The document provides 14 powerful words for an English assessment: infer, analyze, signify, trace, evaluate, formulate, summarize, explain, contrast, compare, predict, support, conclude, describe. It then provides examples of prompts using some of these words to analyze passages, explain concepts, evaluate situations, formulate plans, summarize paragraphs, contrast and compare items, predict outcomes, and argue for or against statements while supporting a position.

2. What can you infer about this man? Support your answer with evidence from the cartoon.

4. What is the most significant sentence in the following paragraphs? Explain your answer. Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met. Barak Obama Inaugural Speech 2009

5. Trace the events in a typical day at school for a middle school student.

6. Evaluate this person’s behavior, giving good reasons for your evaluation.

7. Formulate a plan to surprise your mom on her birthday!

9. Explain the water cycle to a younger student.

10. Contrast these two locations.

11. Compare these two vehicles.

12. Predict what will happen next. Give good reasons for your prediction.

13. NERMS students should be allowed to sit with their friends at lunch rather than with their assigned class. Argue for or against this statement giving at least three good supporting reasons for your point of view.

15. Describe this scene.