Choosing Vocabulary to Teach

So how do teachers go about identifying words to teach? Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002) talk about three tiers of voabulary to help categorize words and make decisions about what to teach.

Tier One words are the most basic words, like clock, person, happy, which usually don’t require instruction. Keep in mind, however, that students beginning to learn a new language may need assistance here.

Tier Three words are low frequency words, like isotope or lathe, which are often unfamiliar to students and important for understanding a particular text. However, they do not usually appear in many types of texts across domains.
Tier Two words are high frequency words for mature language learners, like absurd, coincidence, industrious, levity, privy, obscure. We encounter tier two words primarily in written texts. Instruction in these words has good potential to augment one's language ability and will assist students to engage in more "academic" ways as they explore written texts.

Some criteria for identifying Two Tier words:
1) Importance and utility: words that are characteristic of mature learners and appear frequently across domains. Consider how generally useful the word is. Is it a word that students are likely to encounter in other texts? Will it be useful in describing their own experiences?

2) Conceptual understanding: words for which students understand the general concept but offer precision and specificity in describing the concept. Would students be able to explain the concepts using words already familiar to them? For example, ‘benevolent’ might be expressed as ‘kind,’ or ‘haunting’ might be expressed as ‘scary’.

3) Instructional potential: words that can be worked in a variety of ways so that students can build rich representations of them and their connections to other words and concepts.
• How does the word relate to other words and concepts that students are learning? Does it directly relate to a classroom topic? Would it add a dimension to ideas that have been developed?
• What does the word bring to a text or situation? What role does the word play in communicating the meaning of the context in which it is used? Does the use of the word convey a particular mood or attitude?
• Keep in mind that there is no formula for selecting age-appropriate vocabulary words, no golden rule. As long the word can be explained in known words and applies to what students might think, read, talk, or write about, it is an appropriate word to teach.
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Beck, I. L, McKeown, M. G, & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York: Guilford Press