Rooted in a biblical worldview, BJU Press Reading 2 is a comprehensive reading program that invites young students to enjoy reading all sorts of different genres including realistic fiction, historical fiction, fables, folktales, and poetry. The 180 lessons are divided into six themed units that focus on wisdom, hard work, kindness, obedience, God’s creation, and contentment. Reading comprehension involves both simple recall and open-ended questions. Fluency is practiced by both oral and independent reading. Phonics and vocabulary instruction are also included. The Homeschool Kit includes Teacher Edition Parts 1 & 2 and the Teacher Edition Companion Guide, a two-volume Student Edition, Homeschool Visuals, The Sword in the Tree book, Activities Book, Activities Answer Key, Assessments, and Assessments Answer Key.
The Teacher Edition implements a 4-part teaching cycle: Engage (activating prior knowledge to connect with new content); Instruct (guided instruction, discussion, independent and oral reading); Apply (practicing reading skills by summarizing, predicting, and close reading); and Assess (evaluating knowledge). Each chapter has a detailed overview of objectives, resources, and assessments. Reduced copies of the student pages are included with step-by- step lesson instruction wrapped around them. Differentiated instruction is located within the lessons. Questions for before, during, and after reading selections help guide the reading. Lessons provide practice in phonics and phonemic awareness skills, oral and silent reading, and literary analysis. A book study novel, The Sword in the Tree, makes up the last fifteen lessons in the program. Homeschool parents have access to free online resources including videos, games, a Progress Phonics Monitoring Chart and other instructional aids on the Homeschool Hub site. Instructions to access the site are included in the kit.
The Teacher Edition Companion Guide provides a point of reference and summary for each lesson. The front of the guide has a quick overview of each chapter and lesson. Then each one-page guide includes the page numbers of the books you will need for each lesson. Reading Check Questions, Phonemic Awareness & Phonics Objectives, Reading Objectives, Biblical Worldview Shaping statements, Resources and Materials used, and Assignments are all listed. Thumbnail images of the pages covered in each resource along with other helpful notes are in the right sidebar. While the Teacher Edition has more extensive teacher help, the Companion Guide gives you a big-picture view of every lesson. The guide is not sold separately and is only included through the purchase of a Teacher Edition.
The two-volume Student Edition is in full color and has all the delightful reading selections. Before each story there are reading questions along with other pertinent information such as explaining the genre or author’s purpose. After reading each selection, students answer simple recall and open-ended questions. Vocabulary words are highlighted in blue and a glossary is included in the back.
Student Activities include opportunities for students to practice phonics skills, reading comprehension, and vocabulary in each lesson. The front page works on phonics skills and the back page strengthens language comprehension and vocabulary. Pages are organized by color for each individual unit. The spiral-bound Activities Answer Key includes the Student Activities pages with answers in red.
The Homeschool Visuals contain phonics visuals and alphabet cards on cardstock to reinforce phonics concepts. Instructions when to use these visuals are in the Teacher Edition and Companion Guide.
Assessments include six reading assessments along with other tools to assess phonics, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary understanding. A comprehension assessment is also included after each unit. The Assessment Answer Key is three-hole punched and an exact replica of the Assessments with answers in red. ~ Gina