Kinds of Words: Tier 1,2,3

Tier 1:
Rarely require instructional attention in school
High frequency of use
E.g., happy, jump, clock
Tier 2:
High utility
High frequency for mature language users
Found across a variety of domains
Vary according to age and development
Words that we sometimes assume student know, but often they have
only heard the word..
E.g., glance, confident, commotion, regret
Tier 3:
Low frequency, often limited to content-specific domains
Important to learn when specific need arises
Often critical for content area learning
E.g., peninsula, habitat, climate, evaporation

(adapted from Isabel Beck & Margaret McKeown, Bringing Words to Life


A Few Key Points from Research
about Vocabulary Development
1. Vocabulary is one of the strongest
contributors to comprehension.
2. Significant differences among students
levels of vocabulary acquisition are
present from a very early age, and it
takes intentional, focused effort from
the earliest years onward -- to close
those gaps.
3. Its important to think carefully about
WHICH words to teach. (next slide
addresses this)

A Few Key Points from Research
[continued]
4. There are different levels of
knowing a word
Words are labels for concepts or relationships
Not an all-or nothing situation!
More like a continuous process, building degrees of
understanding, forming a network of understandings
Highly influenced by prior knowledge
Try this with jib
5. There are some key conditions for vocabulary
development (language-rich environments,
connections to real-life experiences, etc.)
A Few Key Points from Research,
[continued]
6.Vocabulary instruction needs to include:
Explicit, direct instruction of words and
Opportunities for incidental learning ( through carefully
selected teacher read-alouds, use of rich language in
classroom , discussion, wide reading)
7. The most effective approaches to vocabulary
development include:
Active learning
Connections to previous knowledge of concepts, related
words
Multiple repetitions ( 10-40 are needed!) Keeping words
accessible/visible is key to accomplishing this!

A Possible Way to Manage the
Explicit Teaching Portion of
Vocabulary Development


* * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Collect and explore Tier 2 words On Friday, select keepers *
* over the course of a week * * * for explicit instruction *
(e.g. from read aloud, discussion, * and continual review in *
* grade-level text). * * * following weeks. *
* * * * * * *

* * * *

* * * *
Keepers

* * *
* *
Direct instruction of Tier 2 (Keeper) words and review of previously studied words would be happening
simultaneously throughout each week as well as pre-reading and incidental vocabulary instruction.
Periodic assessment of Keepers would also take place perhaps every other week, using some of the current
keepers and some from previous weeks.

S. Biggam, N Woods, 2005
A few sample tools or strategies for
assessing vocabulary within the classroom
Sample approaches:
Add a checklist or rubric to a vocabulary activity (e.g.,
Semantic Feature Analysis
Word Lines
Polar Opposites Ladder
Frayer model
Concept Circles (Vacca and Vacca, 1986)

Have a two- or three-minute vocabulary review conference. Check
the meaning of five to ten words.
Have students do partner quizzes, on five or ten previously studied
words (handle like a spelling test)
Have an everyone gets 5 quiz : students are handed index cards
of five previously studied words; they write a sentence and/or
otherwise demonstrate their knowledge of the word. ( drawing,
graphic etc.)
Vocabulary Rating Sheet (How Well do I Know This Word?)
Pose Meaningful Use vocabulary questions or quick vocabulary-
checking activities


Vocabulary Rating Scale
I know what
this word
means and
can use it in a
sentence.
I pretty much
know what
this word
means.
I have heard
of this word.
I have not
heard of this
word.
Sample Meaningful Use vocabulary questions or
quick vocabulary-checking activities

Applause/applause; Clap if you agree:
Soccer is a gentle sport.
Ice cream is usually bitter.
Riding a bike can be exhausting.
YEA/Nay: Could a container be hollow?
Which would be more likely to hover: a hummingbird or a shark?
Would you be more dubious if your mother baked a cake or if your
grandmother ran a marathon?
If what I say could be leisurely, say it could be leisurely. If not, say no
way
E.g., a marathon, a stroll, a saunter, a shuffle, a jog, a sprint, a nap
Why might an animal snarl at someone?
Tell about some time when something was a coincidence.
Which would you do if you wanted to look quickly at someone or
something? Glance or gape?
When would condolences not be appropriate?
Evasive people like to say exactly what they mean. True? False?


(adapted from Isabel Beck, Bringing Words to Life, 2002
See if you can come up with a meaningful
use vocabulary task or question for two of
the words in any given row


K- 2: alert, stranded, cautiously

3-6: dreary, subtle, intrigued

6-8 : irrelevant ,spectacle, constrained
Caveats: Vocabulary Assessment
It IS important to do
If we do not assess vocabulary, we do not
know whether or not students are learning, we
do not know which students need more focus
on vocabulary, and we do not know if our
instruction is effective
But keep in mind
There is no single agreed-upon list of what
words should be known at a certain age.
It probably takes a couple of years of
intentional vocabulary work to show an impact
on a standardized reading measure, because of
the sampling of words from a broad domain.
(Beck, 2005)
There are different levels of knowing a word.
There are different ways of displaying
knowledge of a word.



Thinking ahead how might this
information be used?
What kinds of patterns might be
seen?
How differentiation might take
place?
in a classroom setting?
in other settings?

A Few Vocabulary Resources

Words Words Words by Janet Allen
Bringing Words to Life by Beck,
McKeown and Kucan
Teaching Vocabulary in All
Classsrooms: Building Background
Knowledge for Academic
Achievement. ASCD. By Robert
Marzano