Ahava~Love Assembly

Grade 2 English Language Arts Week 17 | Teacher Guide

Grade 2 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

WEEK 17 • TEACHER GUIDE AND ANSWER KEY • DAYS 81–85

Read each lesson aloud with the child and model the worked example before practice. Do not show this key during practice. Accept oral, drawn or written answers where the child cannot yet write the whole answer. On Day 85, read aloud if needed but give no hints.

Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index

Day 81: Fables, Folktales and Their Lessons

Standard: Grade 2 ELA Standard 23, 2.LF.23.d

Practice record: A fable: Blue Jay and Squirrel, printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Worked example: A fable tells of a fox who brags so loudly that the hens hear him coming and run away. What could the moral be? Worked answer: Bragging can make you lose what you want.

  1. Read: knot, wrote, lamb.
  2. A fable. It is a short story with talking animals that teaches a lesson.
  3. Get ready now for what you will need later. Accept any moral about planning or preparing ahead.
  4. Blue Jay laughed and did not save any pecans in the fall, so in winter he was hungry. Squirrel got ready, so she had plenty. Accept any answer that connects not preparing with going hungry.

Teaching note: The listen-and-respond passage is a new retelling of an Aesop fable. Blue Jay and Squirrel is original to this curriculum. If the child names the moral in their own words, accept it when it fits the events.

Teacher routine: Sound play (before dictation). Rhyme chain: say the word, then change the first sound to make a rhyming word. Each answer becomes the next starting word. Say each word aloud; the child answers aloud without seeing it written. (1) cat: change the first sound to /h/ (hat) (2) hat: change the first sound to /m/ (mat) (3) mat: change the first sound to /b/ (bat) (4) bat: change the first sound to /s/ (sat) (5) sat: change the first sound to /f/ (fat)

  • ☐ Check: Child gets 4 of 5 spoken items right.

Teacher routine: Listen and respond. Read this aloud once; the child does not see it. “A crow found a piece of cheese and flew up to a branch. A fox below said, ‘What a lovely voice you must have! Please sing for me.’ The crow opened her beak to sing, and the cheese fell right into the fox’s mouth.” Ask the child to retell it, then ask: What did the fox want? (Answer: The cheese.) What is the moral? (Answer: Do not trust someone who praises you only to get something; or, be careful of flattery.)

  • ☐ Check: Child retells three key details in order and answers both questions.

Day 82: Exaggeration and Theme in Folktales

Standard: Grade 2 ELA Standard 23, 2.LF.23.e; Grade 2 ELA Standard 16, 2.LF.16.d

Practice record: A folktale: Why Mockingbird Sings Many Songs, printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Practice figure: Sentences from a tall tale, printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Worked example: What is exaggerated in this sentence: “The baby cried so loud that the windows shook all over town”? Worked answer: How loud the baby cried.

  1. Read: train, float, steam.
  2. Any one of: plowing a whole cotton field before breakfast; corn popping on the stalks from the heat; shaking a cloud until it rained. Accept a reason such as no person is that strong, or it is never that hot.
  3. Long ago Mockingbird had no song, so he learned to sing the songs of the other birds, and that is why he sings so many songs today.
  4. Example: Everyone has a gift to share, even when it is different from others. Mockingbird felt sad at first, but the other birds were glad he carried all their songs. Accept a theme supported by events in the story.

Teaching note: Why Mockingbird Sings Many Songs and the Big Mae sentences are original to this curriculum. A moral (Day 81) is usually a short rule; a theme is a big idea about life. Accept either form if it fits the story.

Teacher routine: Sound play (before dictation). Rhyme chain: say the word, then change the first sound to make a rhyming word. Each answer becomes the next starting word. Say each word aloud; the child answers aloud without seeing it written. (1) ring: change the first sound to /k/ (king) (2) king: change the first sound to /w/ (wing) (3) wing: change the first sound to /s/ (sing) (4) sing: change the first sound to /th/ (thing) (5) thing: change the first sound to /r/ (ring)

  • ☐ Check: Child gets 4 of 5 spoken items right.

Teacher routine: Fluency reading. The child reads Why Mockingbird Sings Many Songs aloud twice. Mark any words missed on the second reading.

  • ☐ Check: On the second reading, the child misses no more than 1 word in 20 and pauses at periods and commas.

Day 83: Two Versions of a Race Story

Standard: Grade 2 ELA Standard 26, 2.LF.26.a

Practice record: Version 1: The Tortoise and the Hare (from Aesop, ancient Greece), printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Practice figure: Version 2: Terrapin and Rabbit (from the Cherokee people), printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Worked example: In two versions of a story, one has a wolf and one has a coyote, but both animals try to trick a pig. Is this a way the versions are alike or different? Worked answer: Both: the characters are different, but the trick is alike.

