1. Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary
Instruction
By Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown &
Linda Kucan (2002)

2.  Tier I words – most basic words, i.e.
clock, baby, happy, walk (do not usually need to
be taught in school)
 Tier II words – contains high frequency words for
mature language users and are found across a
variety of domains, i.e.
coincidence, absurd, fortunate
 Tier III words – low frequency words that are
specific to a domain, i.e. isotope, peninsula and
refinery
 Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002,p. 8)

3.  Tier II words are the words that
teachers should be teaching and
are most helpful to students.
 Teachers can select words from
text but also need to think about
limiting the number of words
taught

4.  Students need many exposures to a word
to “own” it
 Dictionary definitions are often unhelpful –
students often do not understand the
dictionary definition
 To develop student-friendly definitions,
you need to characterize the word and
how it is typically used and explain the
meaning in everyday language .
 Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2002, p.35)

5.  After introducing about 4 or 5
vocabulary words, ask questions that
the students have to answer using
those words.
 For example: a vocabulary word is
accomplice. A question you could ask
is “Which work goes with crook?”
The students would have to pick the
correct word.

6.  This activity helps students use their
newly learned vocabulary words.
 For example, have students describe
a time when they have urged
someone to do something, bartered
for something, etc.

7. For this activity, students are
asked to clap to show how much
they would like to be described
by a particular word. Target
words could include: frank,
stern, and vain.