Vocabulary Collectors

Welcome! This slide presentation will teach you how to successfully create a showing sentence that uses one of the vocabulary words you have collected for the week. It will also provide the criteria for you to receive full credit for your showing sentence. Author Josephine Nobisso wrote a picture book called Show; Don’t Tell! Secrets of Writing. It teaches students how to show ideas by making their readers infer more, which is what real writers do! Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences There is a free-to-access online notebook lesson called Showing Riddles based on this book. Click here to see that lesson.

To understand how to make a showing sentence, you must first understand that there are different types of verbs in our language. Transitive and intransitive verbs: these two types of verbs are also called action verbs because they show the sentence’s subject doing something. Linking verbs: this small group of verbs are not action verbs; instead, they link the subject to a descriptive word (like an adjective) or to a label. When writing showing sentences, it is required that you use action verbs, not a linking verbs. Understand? If not, let’s look a little deeper at the differences between the three verb types. And let’s play a few games with words while we’re at it! Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

Let’s start with the LINKING VERBS since there are not very many of them. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences These are pretty much ALWAYS linking verbs. These can be used as action verbs OR as linking verbs.

Let’s start with the LINKING VERBS since there are not very many of them. Memorize the first five linking verbs! LINKING VERB SENTENCES: The man was exhausted.The student wasbeing silly.He became bitter after the test.I have been thorough today. You will become happier at noon. She seemed irritated with me. We are so thrilled to see you. They had been secretive about it. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences Although these eight sentence examples might imply action, the subjects of the sentences are really not doing anything; the subjects are existing in a state of being linked to a descriptive word. How could you change the emboldened verb and make any sentence above have an action verb?

Compare these sentences: ACTION VERB SENTENCES: The man yawned uncontrollably.The student danced on the desktop.He glared when he saw his grade.I completed my work meticulously. At lunch, you will finally smile. She spoke to me with harsh tones. We cheered at your arrival. They hid the truth for years and years. LINKING VERB SENTENCES: The man wasexhausted.The student wasbeingsilly.He becamebitter after the test.I have beenthoroughtoday. You will becomehappier at noon. She seemedirritated with me. We are so thrilled to see you. They had been secretiveabout it. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences The sentences on the right (the linking ones) don’t show any direct action; they link the subject to the descriptive word now shown in red. The sentences on the left show or imply the word that is in red; that is why they are called showing sentences. They show; they don’t simply tell.

Let’s start with the LINKING VERBS since there are not very many of them. ACTION SENTENCES THAT REALLY SHOW WITH EXTRA DETAILS: Exhaustedand sleep-deprived, the man yawned uncontrollably.The sillystudent danced on his desktop, waving his arms wildly.He glaredbitterlyat the teacher when he saw his grade.I completed my work meticulously and thoroughly. At lunch, you will finally smilebecause you will have completed the difficult task. Showing irritation, she spoke to me with harsh tones. We cheered at your arrival, thrilled that you had come home for the summer. They hid the truth and their secretsfrom usfor years and years. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences When writing a showing sentence with EXTRA details, you’ll learn you can include forms of those descriptive words (originally in red in those eight telling sentences) to add as much information to the showing sentence as possible. The purpose of a showing sentence is to use good action verbs as well as good vocabulary descriptors, and descriptors don’t have to be just adjectives.

Review: What are linking verbs again? Tell your partner three facts. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences These are pretty much ALWAYS linking verbs. These can be used as action verbs OR as linking verbs.

Let’s talk about verbs that can be linking verbs or action verbs. Surprise quiz contestants ready? Question 1:Which sentence has an action verb and which sentence has a linking verb? Vocabulary Collectors Linking verb! Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences These can be used as action verbs OR as linking verbs. Action verb!

Let’s talk about verbs that can be linking verbs or action verbs. Surprise quiz contestants ready? Question 5:Work with a partner to create two different sentences: Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences These can be used as action verbs OR as linking verbs.

Let’s review linking verbs once more before we discuss action verbs. Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences Quick review: A showing sentencewith a vocabulary word in it must use an action verb, not a linking verb. Do you have a slightly better understanding of what verbs you can’t use? Are you ready to understand action verbs a bit deeper?

