• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (High-utility SAT words (set A): corroborate, mitigate, pragmatic…). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which word matches this description? having mixed or contradictory feelings about something (alleviate / disparate / ambivalent / pragmatic) → ambivalentPrompt: Do you know a related word or root? (corroborate ~ robust; mitigate ~ make milder)
2. Type the word (in English) that matches this description. powerfully convincing or attention-grabbing → compellingPrompt: Do you know a related word or root? (corroborate ~ robust; mitigate ~ make milder)
3. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? The author is ___ about city life, praising its energy while lamenting its noise. (ubiquitous / viable / candid / ambivalent) → ambivalentPrompt: Find the clue in the sentence: a colon, a contrast word (although, while), or a cause.

• Show an interesting word in a sentence and ask what it might mean from the clues around it.
• Share the objective: High-utility SAT words (set B): anomaly, empirical, salient…. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which word matches this description? open to more than one interpretation; unclear
• Step 1: These words frequently describe research, argument and change in SAT passages.
• Step 2: equivocal: open to more than one interpretation; unclear
• Step 3: So the answer is: equivocal
• Answer: equivocal
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which word matches this description? something that differs from what is normal or expected (anomaly / conjecture / lucrative / impartial) → anomalyPrompt: Use roots: em-pirical (experience), pro-liferate (multiply), im-partial (not taking part).
2. Type the word (in English) that matches this description. not favouring one side → impartialPrompt: Use roots: em-pirical (experience), pro-liferate (multiply), im-partial (not taking part).

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word? Out of ___ to the elderly author, the interviewer let her finish every story without interruption. (deference / precedent / anomaly / conjecture) → deferencePrompt: Underline the words that explain or contrast with the gap.
2. Which word matches this description? liable to change rapidly and unpredictably (empirical / deference / conjecture / volatile) → volatilePrompt: Use roots: em-pirical (experience), pro-liferate (multiply), im-partial (not taking part).

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-11.