  1. Read: hopped, racing, faster.
  2. Hare took a nap because he was sure he would win, and Tortoise kept going without stopping.
  3. He hid his look-alike relatives on each ridge, so Rabbit always saw a terrapin ahead and wore himself out.
  4. Alike: in both, a slow animal beats a fast animal who brags or is too sure of himself. Different: Version 1 teaches that slow and steady work wins; Version 2 shows a small animal winning by being clever and getting help from his family. Accept one likeness and a correct difference in the lessons.

Teaching note: Both versions are new retellings written for this curriculum. Version 1 follows Aesop’s fable from ancient Greece. Version 2 follows How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit, a Cherokee story printed in James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee (1900); see the History Teacher Guide for Days 82 and 83. Read each version aloud once before the child reads it alone.

Teacher routine: Talk it through. After the child reads both versions, ask these questions and have the child answer each in a complete sentence: (1) Who are the characters in Version 1? (2) Where was the race in Version 2? (3) When did Hare take a nap? (4) What did Terrapin do the night before the race? (5) Why did Rabbit get so tired? (6) How did each slow animal win? Then the child asks you one question about it.

  • ☐ Check: Child answers 5 of 6 questions in complete sentences and asks one clear question of their own.

Day 84: Rhyme in a Song and Writing a Tall Tale

Standard: Grade 2 ELA Standard 32, 2.LF.32; Grade 2 ELA Standard 40, 2.LF.40

Practice record: “Yankee Doodle,” verse 1 (song of the American Revolution), printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Worked example: Find the rhyme scheme: “I see a frog / Upon a log. / It likes to hop / And will not stop.” Worked answer: AABB.

  1. Read: unkind, careful, quickly.
  2. Lines 2 and 4: Gooding and pudding.
  3. ABCB.
  4. Answers vary. Example: My hero, Swift Sam of Mobile, ran so fast he caught the rain before it hit the ground, which shows he is the fastest person alive. Accept an exaggeration from the child’s tale with how it shows the hero’s power.

Teaching note: Verse 1 is printed as it appears on a Library of Congress song sheet published in the 1800s (Charles Magnus); see the sources below. Hasty pudding is a thick, quick-cooked cornmeal porridge; “as thick as hasty pudding” means crowded close together. Singing is optional. Spread the writing steps across the day if needed. The fillable PDF needs one large multiline field for each writing part. Use the observation checklist below.

Teacher routine: Fluency reading. The child reads verse 1 of Yankee Doodle aloud twice. Mark any words missed on the second reading.

  • ☐ Check: On the second reading, the child misses no more than 1 word in 20 and pauses at periods and commas.

Teacher routine: Share and record. When the tall tale is published, the child reads it aloud with expression while showing the drawing. Record the reading on a phone and play it back together.

  • ☐ Check: Child reads clearly at a steady pace, with expression, and the drawing matches the story.

Hands-on task observation checklist (Write a tall tale about an Alabama hero). Check each item you observe. Four or five items shows the child met the task goal; two or three means repeat the task with support.

  • ☐ Child named a hero with an amazing power and an Alabama place.
  • ☐ The tale has a beginning, a problem in the middle and an ending that solves it.
  • ☐ The tale uses at least two exaggerations.
  • ☐ Child revised and fixed capitals, end marks and spelling.
  • ☐ Child published a neat final copy with a matching drawing.

Day 85: Independent Check: Morals, Themes and Retelling

Standard: Grade 2 ELA Standard 23, 2.LF.23.d; Grade 2 ELA Standard 23, 2.LF.23.e; Grade 2 ELA Standard 24, 2.LF.24.b; Grade 2 ELA Standard 12, 2.LF.12

Practice record: A folktale: Little Firefly, printed on the Week 17 Practice Workbook.

Worked example: What do we call the lesson at the end of a fable? Worked answer: The moral.

  1. Read: thumb, sleepy, rewrite.
  2. Beginning: Owl says Firefly’s tiny light is no good. Middle: a storm makes the night dark, and Mouse, Rabbit and the owlets get lost. End: Firefly blinks her light and leads them home, and no one laughs at small things again. Accept a retelling with all three parts in order.
  3. Do not laugh at others because they are small; small ones can help in big ways.
  4. Example: Even the smallest one has a gift that can help. Detail: Firefly’s tiny light led the lost animals home. Accept a theme with a supporting detail.

Teaching note: Independent check: read aloud if needed, but give no hints. Little Firefly is original to this curriculum. The fluency reading (2.LF.12) is done with the teacher and is not a written item.

Teacher routine: Fluency reading. The child reads Little Firefly aloud twice. Mark any words missed on the second reading.

  • ☐ Check: On the second reading, the child misses no more than 1 word in 20 and pauses at periods and commas.

Sources

James Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee (1900), story 20, How the Terrapin Beat the Rabbit (source for the Day 83 Version 2 retelling) | Library of Congress, Lyrical Legacy: Yankee Doodle (via Digital History, University of Houston; verse 1 from an 1800s Charles Magnus song sheet)

Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index

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