Thompson's text describes the tiers...
Tier One: Basic Words: Words that are used very commonly around the house/school/playground. A native English-speaker would rarely need instruction about the meanings of these words because they are so common. Examples: animal, guitar, celebrate
Tier Two: Academic Words: Words that are used more in writing than orally. Students will learn the words meanings from their application. Sometimes, students will understand the concept of the word, but not recognize the specific word. Examples: evidence, original, spirit
Tier Three: Specialized Words: Words that are content-specific/abstract. These words are used less frequently. Examples: osmosis, Great Depression, unions
Thompson states that teachers focus their word instruction on Tier 2 words, while still including words from all three levels on word walls. I agree with Thompson. I believe that a lot of the focus of teaching should come from Tier 2 words. I think that learning Tier 3 words come with time and from teaching specific content. I also agree that some Tier 1 words may need to be taught, like the example in the book (harmonica) because not all children may be exposed to the same things based on their lifestyles and therefore will have a different Tier 1 basic vocabulary. Word walls are definitely a tool I have seen in multiple classrooms, but have never taken the time to fully examine the word choices that are on the wall and what tier they might fall under.
In readings Winter's article, Interactive Frames for Vocabulary Growth and Word Consciousness, I really liked the idea of the triangle. The teacher drew an inverted triangle and broke their work up into the three parts (transported, trans-port-ed). This got the students thinking about all three parts of the word, and when they've heard those parts in other contexts. I think this task would work well for older children, but I think there are ways to make it more simple for younger grades.
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