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.

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

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.

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? ?

Infer figure out, read between the lines

Tell how plant and animal cells are similar. ?

Compare how 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? ?

Predict make an educated guess, form a hypothesis

Design an experiment to test if the color of an ice cube affects how quickly it will melt. ?

Formulate come up with a plan, develop, create

Provide evidence for the Theory of Continental Drift. ?

Support Give examples, back it up, tell reasons

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

Explain tell how, tell what and why, teach someone else

Give a brief description of how the elements are arranged on the periodic table. ?

Summarize tell 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. ?

Trace follow, track, outline, list in steps

Tell the differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources. ?

Contrast list differences, tell how they are different

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

Analyze think through, break apart, break into pieces

Discuss the pros and cons of using alternative sources of energy including water, wind, and geothermal energy. ?

Evaluate Judge 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. ?

Describe tell 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! Trace Analyze Infer Evaluate Formulate Describe Support Explain Summarize Compare Contrast Predict