Vocabulary instruction is the key for ALL four-year-olds in preschool. Talking with children and providing opportunities for children to talk with each other increases their oral language and therefore their vocabulary, which prepares children to become successful readers. But that is not enough for them with language delays and English language learners. In VPK classrooms, it is necessary for instructors to explicitly teach some vocabulary words to their children. When doing your planning remember to assess where your children are and don’t make assumptions that they may know some common words.
“How do I know what vocabulary words to teach my children?” Research by Beck and McKeown (2002), helps us with this question. They classified words into three tiers.
Words that are in first tier, Tier 1, are words that most children are going to learn on their own. These words may include body parts and words that are heard on a regular basis. Children, even English language learners, typically learn these words without us having to teach them.
The second tier, Tier 2, includes words that children are most likely to hear throughout their educational experience. That is, words they will hear, read, and be tested on. These are the words we want to spend most of our time teaching because they have a “higher pay off.”
The third tier, Tier 3, contains words that children are not likely to hear again. These rare words are important for the content – like “Stegosaurus” and are fun to learn, but they are not high priority words.
