Grade 2 ELA Exam Survival Guide

Must-do

• Phonics: vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, prefixes/suffixes; two-syllable words.
• Reading: main topic vs key details (informational); recount stories; compare versions.
• Writing: opinion/informative/narrative with linking words; revise/edit.
• Language: past/present/future; adjectives/adverbs; collective nouns; apostrophes; commas in letters; expanded sentences.

Top traps

• Main idea vs interesting detail.
• Overusing “and then”; no linking words (because/also/however).
• Apostrophes for plurals.

Quick checks

• “What’s the big idea?” (write 1 main idea + 2 details).
• Expand a kernel: “The dog ran.” → “Yesterday, the brown dog quickly ran to the park.”
• Syllable split: “napkin, table, rabbit”.

You will make

• Main-Idea Ladders (Top rung = main idea, lower rungs = details).
• Linking-Words Bookmark.
• Editing Checklist (caps, punctuation, spelling, verbs).

Daily (25–30 min)

• 8 decode/fluency, 12 reading comp, 10 writing (draft→revise).