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Larry Bell, author of "The 12 Powerful Words" and a nationally-recognized educational consultant, identified twelve words that are commonly used in standardized tests that cause students' difficulty when they encounter them.
 

Bell says that students should understand and know 12 powerful words.  These powerful words require higher order thinking skills. When students better understand what these questions means, they achieve better on tests thus lessening test anxiety.


trace
analyze
infer
evaluate
formulate
describe
support
explain
summarize
compare
contrast
predict

Links below lead you to powerpoints, songs, posters and quizlet cards to help learn what each of these tasks ask.

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http://www-cache.pbs.org/newshour/spc/thenews/foreducators/lessonplans/Larry%20Bell%27s%2012powerfulwords.pdf

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You Tube Song/Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMpq_Z4kT_k

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Kids' pictures

http://www.idiomsbykids.com

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9 Parts of Speech

 

 1.          Noun – names a person, place, thing, or idea (common/proper,  

 

             singular/plural, possessives, predicate nouns)

 

 2.         Pronoun – replaces the name of a person, place, thing, or idea in

 

             sentence (subject and object pronouns, pronoun antecedent

 

             agreement, possessive and reflexive pronouns)

 

3.          Verb – tells a noun’s action or state of being (action, linking, main,

 

             helping, irregular, tense – present, past, future).

 

4.          Adjective – describes (tells all about it) a noun or pronoun (size,

 

             shape, odor, taste, texture, appearance.

 

5.         Article – comes before a noun in a sentence and sometimes

 

            shows if the noun refers to a specific or general person, place, or        

 

            thing.

 

6.         Adverb – tells how, how often, when, or where; it can describe a             

 

            verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

 

7.         Preposition – shows the relationship (direction, time, or

 

            placement) between a noun or pronoun and another word in a  

 

            sentence

 

8.         Conjunction – joins two ideas or shows the relationship between

 

   two parts of a sentence

 

9.         Interjection – expresses strong emotion and is often followed by

 

            an exclamation point

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Reading Skills

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