Tiered Vocabulary Instruction—Beck, McKeown, & Kucan
Research notes for this episode of The Teaching Show:
Book: Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, Linda Kucan
As summarized at Vocabulary-Matters.org:
Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002) proposed categorizing words into one of three tiers for the purpose of vocabulary instruction.
In this model, Tier 1 words are basic and frequently used, so probably do not need to be taught; Tier 2 words are more challenging but used across disciplines; and Tier 3 words are rare and specific to a certain domain.
As summarized by the Center for Professional Education of Teachers at Teachers College Columbia:
One of the ways we decide which words to teach is by using the tiered vocabulary concept developed by Dr. Isabel Beck. Beck thinks of vocabulary words as belonging to one of three categories:
Tier 1 words are basic words that students typically know, unless they are an ELL, and in that case they may need to be taught that word. Tier 1 words include: computer, sunlight, coffee, sleep, etc.
Tier 2 words are those that are often used in classrooms and extend beyond one particular subject area, including: analyze, tweak, estimate, determine — words in that academic arena.
Tier 3 words are highly specific for each content area, and are housed within a particular subject. Examples of Tier 3 words include: parabola, hypotenuse, simile, monarchy, osmosis, etc.
An important insight:
Tier 3 words are easy to identify; these are the words that we need to teach in order for students to understand a particular concept. … Tier 2 words, however, are often not taught explicitly since the assumption is that students already know what they mean. It’s the Tier 2 words that need extra attention in our classrooms. These are the words to spend time teaching and modeling for your students. What this looks like will vary depending on your grade level and content area. link