Students' knowledge of vocabulary affects their reading comprehension. Despite abundant research findings in vocabulary learning, practical instructional methods for use in schools are typically underdeveloped. This article proposes a research-based method for teaching the meanings of base academic vocabulary (i.e., Tier 2) words. The method utilizes stories that are purposefully created by using research findings regarding directive and explicit contexts in elaborated narrative texts to teach the meanings of base words. The impact of this method is discussed, and suggestions for implementation are provided.