The 3 Tiers Of Vocabulary: Choosing Words for Instruction – Getting Started with SoR

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and the meaning of those words. There is a strong connection between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. You have to understand the words you’re reading, in order to understand the text as a whole. The words we teach our students explicitly is based on the 3 tiers of vocabulary. But, a lot of our students’ word knowledge and vocabulary is learned without our explicit instruction; it’s learned implicitly. They learn words from oral language, media, and reading and hearing texts. In addition to teaching our students specific vocabulary words, we also need to teach them how to identify words they don’t know and how to determine their meaning.

Knowing what words we should be explicitly teaching our students is tough. Many words are identified in our core curriculums; especially if you use basal programs for several different subjects. Ensuring you’re teaching words well and not overwhelming students is important. When we select words to teach we need to be sure the words are useful and important and will be beneficial for students as they continue their reading journeys. Students’ pre-existing background knowledge and grade level are definitely factors to consider when choosing vocabulary words for instruction. First graders may not need to know that minute (adjective meaning very small) is a synonym for tiny, but that’s a word worth teaching for upper elementary students. All words can be broken down into the 3 tiers of vocabulary (Beck and McKeown, 2002). Let’s take a closer look at each of the tiers and examples of words that fit into each category.

The 3 Tiers of Vocabulary

Words fit into one of 3 tiers of vocabulary based on their frequency and complexity. Our method of instruction should vary by tier.

Tier 1 Words

Tier 1 words are the most common and basic words in our language.  They are the first words children learn as their language develops. These words are likely in a students’ repertoire naturally and rarely require instruction in school. Native English speakers that need instruction in these words likely need significant academic support. For students that are English Language Learners, learning the English counterparts for these words known in native languages is the first step in language acquisition.

Tier 1 words examples: baby, mother, friend, happy, tree

Tier 2 Words

Tier 2 vocabulary words are likely known by most adults, even if they are not the most commonly occurring. They are the words we use that give more precision and interest to our vocabulary. Though these words are not used as frequently as tier 1 words, they are likely to occur in a wide variety of texts. Often, tier 2 words have multiple meanings. Students may have an understanding of only 1 meaning of the word and not the other.

Tier two vocabulary words are the ones worth investing the time and effort into teaching explicitly for our students as they can productively add to our students’ language abilities. They also can make the difference in student comprehension of a text. Because of these reasons, tier 2 words are often referred to as academic vocabulary words.

A good way of knowing whether or not a word is a tier two word is if students could articulate its meaning with their current vocabulary (once they know the meaning). If so, they are able to connect their existing knowledge to the learning of the new word in order to better retain its meaning. By being able to connect the word with similar words, students build on to their current repertoire of words to be more precise in their word choice or to add complexity to their language. For example, students may not know the word “merchant” but they probably already know salespeople or cashier. It’s important to note that the words don’t need to be simple synonyms for students. However, words that connect with other known words make it easier to build on.

Tier 2 words examples: curious, imagine, fortunate, abundant, content

Tier 3 Words

Tier 3 vocabulary words are very low frequency words that are often associated with learning specific content. For this reason, tier three words are often referred to as content vocabulary words. For example, peninsula would be a vocabulary word that is taught as part of a landform unit, but it isn’t going to be in many student-facing texts, other than while learning about those landforms.

Tier 3 words often don’t have many synonyms or antonyms. They often represent something quite specific.

Tier 3 words examples: photosynthesis, equilateral, peninsula, metamorphosis

Now that we’ve talked about narrowing words based on the 3 tiers of vocabulary, let’s talk about choosing which vocabulary words to teach.

Which Vocabulary Words to Teach

The words we need to explicitly teach our students are typically those that fall into the Tier 2 Vocabulary Words category. These are the most worthwhile in terms of being able to add to a students’ vocabulary, based on the frequency the word will appear in the future, and its role in understanding content. These are the words we need to teach deeply and help our students develop ownership of. Words that can be taught quickly, especially concrete words, don’t need the in-depth and thorough discussion as others.

There’s not a precise set of guidelines or “rules” to selecting vocabulary words to teach. This can make choosing vocabulary words difficult. It should be based on your students and their needs. For example, students in a rural community may not need support in understanding words related to farming, such as crop, whereas students living in large, urban areas likely will. To decide which words to teach, we can think through 3 big ideas.

1. Words needed to understand the text
2. Words that will appear in future texts
3. Words that are part of a word family (note- this does not refer to rimes such as -all but words with morphological families such as nature, natural, naturally, etc.)

Once you have a general list of tier 2 words from your texts and content area instruction, then use those big ideas to dwindle things down. A small handful, approximately 5 words, but likely a couple more, are the ones that should be taught.

Now that we’ve worked to identify the words we should teach, based on the 3 tiers of vocabulary, The next post in this series will dive into the how of vocabulary instruction.

Further Reading on Vocabulary Instruction

Choosing Words to Teach by Beck, McKeown, & Kucan on Reading Rockets

Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (book) on Amazon (affiliate link)

Creating Robust Vocabulary by Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (book) on Amazon (affiliate link)

Five Key Principles for Effective Vocabulary Instruction by Tim Shanahan on Reading Rockets

Which Words Do I Teach and How? by David Liben from Student Achievement Partners on Achieve the Core

Teaching Vocabulary by Linda Diamond & Linda Gutlohn on Reading Rockets

Further Information on the Science of Reading

I am sharing helpful information on the Science of Reading throughout this blog series. Each post has a different focus and includes links to relevant posts of my own, from time to time. The topics have been carefully chosen to include the background information needed to understand the science and help you learn more about some of the large, underlying research in the field. The first three up in the series include The National Reading Panel’s 5 Pillars of Reading, the Simple View of Reading, and Scarborough’s Rope.

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