A fellow teacher (3rd grade) recieved a report from a specialist that had evaluated the student. It is an outside agency & we are not familiar with working with them. In the report they mentioned tier 2 words. She had never heard of them, and I have heard of them, but are not familiar with them enough to explain it. So, what are tier 2 words? :help:
tier 1 words are words we speak and hear every day: came went dinner haircut language Tier 2 words are more difficult words that we probably know but students may not; however they come across them when reading age appropriate text -compost -fertilization -logistics -cumbersome tier 3 words are generally words you might need for a particular story or passage. They are low frequency words -spelunker -hydrogenous and other big words that Teacher Groupie uses
There's some interesting light shed here: http://www.weac.org/News/2004-05/may05/read.htm (No, I didn't know this term either. But three cheers for the Internet! - and it turns out to be useful to me right about now.)
“Tier 1 words typically do not need explicit instructional attention within the school setting. Words within the tier 2 realm are typically high frequency words. These are words one would come across in a variety of domains. Tier 2 words are not exclusive to one event, one content, or one situation. Tier two words are tier two because of the enormous role they play in the language user's repertoire. They tend to cross over easily into a wide variety of settings and/or contents. Tier 3 words are those vocabulary words that are exclusive to a particular situation and or subject. Tier 3 words are limited in their use.” Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabell Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan. This is one of my favorite books for vocabulary instruction.
Oops- teaching tier 2 words helps build vocabulary. Many can be deciphered through context clues but some should be introduced before the passage.
This link (http://www.weac.org/News/2004-05/april05/read.htm) is the "last month's column" referred to be the author of the link I posted earlier. There are some excellent strategies here, drawn on the Beck, McKeown & Lucan book that GoldenPoppy mentions. Seems to me that playing with language is a huge part of learning it.
