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?

?

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