Isabel Beck and her colleagues have distinguished between three different “levels” of words. As soon as I read her book for the first time, Bringing words to lifeI knew that his concept of ‘levels’ made a lot of sense and would serve all of us as teachers who need to make strategic decisions about what to teach and what not to teach.
Here’s a brief overview of the three tiers, which I’ll then follow with some sample Tier 2 words you can use when planning your instruction.
- level 1 words they are the most basic words and they are the ones that are reasonably easy to teach, usually because there is some kind of physical referent (blue, elbow, table, run). We need to spend time on them because they come up frequently and students need to know these words. However, it is not necessary to spend more time than required because they are easier to teach than the other two levels.
- level 2 words they are the mother lode of words. These are the high frequency words that are found and used in all domains. Taking the time to teach these words in a deep, rich, powerful way… is well worth the effort. Knowing these words will have an impact on students’ learning and communication throughout their lives. Words that could be considered Tier 2 words would include: difference, mild, omnivorous, exaggerated, eroded. You can see that these are words that may have particular meanings in certain content areas, but are used in a variety of ways by mature users of the language.
- level 3 words are the words that are much lower frequency words and that are very domain specific, usually. For example; oligopoly, marcato, lithosphere, couplet, univariate analysis. These are important words, but they must be taught within the context and subject matter in which they will be used.
When you’re trying to decide which words are yours Level 2 words, use the following criteria, as given by Beck, et al, in their book, Bringing words to life:
Importance and usefulness, that is, are the words spoken and written by mature users of the language? Are the words that would appear frequently in a variety of domains? For example: aggression, omnipotent, etc.
Instructional Potentialthat is, are words the ones that can be taught in a variety of ways so that students can build rich representations of these words? Do the words generate ideas that would allow you to help students make connections to other words and concepts? For example: gliding, meandering, lurking, etc.
conceptual understanding, that is, are they words for which students understand the general concept, but do not yet have the precision and specificity to describe the concept that this word would provide? For example: frigid (vs. ‘cold’).
Questions to ask yourself as you plan:
- Which words deserve the most attention from you and your students? (All words are not created equal when it comes to instruction time and effort.)
- How will you allocate your time to spend time and effort on the words that will provide the most powerful change in student learning?
- Take a look at the words you are teaching this week. For each word on the list, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this word important and useful, that is, is it a word that will appear throughout someone’s life?
- Does this word have all kinds of possibilities for instruction, that is, can I see numerous ways to teach this word, and also to incorporate the learning of other languages?
- Do my students have the background knowledge to understand this new word I’m teaching, or do I need to provide some context first?
These are KEY questions to ask as you evaluate the words you will (and will not) spend time on. Your time, energy, and effort, as well as the time, energy, and effort of your students, are valuable. You want to spend the majority of your instructional time teaching Tier 2 words.
