Isabel Beck and her colleagues have distinguished between three different “levels” of words. As soon as I read your book for the first time, Bring words to lifeHe knew his ‘tiered’ concept made immense sense and would serve all of us as teachers who need to make strategic decisions about what to teach and what not to teach.

Here is a brief overview of the three levels, which I will then follow with some examples of Level 2 words that you can use when planning your instruction.

• Level 1 Words They are the most basic words and they are the ones that are reasonably easy to teach, usually because there is some kind of physical referent (blue, elbow, table, run). We need to spend time with them because they appear frequently and students need to know these words. However, it is not necessary to spend more time than required because they are easier to teach than the other two levels.
• Level 2 Words They are the mother lode of words. These are the high frequency words that are found and used in all domains. Taking the time to teach these words deeply, richly and powerfully … it is well worth the effort. Knowledge of these words will have an impact on students’ learning and communication throughout their lives. Words that could be considered Level 2 words would include: difference, temperate, omnivore, exaggerated, erode. You can see that these are words that may have particular meanings in certain content areas, but mature users use them in a variety of ways.
• Level 3 Words These are the words that have a much lower frequency and are generally very domain specific. For instance; oligopoly, marcato, lithosphere, verse, univariate analysis. These are important words, but they must be taught within the context and subject area where they will be used.

When you try to decide what words are your Level 2 words, use the following criteria, as given by Beck, et al, in their book, Bring words to life:

Importance and usefulnessThat is, are the words that mature language users speak and write? Are the words that would appear frequently in a variety of domains? For example: aggression, omnipotent, etc.

Instructional potential, That is, are words that can be taught in different ways so that students rich renderings of these words? Do the words generate ideas that would allow you to help students make connections to other words and concepts? For example: sliding, meandering, stalking, etc.

Conceptual understandingThat is, are the words those for which students understand the general concept, but may not yet have the precision and specificity to describe the concept that this word would provide? For example: frigid (versus ‘cold’).

Questions to ask yourself as you plan:

1. What words deserve the most attention from you and your students? (Not all words are the same when it comes to instructional time and effort.)
2. How will you allocate your time to dedicate time and effort to the words that will provide the most powerful change in student learning?
3. Take a look at the words you are teaching this week. For each word on the list, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this word important and useful, that is, is it a word that will appear throughout someone’s life?
• Does this word have all kinds of instructional possibilities? I mean, can I see numerous ways to teach this word and also incorporate the learning of other languages?
• Do my students have the background knowledge to understand this new word I’m teaching, or do I first need to provide context?

These are KEY questions to ask yourself as you evaluate the words you will spend time on (and not on). Your time, energy, and effort, as well as the time, energy, and effort of your students, are valuable. You want to spend most of your instructional time teaching Level 2 words.