Students investigate e-commerce, online shopping, online fraud, and ratings to help build awareness.

Introduction to Thing 1 Basics, an introduction and basic skills for technology proficiency for middle school students.

Students learn good collaboration skills for listening to others and communicating effectively and respectfully with others

Introduction to Cyber Safety, CyberShield, Protect Your Identity Online, and Stop the Bully

Investigate the laws of copyright, find out if there is a way to legitimately use the work done by others so you don't break the law.

In this unit students will build upon their experiences with geometry in earlier grades. Seventh grade students use these skills to informally construct geometric figures.

Manipulatives, dynamic geometry, and tools like rulers and protractors will be particularly helpful with this unit. A particular focus in this unit is the construction of triangles when given combinations of measures of three angles and/or sides. Students will investigate which of these combinations create unique triangles, more than one triangle, or no triangle at all. Students will use the angle-angle criterion to determine similarity.

Angle relationships generated by intersecting lines including supplementary, complementary, adjacent, and vertical angles are also used in problem solving. Using these relationships, students will make conjectures and solve multistep problems with angles created by parallel lines cut by a transversal. They will also examine both angle sums of polygons and exterior angles.

Students will know and use formulas for the area and circumference of a circle and be able to determine the relationship between them.

In the previous unit children learned the procedures and routines needed to carry on with some independence as they begin building reading stamina. This unit continues with those routines and building stamina as students begin working on emergent storybook reading in a focused and concentrated way.In this unit children read emergent storybooks. Emergent storybook reading comes from Elizabeth Sulzby’s work on emergent literacy. The premise behind emergent storybook reading is that as students are exposed to the multiple readings of the emergent storybooks they begin to read these books on their own. Through these readings and familiarity of the emergent storybooks students’ begin to develop deeper understandings of the text, a strong sense of language and an increased desire to read independently.The first part of this units focuses on ways readers can read books using all they know to help themselves read. Early strategies like predicting and rereading are introduced. The way students read emergent story books develops over time; some children’s construction of the story will probably first involve looking at and commenting on each picture. Over time, all children learn to approximate and read the way the story sounds as if the child were reproducing the words and cadence of the text.The second part of this unit focuses on how readers study, think and grow ideas about books. They use their partners to talk about their thinking and share their understandings.The unit ends with readers trying different ways to read and share their books through retellings and acting out their favorite parts. This unit supports many of the Common Core State Standards, one of which states thatstudents need to engage in many different ways of reading independently and in partnerships with purpose and understanding.This unit should include the opportunity to introduce book bags and book shopping days. Students should have the chance to keep books until the next time they shop for new books. It is highly recommended that students shop for books (up to ten emergent story books) outside of reading workshop. This helps with management and time. Students may shop for ‘Look Books’ or the teacher can continue to use the tubs from unit 1 (adding new titles as needed). Since students will continue to have time allotted to read “Look Books” like the ones available in unit 1, the teacher should decide how to help students differentiate between emergent story books and Look Books.

In this first unit of second grade, students read multiple versions of a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Through reading various versions of the same story, students are not only exposed to a wide variety of cultures, but they are also challenged to think about how the culture, or setting, of the story influences the plot. In 1st grade Literature, students took a trip around the world, exploring a wide variety of themes and stories from all over in order to build a foundational understanding that our world is made up of many diverse and unique cultures. This unit builds on the exposure to new cultures students received in 1st grade and provides an opportunity for students to explore the idea that even though cultures may appear to be different, there are many things embedded within the unique characteristics of different cultures that make them similar. Storytelling, and the role of storytelling, is one of those similarities. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, helps students build empathy and understanding of people and cultures that might be different from them.

