Larry Bell's 12 Powerful Words

Holly M.
Larry Bell is a national speaker who talks to schools about closing the achievement gap. There are 12 Powerful Words he feels every student should know starting in kindergarten. These same words trip up students on standardized tests and are in most test questions on the FCAT Weeklys and/or FCAT practice materials.

Do students really know the meaning of these words? His suggestion is to teach these words to students until they can use the word correctly in a sentence. Another suggestion is to have students circle these words in questions and write the meaning of the word next to the circled word.
12 words 473 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. trace
    an indication that something has been present
  2. analyze
    break down into components or essential features
  3. infer
    conclude by reasoning
  4. evaluate
    estimate the nature, quality, ability or significance of
  5. formulate
    prepare according to instructions
  6. describe
    give a statement representing something
  7. support
    the act of bearing the weight of or strengthening
  8. explain
    make plain and comprehensible
  9. summarize
    briefly present the main points of something
  10. compare
    examine and note the similarities or differences of
  11. contrast
    the opposition or dissimilarity of things that are compared
  12. predict
    make a guess about what will happen in the future
Created on Fri Feb 11 08:33:44 EST 2011 (updated Fri Feb 11 09:40:05 EST 2011)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.