1. What do I mean when I use these words?
12 Powerful Words
What do I mean when I use these words?

2. What do I mean by powerful words?
These are the words that stump students when they answer questions and especially when they take tests.
Students may feel intimidated or confused by these words causing them to answer a question incorrectly when they KNOW the answer.

3. 12 Powerful Words Help all students:
To better understand what each question means
To become familiar with words that require higher order thinking skills
To relieve test anxiety
To achieve better work and assessments

4. Trace
Question Example: Using the paragraph, trace the steps of Alexander the Great.
List in 1, 2, 3 order
List in steps
Sequence the events

5. Analyze
Question Example: How did the following reforms help solve economic problems in Rome?
Break apart
Consider
Examine/Think through
Break into pieces

6. Infer
Question Example: Why do you think Nero blamed Christians for the fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 C.E.?
Read between the lines
Assume
What do you think?

7. Evaluate
Question Example: What impact did the Protestant Reformation have on women?
Judge its worth
What’s the value?

8. Formulate
Question Example: Formulate an opinion about Indian Widows and express it in a short paragraph.
Come up with
Plan
Convey

9. Describe
Question Example: What was the relationship between Jesuits and the Pope?
Tell in your own words
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
Define

10. Support
Question Example: Which of the following sentences best supports the main idea.
Back up with details
Tell why
How do you know?

11. Explain
Question Example: Why and how did the Christian church become more organized in the second and third centuries?
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
Tell how
Clarify

12. Summarize
Question Example: Using this reading, Summarize the events leading up to the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 C.E.
Give me the short version
Recap
Condense

13. Compare
Example: Compare the government of Great Britain to the governments of the United States.
How are they the same
Alike

14. Contrast
Example: Contrast the government of the United States and Cuba.
How are they different?

15. Predict Example: In a short paragraph, predict how the story will end.
What will happen next
What will happen in the future?
Forcast