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2nd grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 14

Asking Questions and Finding Facts

Ask good questions, choose texts and learn topic words.

What your child practices

Using what you know, asking basic questions, choosing texts and facts for a purpose, and using topic words.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 2.13(A); 2.13(C) · asking questions and choosing a text that answers them

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Start with a question, like “What do owls eat?”
  2. Choose a text about your topic, like an information book.
  3. Topic words belong together: planet and star go with space.

Example: Your question is “What do owls eat?” Which fact is most useful? “Owls eat mice.” or “Owls have feathers.” Your question is about food. Only one fact tells what owls eat. Answer: Owls eat mice.

Asking Questions and Finding Facts in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 11 of 14 in 2nd grade English Language Arts, after Text Features and before Media Detectives.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    You want to learn about snowshoe hares. Which text should you pick?

    • a book about cars
    • a cookbook
    • a book about northern animals

  2. Question 2

    Which question could guide an investigation about bees?

    • Bees.
    • What do bees eat?
    • Yes.

  3. Question 3

    A glossary in a book tells you…

    • who wrote the book
    • what special words mean
    • where to buy it

  4. Question 4

    Which words belong with the topic “space”?

    • desk and chair
    • planet and star
    • spoon and fork

  5. Question 5

    Your question is “What do owls eat?” Which fact is most useful?

    • Owls sleep in the day.
    • Owls are brown.
    • Owls eat mice and insects.

  6. Question 6

    You can make a web to…

    • fix a shoe
    • measure a room
    • show how ideas connect

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