Standardized Testing

12 Powerful

Verbs

What are the 12 Powerful Verbs? The 12 powerful verbs are

those that appear most often on standardized tests.

“By using these terms daily in the classroom and including them on tests, you give students a tool that will vastly improve their chance for test success.” – Larry Bell

Goals for Today:

Become familiar with the 12 powerful verbs. Explore ways to incorporate the 12

powerful verbs into classroom instruction.

In your group, brainstorm the 12 verbs you expect to

see on the 12 Powerful Verbs list.

You have 5 minutes to complete this task.

Predict Make an educated (smart) guess. Hypothesize. Tell what could or may happen. Look into the future.

Contrast List differences. Tell all the ways they are different.

Compare List how they are the same. Tell all of the ways they are alike.

Summarize Tell the most important part. Give the bottom line. Tell the main ideas. Tell the beginning, middle, and end. Put it in a nutshell.

Explain Tell all about. Tell what and why. Tell or show how. Teach to someone else.

Support Provide reasons. Tell reasons. Give Examples. Back it up. Prove it.

Describe Tell about. Show me. List details. Paint a picture with words.

Formulate Come up with. Make a plan. Develop. Create. Put together.

Evaluate Judge. Find the value of. Examine or Solve. Test for the truth. Tell the good and the bad.

Infer Figure out. Read between the lines. Discover what they are trying to say. Find the hidden meaning.

Analyze Think through. Break apart. Break into pieces. Tell about the different parts.

Trace Follow the path. Track. Outline. List in steps.

12 Powerful Verbs Matching Game

Match each task card to its corresponding powerful verb card.

You have 10 minutes for this activity.

Thunder and Lightning usually happen at the same time. Why do you usually see the lightning

before you hear the thunder?

?

Inferfigure out, read between the lines

Tell how plant and animal cells are similar.

?

Comparehow they are the same, how they

are alike.

Some birds have tiny particles of iron in parts of their bodies that are connected by nerves to their brains. What could be the

function of these particles?

?

Predictmake an educated guess, form a

hypothesis

Design an experiment to test if the color of an ice cube affects

how quickly it will melt.

?

Formulatecome up with a plan, develop, create

Provide evidence for the Theory of Continental Drift.

?

SupportGive examples, back it up, tell

reasons

Brian has blue eyes, but both of his biological parents have brown eyes. How is this

possible?

?

Explaintell how, tell what and why, teach

someone else

Give a brief description of how the elements are arranged on the

periodic table.

?

Summarizetell the main parts, bottom line, main

ideas

Pretend you are a drop of water. Discuss the changes you would undergo as you travel through each stage of the water cycle.

?

Tracefollow, track, outline, list in steps

Tell the differences between renewable and nonrenewable

resources.

?

Contrastlist differences, tell how they are

different

While wearing safety goggles and gloves, use your dissecting kit to dissect the frog at your

table.

?

Analyzethink through, break apart, break into

pieces

Discuss the pros and cons of using alternative sources of

energy including water, wind, and geothermal energy.

?

EvaluateJudge value of, tell about good and

bad

Look at the picture of the biome on pg. 788 of your textbook.

Tell what you see, including all of the abiotic and biotic factors.

?

Describetell about, list details

Read Aloud Activity

Student #1 Reads Paragraph. Student #2 Summarizes Paragraph. Student #3 Formulates a question about

the paragraph using one of the 12 Powerful Verbs.

Student #4 Answers the question.

12 Powerful Verbs that will lead to academic success!

TraceAnalyze

InferEvaluate

FormulateDescribeSupportExplain

SummarizeCompareContrastPredict