In this unit, 2nd grade students explore different habitats (forest, desert, water, and rainforest) and investigate how different plants and animals survive in each habitat. Rather than just learning facts about the habitats, students examine the connection between parts of each habitat and how those connections are crucial for survival. Using the Next Generation Science Standards as a guide, students are challenged to use the information they learn about different habitats to compare how different plants and animals depend on their surroundings and other living things to meet their needs. Students will also be challenged to compare the differences in the kinds of living things that are found in different areas and why those differences exist. This unit builds on the 1st grade Animals unit, in which students learned about different types of animals and their characteristics, and prepares students for a 3rd grade unit in which they will analyze animal adaptations with regard to animal habitats. This unit uses the Bobbie Kalman Introducing Habitats series as mentor texts. These texts were chosen because of their clear representations of the different habitats and their accessibility. The texts in this unit support student understanding of key genre features while also allowing multiple opportunities to develop fluency. Over the course of the unit, the majority of heavy thinking and analysis should be on students. By the end of the unit, students should have a deeper understanding of key components of informational texts, and students should be able to transfer those understandings to other complex informational texts. Students will also write daily in response to the text, with a focus on using complete sentences and recognizing run-on sentences. Students will also begin writing longer informational texts in which they synthesize and teach back the content they are learning about the different habitats.

In this unit, second graders learn about insects and the impact insects have on the natural world. Building on what students learned in Unit 1 about habitats, they will explore how different insects rely on the environment, or habitat in which they live, for survival. Through this exploration, students will learn the unique characteristics of insects, how insects can be both beneficial and destructive, and the stages of an insect's life cycle. By the end of the unit, students will have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the beauty of the insect world.

This unit is comprised of predominantly shared reading experiences to help students practice different reading strategies and skills. Building on unit one, students will continue to be inquisitive, active consumers of texts by asking and answering questions, and they will continue to deepen their understanding of the role text features and illustrations play in helping a reader better understand the content of a text. Students will also begin to explore the connections between scientific ideas and concepts using cause-and-effect language and will continue to strengthen their habits of discussion as they debate and analyze key ideas of the unit.

In this unit, second graders explore Spider, or Anansi, folktales from West Africa. Folktales have been used for generations to teach important lessons about human nature and the consequences of good and bad behavior in a way that is clear, convincing, and easily relatable. Through reading and learning about Spider, students will be able to debate and analyze what it means to be a good person and the importance of hard work and cooperation. Studying the actions of Spider, a character with whom it is easy to connect and empathize, allows students to begin to develop a sense of moral behavior and understanding of the world around them by learning from the actions of others. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, will help students begin to develop a strong moral compass and a nuanced understanding of what constitutes right and wrong.

In this unit, students grapple with common 2nd grade themes through reading the easily relatable series Pinky and Rex. Through connecting with Pinky and Rex, students will learn that it is okay to be different and to be proud of who they are, no matter what others may think. Students will also learn about what it truly means to be a good friend and how friends can support and stick up for one another in a variety of ways. They will also see that it is okay for boys and girls to be friends, even best friends. This unit builds onto multiple units from 1st grade in which students learned what it means to be a good friend and a good person. It is our hope that this unit deepens the understandings developed in previous grades by giving students characters to connect with. These connections are especially important for students who are struggling with some of the same issues and are not sure how to process or talk about them.

In this unit, students continue to explore the characteristics of chapter books by reading and engaging with the beginning chapter book series, Zapato Power. Building off of what students learned in Unit 3: Pinky and Rex, students will explore what it means for two people to be friends and how friends are able to help each other by examining the somewhat unusual friendship between Freddie and Mr. Vaslov, an older man who lives and works in Freddie’s apartment building. Over the course of the unit, students will also be challenged to think about what it means to be a superhero and the differences between using “super” powers and brain power to solve problems. It is important to note that these books are part of a beginning chapter book series; therefore, there are aspects of the plot that are less developed or not as powerful as other books that students read in the progression. The chapter book series does, however, introduce students to a male Latinx protagonist, something that is often missing from children’s literature and helps students explore similar themes and topics from other units with texts that are accessible. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with other units from the sequence, will set students up for success in reading and understanding longer chapter books.

In this unit, students learn about making mistakes, honesty, and the power of forgiveness by reading the core texts Freckle Juice and Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up. In Freckle Juice, students explore what peer pressure is and the ways in which people can influence the decisions that we make. In Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up, students explore what it means to be honest, especially when it may seem difficult to tell the truth. Students will also explore the value of friendship and how jealousy can sometimes come between friends. Andrew in Freckle Juice and Keena Ford are both highly relatable characters who are struggling with issues that are common in second grade. Therefore, these books will give students a chance to grapple with and explore the nuances of peer pressure, honesty, friendship, and jealousy in a non-threatening way.