Tiered Vocabulary and Speech Therapy
Do you ever wonder what types of vocabulary to focus on in speech therapy sessions? Read for the basics of tiered vocabulary in education.
Not all words have equal importance in language instruction – A word’s frequency of use, complexity, and meaning determines which tier it will fall into. Most children will enter school knowing Tier 1 words. Tier 2 words are most commonly used for direct instruction in education. And Tier 3 words are low-frequency and niche.
TIER 1: These words are commonly used in everyday conversation. They include sight words, nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Examples: sad, eat, red, phone, baby, sit, car, sun, cat
TIER 2: These words are not widely used in speech and daily conversation. Instead, they are often used and found in books and written text, and often have multiple meanings.
Examples: elderly, rule, foundation, fine, energy, analyze, blush, bolt, process
TIER 3: These words are low-frequency and occur within specific contexts, such as school subjects, occupations, and hobbies. They have distinct meanings and purposes.
Examples: molecule, aorta, thesis, economics, isotope, asphalt
Tier 2 words are most used for direct instruction in education. These are typically the words we focus on in language instruction because they are:
- important for reading comprehension
- contain multiple meanings
- used across a variety of environments
- characteristic of mature language users
- allow for increased descriptive vocabulary
Tier 2 Vocabulary Examples:
Kindergarten:
- age
- attention
- bay
- bloom
- bumpy
- chilly
- community
- country
- decide
- directions
- drawer
- edge
- explore
- fair
- focus
- frustrated
- gallop
- gigantic
- glare
- goal
- half
- healthy
- huge
- ignore
- invitation
- lazy
- leader
- melt
- miserable
- notice
- pair
- patient
- plan
- positive
- proud
- respect
- shade
- shore
- slip
- stare
- surprise
- warm
- wave
- yesterday
- young
First Grade:
- adjust
- adventure
- ancient
- brave
- calm
- carnivore
- clever
- cooperate
- curious
- disease
- drench
- elderly
- encourage
- equal
- exhausted
- expensive
- fidgety
- final
- germs
- glance
- hibernate
- honest
- investigate
- loosen
- mechanic
- mystery
- narrow
- panic
- precious
- reduce
- repeat
- search
- similar
- spotless
- ticket
- together
- trade
- uncomfortable
- upset
- voyage
- warning
- wealthy
- whisper
- worry
- yank
Second Grade:
- alarming
- analyze
- astronomy
- avoid
- award
- balance
- base
- bounce
- bright
- cause
- collect
- crowd
- cycle
- data
- diagram
- dozen
- drowsy
- estimate
- expect
- fact
- fuel
- greedy
- hesitate
- herd
- idea
- include
- leap
- non-living
- notice
- observe
- opinion
- passage
- publish
- record
- reflect
- rumor
- sum
- support
- telescope
- universe
- village
- weak
- wise
- yard
- zigzag
Third Grade:
- ability
- absorb
- accuse
- applause
- assist
- attract
- brilliant
- capture
- clever
- climate
- construct
- contrast
- convince
- defend
- delicate
- develop
- distant
- drift
- enable
- experience
- flexible
- fortunate
- grimace
- harsh
- imitate
- individual
- infer
- insist
- irritate
- launch
- marine
- method
- mural
- mystify
- nation
- predator
- prevent
- recall
- repair
- revive
- solution
- valuable
- wander
- wisdom
- wit
Fourth Grade:
- accomplish
- accurate
- analyze
- appropriate
- automatically
- baggage
- basic
- blossom
- border
- capable
- captivity
- century
- coax
- compare
- competition
- confirm
- contrast
- describe
- develop
- disaster
- document
- eliminate
- evidence
- experiment
- fragile
- generosity
- hardship
- heroic
- impact
- manufacture
- observe
- organized
- plentiful
- practice
- previous
- request
- resist
- summarize
- surround
- survive
- tragic
- usually
- vacant
- variety
- weary
Fifth Grade:
- abolish
- alternative
- antagonist
- antonym
- anxious
- approach
- aroma
- budge
- cautiously
- cease
- combine
- concept
- confident
- context
- debate
- deprive
- detect
- dictate
- effortless
- equivalent
- expansion
- expectation
- homonym
- horizontal
- hostile
- identical
- identify
- numerous
- occasion
- opposed
- persuade
- prefix
- reassure
- resemble
- retain
- route
- strategy
- suffix
- suspend
- synonym
- tolerate
- unfamiliar
- vertical
- wilderness
- withdraw
TIP: Communicate with your student’s teachers about word lists they are using in their classes to teach various subjects.
Have any tips for working on tiered vocabulary?
If this post was helpful, please share it!
Pinterest
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Email
You Also Might Like...
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
One Response
This is an extremely helpful blog post! I love the tier 2 examples listed by grade level!