using phonics rules.
Year 2 learn in English – Spelling
Children also need to understand that words are not always spelt as they are pronounced. This can be seen in words that end in ‘le’ as in table, stable which have the same sound ending as label.
By the beginning of Year 2 they should also be able to spell all of the Year 1 spellings, including tricky words or exception words (click here for year 1 spelling list).
Other spellings children learn this year include:
- suffixes -er, -ed, -ing.
- words in the contracted form (don’t, can’t, etc.),
- words with the possessive apostrophe (the boy’s dog)
- homophones (words that sound the same but are spelt differently) and near homophones.
Year 2 learn in English – Reading
As well as spelling the tricky year 1, exception words, children should be able to read the tricky words easily and fluently for both Year 1 and 2.
They also need to be able to read words of 2 or more syllables accurately.
To aid their understanding when reading, children must be able to retell stories they’ve heard and learnt in Year 1. They should also know and be able to say familiar rhymes and nursery rhymes in order to make up their own simple rhymes using rhyming words.
To develop accurate and speedy reading skills, they should continue to read regularly. As well as read a wide variety of stories, they should also read poems, plays and information books or what we call non-fiction books, which contain information about birds, animals and the life around us.
The more frequently they read, the sooner they will be able to increase their vocabulary, understanding and the general knowledge. This will lead to greater fluency which they can apply to other parts of their schooling.
Children should be encouraged to read their books more than once to develop fluency and greater understanding as well as self-correcting any mistakes they make while reading.
They should use their phonics knowledge to identify words containing the suffixes (-ed, -ing, -y, -ness, -ful, -ment)
Free Readers
Most children should be free readers by the end of year 2 and be able to choose books of their own to read from the library.
This gives your child the opportunity to develop a love of reading or reading for pleasure. This will be different from the reading they do in school, where their teacher will choose the books for them as part of:
- guided reading in small groups or
- as a class reader where all the children will take part in reading one book as a class
Here they predict what will happen in a story and develop their comprehension skills as the teacher asks them questions about what they have read.
They will be expected to read at home regularly and most children will receive a reading record for parents to sign weekly.
Parents should:
Take it in turn to read with reluctant readers
Look at encyclopaedias, picture dictionaries and other non-fiction books together as well as story books.
Talk about what they learnt, what they liked and why they liked it. Discuss feelings.
If the child likes a particular author, try to find other books by that author.
Year 2 learn in English – Writing
In writing, children at the beginning of year 2 should be able to think of their own sentences; say them out loud and then write them down independently.
They should also be able to spell words they have not yet learnt, by using their phonics skills.
In addition, they need to be able to write their own simple stories following the model of stories they have heard previously.
Fairy stories have a simple pattern, which they should be familiar with, such as:
1. There are nice characters
2. A bad character
3. The bad character causes a problem
4. The good characters finds a solution
5. They all live happily ever after.
Stories that follow this theme include:
- Little Red Riding Hood
- The Billy Goats gruff
- Cinderella
- Rumpelstiltskin and so on.
By the end of the year, children should be able to write their own story using this pattern.
They should also be able to write poems; recounts of real events and personal experiences in a diary.
These types of text require them to write in past tense and present tense.
They should also be able to edit and improve their own work and also be able to use:
- Question marks
- Exclamation marks
- Commas for a list
- Apostrophes of belonging and contraction
- Use a variety of conjunctions to make sentences longer
Year 2 learn in English – Handwriting
Finally, they should be able to write clearly, demonstrating good handwriting habits. This includes:
- writing on the line,
- with capital letters at the beginning of sentences and
- full stops at the end.
They should also be able to use:
- finger spaces in between words
- form letters correctly and the right size.
- The capital letters should be bigger than the lowercase letters and not vice versa.
- They should also not be writing mirror images of letters any longer.
- Some children may be able to write in cursive writing at this point too, depending on the handwriting programme their school has followed.
Alternatively, they should be starting to write in cursive writing now if possible.
As writing is naturally harder than reading, children should be encouraged to write down their thoughts daily, as a means of developing their writing skills. This will help them greatly, as the year progresses. Alternatively, they should be encouraged to write lists, make itineraries of things and so on.
Literacy Targets for the end of Year 2 are:
- Answering questions in full sentences
- Use capital letters and full stops
- Understanding the difference between a statement, command, question and exclamation.
- Be able to use the associated punctuation correctly such as ! . ? ,
- Use commas in lists
- Turn ideas into sentences
- Use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, connectives
- Write compound sentences
- Noun phrases and expanded noun phrases.
- Read with expression
- Understand prefixes
- Use the suffixes -er, -ed, -ing and spell words containing them
- Write with adjectives, connectives/conjunctions such as, and, but, because, so,
- How to use subordination
- Produce character descriptions using adjectives and adverbs
- Understand the use of paragraphs
- Be able to us a picture dictionary
- Write letters, understand the layout
- Write invitations, poems, stories, reports, e-mail
- Carry out simple comprehension independently in full sentences
- Identify speech marks in reading
- Understand how past tense is used when retelling a story to someone
- How to use the present tense to explain something now
- Understand captions, headings, sub-headings be able to use them to break up non-fiction writing
- Identify synonyms and words with similar meanings
- Understand the purpose of instructions and that they start with ‘bossy verb’ (imperative verbs).