Curriculum › Grade 2 › English Language Arts

New Words in Real Books

  • Grade 2
  • English Language Arts
  • RI.2.4
  • Reading: Informational
  • Free lesson

Aligned to RI.2.4 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

What this lesson teaches

Books that teach facts use special words. Use the sentence around a word to find out what it means.

Worked examples

Example 1

A science book says, 'A cub is a baby bear.' The sentence tells you that 'cub' means a young bear.

Example 2

A book says, 'The soil, or dirt, holds the roots.' The word 'or' hands you the meaning of soil.

Example 3

Sometimes the meaning is in the next sentence: 'The snake is nocturnal. It hunts only after dark.'

Practice questions

  1. Find a new word in a fact book and read the sentence around it.
  2. Use the sentence clues to guess what the word means.
  3. Use the new word in a sentence of your own.

Watch the lesson

Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.

▶ Watch this lesson

En español

Palabras nuevas en libros reales

Los libros que enseñan datos usan palabras especiales. Usa la oración alrededor de una palabra para saber qué significa.

Ejemplo 1: Un libro de ciencias dice: 'Un cachorro es un oso bebé.' La oración te dice que 'cachorro' significa un oso joven.

Ejemplo 2: Un libro dice: 'El suelo, o tierra, sostiene las raíces.' La palabra 'o' te entrega el significado de suelo.

Ejemplo 3: A veces el significado está en la siguiente oración: 'La serpiente es nocturna. Solo caza después del anochecer.'

More Reading: Informational lessons

Main Idea & Text FeaturesRI.2.2Fact QuestionsRI.2.1How Things ConnectRI.2.3Parts of a BookRI.2.5Why Did They Write It?RI.2.6Diagrams Show You MoreRI.2.7

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