Focus on Second
About Focus on Second (Grade 2)
In the second grade Focus on Second (Fo2) curriculum, students are guided by their teachers to deeply analyze meaningful topics. Fo2 structures opportunities for children and adults to work together to analyze texts, ideas, images, structures, works of art, and words. Students investigate Science and Engineering topics, consider stories of history and community, and experiment with new and familiar materials to communicate powerful ideas through multi-dimensional projects.
On This Page
Teacher Guides for Remote Learning (archived from 2020-2021)
Resources
Pacing calendar
School Year: 2024-2025
Assessments
New! Early Childhood Assessment Guidance - Toolbox for all recommended and required assessments for all subjects pre-k through 2nd grade.
District Supported Reader Screeners
Launching Focus on Second
The focus of the first three weeks of Focus on Second is the classroom and self in a community. Activities incorporate time to set up the robust classroom community that will support learning throughout the year. The first read aloud, A Letter to My Teacher, spurs discussion about how children feel about being at school, how different children learn, and the importance of relationships. Other Text Talk sessions in the first week guide the class through making classroom agreements that support every child’s learning.
Content by Unit
Unit 1 - How We Learn in Our School Communities
New Revisions for 2021-2022!
Opening the school year, Unit 1 takes children and teachers through an exploration of the meaning of school and spurs new understandings about learners and learning, with an emphasis on inclusive environments and interactions.
Introduction to Focus on First and Second and Unit 1 Webinar
Intro | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8
Unit 2 - The Forces of Wind and Water
New Revisions for 2021-2022!
Unit 2 brings science to the foreground, with a study of how wind and water change land. In so doing, it throws into question the stability of the very ground we walk on. In Boston, it’s easy to forget that all over the globe the land is changing shape. In Unit 2, children explore the effects of wind and water on land and consider the ways people both attempt to meet these forces and live in response to them.
Unit 3 - Connecting Places, Connecting People
New Revisions for 2021-2022!
What makes the identity of a place? How does that identity contribute to our understanding of people around the world and where we live? In Unit 2, children traveled the globe exploring how wind and water shape land. Social Studies takes a step forward as this travel continues through Unit 3, this time offering children the opportunity to consider how people and places shape each other.
Unit 4 - The Power of Pollinators
New Revisions for 2021-2022!
Birds, bees, butterflies, and bats! Flowers and fruit! Studying the process of pollination helps us understand how plants and animals are interdependent—designed to function in relation to each other—and how critical they are to human and global survival. Like Unit 2, The Power of Pollinators brings science to the foreground. In this fourth and final unit of study, children move between the plant and animal worlds, zooming in to closely observe and zooming out to explore big ideas around form and function, life cycles, and interdependence. Children engage in thinking about our food supply and the immediate natural environment. Concretely, the unit begins with planting seeds, and children watch their development over several weeks, pairing careful scientific process with the wonder and excitement of growing things.
Remote Teacher Guides
The following guides were developed for remote learning with the Focus curriculum. This material was produced for the 2020-2021 school year but remains archived here.