Vocabulary Collectors

1. E.G.O.T. Welcome!This slide presentation will teach you how to create a successful E.G.O.T. sentencethat uses one of the vocabulary words you have collected for the week. It will also provide the criteria for you to be able to receive full credit for your E.G.O.T. sentences. Vocabulary Collectors The Acropolis of All Acronyms is a writer’s notebook prompt I feature at my website. It has students create and reinvent acronyms. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences Re-inventing acronyms is a fun activity. You take an initialized word (like CIA) and reinvent its definition. Could C.I.A. stand for Can investigate anyone? This idea could inspire something fun to write about. Click here for access to that lesson.

2. acronym(noun) — a word formed from the initial letters of other words, like scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) Acronyms are a commonly used modern technique for inventing new words. To be a true acronym, the topmost letters—when put together—must create a pronounceable word, like scuba, like NASA, or like radar. Vocabulary Collectors root analysis: acro(Greek root, meaning ‘high’ or ‘topmost’)+ onym(Greek root, meaning ‘name’) Related Words:acrophobia – a fear of high placesacrobat—one who performs in high placesacrophyte—a plant that grows high places acrostic—a poem inspired by the initial (or topmost)letters of a word or phrase Don’t confuse acronyms with initialisms, which undergo a similar process to create a new word. The difference is that– instead of creating a word that can be pronounced—with an initialism, you simply say the names of the letters, like C.I.A., like a.m. and p.m., or like M.V.P. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

3. An E.G.O.T. is a modern day acronym. It was created by the people in showbiz. It’s a special recognition given to people involved in show-business who earn the four biggest awards in entertainment. acronym(noun) — a word formed from the initial letters of other words, like scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) Vocabulary Collectors root analysis: acro(Greek root, meaning ‘high’ or ‘topmost’)+ onym(Greek root, meaning ‘name’) Related Words:acrophobia – a fear of high placesacrobat—one who performs in high placesacrophyte—a plant that grows high places acrostic—a poem inspired by the initial (or topmost)letters of a word or phrase Can you name those four awards based on the name of the honor: E.G.O.T.? Click for a hint. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

4. E.G.O.T.(noun) — an honor bestowed on only 11 entertainers in history who have won all four major entertainment awards: an Emmy (for television), a Grammy (for music and recordings), an Oscar (for films), and Tony (for live stage). Showing sentence: Since a producer (like Scott Rudin) really just writes a check to pay for a production or an album, do we consider his E.G.O.T. more or less worthy than someone who earned theirs through artistry? Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

5. My students and I so enjoyed our debate on whether a producer should be able to earn an E.G.O.T. (with his checkbook) that the acronym kept popping up in class. Vocabulary Collectors Anytime we looked at a group of four things lumped together, someone shouted out “E.G.O.T.” and we all laughed. I decided to make it an official grammar and vocabulary game. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

6. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors Not every word out there—just like not every performer—can earn an E.G.O.T., but happily there are a lot more vocabulary E.G.O.T.s out there than there are artistic E.G.O.T.s. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences To be a vocabulary E.G.O.T., the same word has to come in all four major forms/parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, adverb. If it has all four forms, it has earned the title of “Vocabulary E.G.O.T.” Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

7. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors Let’s look at some words that are true E.G.O.T.s: If I give you one form, can you come up with the other three? Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences (to) create beauty creative (to) beautify beautiful creatively creation beautifully purity (or pureness) purify purely pure Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

8. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors What we discovered is there are a lot of good vocabulary words out there that have three of the forms but not the fourth. More often than not, it was the verb that was missing. We jokingly called these attempts Tri (try)-G.O.T.s. Here are some examples: Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

9. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors We had to establish a few rules for finding official E.G.O.T.s: 1. There had to be four different forms of the word to be a true E.G.O.T. If the noun and verb were the same form, for example, it wasn’ta true E.G.O.T. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences 2. The adjective form couldn’tsimply be the –ing or –edform of the verb form; if it was, we called that a “cheap E.G.O.T.” Pleasurable would have been the better choice. goof pleasure (to) goof (to) please goofy pleasing goofily pleasingly Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

10. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors As we tried to make E.G.O.T.s without consulting the dictionary, we surprised ourselves with our knowledge of parts-of-speech suffixes : Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences -tion-ity-ness-er-dom -ship-age-ism-age-ment -ify-ize-ate-en-ate -ous-al-y-ive-able -ible-ful-less-ish-ic -ly-ily Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

11. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors One of your choices for a meaningful writing activity with your vocabulary collections is to challenge yourself to find words that can be E.G.O.T.-ted. No Tri-G.O.T.s! Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences This will help you learn the parts-of-speech suffixes. This will help you discover different forms of your vocabulary words. This will help you learn to accurately make use the following academic vocabulary when we talk: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, suffix, prefix. Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

12. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors One final requirement…and, of course, it involves writing something! Once you have discovered a true E.G.O.T…like… Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences …you need to put all four forms of the word into one repetitive and redundant-sounding sentence: Lame sentence: His divergent divergence helped him divergently diverge. Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

13. MakingVocabularyE.G.O.T.s Vocabulary Collectors One final requirement…and, of course, it involves writing something! Once you have discovered a true E.G.O.T…like… Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences …you need to put all four forms of the word into one repetitive and redundant-sounding sentence: Good sentence: His divergent interpretations of the poem diverged from mine, and the teacher divergently appreciated his divergence. Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

14. excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyerby Mark Twain   The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out with derision. Tom struck them to the ground. In an instant both boys were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats; and for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each other's hair and clothes, punched and scratched each other's nose, and covered themselves with dust and glory. Presently the confusion took form, and through the fog of battle Tom appeared, seated astride the new boy, and pounding him with his fists. "Holler 'nuff!" said he.     The boy only struggled to free himself. He was crying -- mainly from rage.     "Holler 'nuff!" -- and the pounding went on.     At last the stranger got out a smothered "'Nuff!" and Tom let him up and said:     "Now that'll learn you. Better look out who you're fooling with next time." Let’s Practice… Read this short passage from Mark Twain about Tom Sawyer tormenting a new kid. Tom is kind of a bully in that book. Which—if any—of the underlined words can be represented as an E.G.O.T.? Use your brains and your dictionaries to check your work before giving an answer. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences Click herefor a printed and longer version of this passage.

15. TrueE.G.O.T.sfrom Tom Sawyer Vocabulary Collectors Four different forms of the same word…and avoid -ing and -ed adjectives. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences There will always be “Try-gots.” Find true E.G.O.T.s and celebrate them in your vocab work! Emmy Grammy Oscar Tony

16. Vocabulary Collectors Click hereto open a printable version of this rubric for your students. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

17. Vocabulary Collectors Can you make a silly sentence worthy of earning a point with one of these E.G.O.T.s? derision, deride, derisive, derisively resolution, resolve, resolute, resolutely Captivity, captivate, captive, captively Lame sentence: His divergent divergence helped him divergently diverge. Good sentence: His divergent interpretations of the poem diverged from mine, and the teacher divergently appreciated his divergence. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

18. Vocabulary Collectors Consult your rubric several times before working on your words. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences

19. E.G.O.T. And don’t forget there’s a fun lesson online that has students continueexploring acronyms for their writer’s notebooks. Thanks for watching. Collect vocabulary to better your future. People will like you if you have a good vocabulary. Vocabulary Collectors The Acropolis of All Acronyms is a writer’s notebook prompt I feature at my website. It has students create and reinvent acronyms. Meaningful writing activity = E.G.O.T. sentences Re-inventing acronyms is a fun activity. You take an initialized word (like CIA) and reinvent its definition. Could C.I.A. stand for Can investigate anyone? This idea could inspire something fun to write about. Click here for access to that lesson.