How to Use Power Verbs
• Included are charts for 18 “power verbs.” You may want to select only those that are most appropriate to your grade level and content area.
• Each power verb has a simple definition, a visual cue, and at least one graphic organizer that would fit. Our at-risk populations need to have simplistic language that they can understand; otherwise, they may know the content but not understand what the question is asking.
• Recent brain research tells us that we learn by visual cues. As you introduce the power verb charts to the class, you may want to discuss the visual cue and how it relates to the verb.
• All of our students --- gifted as well as special needs --- need to be explicitly taught how to organize their thinking. They also need to understand that there is no “magic” way to organize their thinking for all types of questions. For instance, the popular three or four-column method works for some questions and for some students. Each power verb chart includes at least one graphic organizer, but students need to understand that there are others. The best district-wide method is ROAR. (Read the entire question. Organize your thinking. Answer the question. Review your answer.)
• You may want to introduce the power verbs just a few at a time or perhaps even one a week. Larry Bell, national consultant for at-risk kids, says that some schools have had great success by having a “power verb of the week.” The verb is mentioned in the morning announcements, teachers use the verb in class, and students may even be stopped in the hall or the cafeteria to define and give an example of the word of the week.
• Teachers and students need to be aware of the level of cognition (i.e., Bloom’s Taxonomy). The power verbs in this packet are listed in order, according to level. However, these levels are fluid rather than rigid. In other words, the same verb may be used on more than one level of thinking (e.g., compare, explain, infer). It just depends on the way the verb is used.
• As you post the verbs in your classroom, you may want to cluster the verbs around the most common level of thinking for that verb. (The levels and the verbs are presented in order in the packet.) If so, you may want to color-code the poster for each level to fit a traffic light. Recall would be on red paper; application would be on yellow paper; analysis would be on green paper; synthesis and evaluation would be on blue paper to indicate that “the sky is the limit!” Color-coding is just one other visual cue that may help some students, especially our at-risk populations.
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