Tier-2 vocabulary: 15 high-utility words from read-alouds

Acquire receptive and productive understanding of 15 Tier-2 vocabulary words explicitly taught through read-alouds: enormous, scurry, magnificent, frustrated, curious, gigantic, ancient, gentle, brave, exhausted, peculiar, fierce, glistening, fragile, splendid.

Mastery threshold

80%

Min instances

Typical minutes

Spaced intervals (days)

1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60

Prereqs

No prereqs — this is an entry skill.

Successors

Tier-2 vocabulary set 2 — 15 more high-utility words

Common misconceptions

Using the word in a syntactically wrong way ('I am gigantic the cookie')
Confusing near-synonyms ('enormous' vs 'gigantic' — fine; both are interchangeable at this level)
Treating Tier-2 words as decorative ('The brave brave brave dog') — should be one descriptor per use

Exercise pool (5)

Diff	Stem	Type
2	Sort these picture cards into TWO piles: ENORMOUS or TINY.	picture sort
2	Draw something you're CURIOUS about. Label it with a C.	draw
3	Use the word 'scurry' in a complete sentence about an animal.	oral sentence
3	Tell about a time you were BRAVE in a complete sentence.	oral sentence
4	Use both ENORMOUS and CURIOUS in ONE sentence.	oral sentence