What Are Key Routines for Teaching Tier 1 and Tier 3 Vocabulary?

The following are basic routines for teaching Tier 1 and Tier 3. A more comprehensive routine for teaching Tier 2 words appears on the next page of this module.

Key to explicit instruction of target vocabulary is that the teacher pronounces a word and tells the definition of the word. Students may not have a complete understanding of a definition or may be confused about what a word means, so we want students to hear the correct definition from the start.

*Note that asking multilingual students to use Google Translate can be a simple and quick way to understand what a word means and recognizes that their home language is an asset that can support learning English. Google Images can also help students recognize or identify abstract words.

Tier One Vocabulary Routine: ESL 1-3, ABE 1-2

Teacher provides a balance of language and literacy instruction that exposes students to new words from conversation, explanation, interaction, and basic texts.
Teacher selects 3-8 high-frequency words that are text-related or commonly-confused for students to see, hear, say, discuss, and possibly spell.
Teacher assigns print and/or online activities for taught vocabulary words and application to sentences or basic texts.

For teaching Tier 1 vocabulary, several resources can help us to determine which words to focus on in instruction, besides:

The New Dolch List: Originally compiled by Edward William Dolch in 1936, this list of high frequency English words (sometimes referred to as “sight words”) was updated in 2020 from 315 to 875 words, taking English learners into account.
Fry Instant Words: Dr. Edward B. Fry expanded on Dolch’s list in 1979 to include a list of the most common words by frequency used for teaching reading, writing, and spelling, with the first 300 words needing to be recognized immediately by readers.

Fry’s Instant Words, Phrases & Sentences: This resource includes Fry’s first 300 words plus phrases and short sentences containing the first 100 words from Fry’s Instant Word Lists.
New General Service List: Updated in 2013, this list contains approximately 2800 words that are “designed to help learners attain the highest possible coverage of general English with the fewest possible words.”

Tier Three Vocabulary Routine: Advanced ESL, ABE 4+

The teacher scans a text and selects a set of content-specific words that are essential for reading and understanding.
The teacher models the pronunciation of each word; perhaps syllabication and morphology; students repeat pronunciation.
The teacher tells the definition or shows a Google image for each word.
OPTIONAL: Teacher and students read an easier text or watch a video that uses the same or similar taught words.
The teacher and students read the original text and connect the taught words to the specific content or theme.

Tier Three words are found in specific content areas, so these words can be found in high school equivalency preparation texts, content-area texts, and/or career pathway content.

For steps to teach multilingual learners Tier 3 words, this infographic by Tan Huynh (2016) is useful. It can be found in Huynh's blog.

Tier-3-vocabulary.pdf

Click "Next" to read about a Tier 2 routine and see concrete examples of activities for teaching Tier 2 vocabulary.