Time for a little action…action verb, that is. Vocabulary Collectors There are two types of action verbs. When you look up a word in the dictionary, the part of speech is immediately identified after the word, usually in parentheses in most dictionaries. If the word is an adjective, you will see an (adj.) between the word and its definition. When you look up a verb in the dictionary, in parentheses you might see either (v.t.) or (v.i.). Who can make an intelligent guess as to what those two abbreviations might stand for? Your job now is to learn the difference between a v.t. and a v.i. Understand? Good. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

Time for a little action…action verb, that is Let’s start with transitive action verbs! Vocabulary Collectors Some action verbs in our language have to be done (by the subject of the sentence) directly to another noun (which is called the direct object). For example… The subject of a sentence can’t simply devour. A subject has to devour something. Something = direct object What are five different direct objects that a subject might devour? Be interesting… Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

Time for a little action…action verb, that is. Let’s make a transitive sentence! Vocabulary Collectors Because a sentence’s subject has to devour something, the verb is transitive, and the transitive sentence pattern always looks like this: Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences transitive verb direct object subject devoured dinner Steven the delicious

Time for a little action…action verb, that is. Let’s make another transitive sentence! Vocabulary Collectors Because a sentence’s subject has to devour something, the verb is transitive, and the transitive pattern always looks like this: Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences transitive verb direct object subject will devour bread vegetarian that my zucchini aggressive

Time for a little action…action verb, that is. Let’s make another transitive sentence! Vocabulary Collectors Because a sentence’s subject has to devour something, the verb is transitive, and the transitive pattern always looks like this: Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences transitive verb direct object subject devours Hamlet scholar Shakespeare eventually every learned by

Time for a little action…action verb, that is Not too hard yet, right? So…let’s make an intransitivesentence! Vocabulary Collectors Some action verbs in our language are done by the subject of the sentence, and no other noun is essential to convey the sentence’s meaning. At the very least, a complete sentence needs two words: one for the subject, the other for the predicate (which always begins with a verb). Here are some two-word sentences: John slept. I wept. We attended. It ended. How many two-word sentences can you think of? Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences Intransitive verbs make two-word sentences possible.Transitive verb need a three word minimum: Tim found evidence. They bought sneakers. You made toast!

Time for a little action…action verb, that is Let’s explore what’s going on in an intransitive verb sentence! Vocabulary Collectors John is not sleeping something. He is simply sleeping. Intransitive!I am not weeping something. I am just weeping. Intransitive!We’re choosing not to say what we attended, and it still makes sense. Intransitive!It simply ended; nothing else needed to be said. Intransitive! John slept. I wept. We attended. It ended. When it makes complete sense without a noun right after your verb, it’s intransitive. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences If you take the nouns that are after the verb away, sometimes the sentence doesn’t make sense without them, so they’re probably transitive. Tim found. They bought. You made!

Time for a little action…action verb, that is. Vocabulary Collectors Action verbs either require a noun after them (transitive) or they don’t (intransitive). When you’re learning a new verb, it’s important to know if it always needs a direct object or not. It’s easy to misuse a verb if you don’t understand the difference between verbs. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences transitive verb intransitive verb direct object subject subject

Let’s practice with a vocabulary word! Because capitulate is intransitive, it should not have a noun immediately following it! capitulate(verb, intr.) — to surrender; to give up all resistance. Vocabulary Collectors Which of the following showing sentences is grammatically incorrect? noun form: capitulatoradjective form: capitulatory Root analysis: from Latin caput (meaning “head”)…as in “put all heads in and agree upon terms of surrender. Showing sentence: After holding up all night in the cave, the bandits capitulated at dawn to the police, and they did not resist arrest. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences Showing sentence: The air strikes proved to be too much for the mayor, and he capitulated his city to the enemy so the needless destruction would cease. • Related words: • decapitate: to cut off the head • capitol: the headgovernment building • capital: describing letters at the headsof their sentences The second sentence is wrong; it gives a direct object to a verb that needs none.

Let’s practice with a vocabulary word! capitulate(verb, intr.) — to surrender; to give up all resistance. After holding up all night in the cave, the bandits capitulatedat dawn to the police, and they did not resist arrest. After holding up all night in the cave, the bandits capitulatedat dawnto the police, and they did not resist arrest. Vocabulary Collectors noun form: capitulatoradjective form: capitulatory Root analysis: from Latin caput (meaning “head”)…as in “put all heads in and agree upon terms of surrender. Why is this intransitive? Couldn’t dawn or police be the direct object? They’re nouns that follow the verb… bandits capitulated Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences dawn police the at to • Related words: • decapitate: to cut off the head • capitol: the headgovernment building • capital: describing letters at the headsof their sentences Because there is a preposition (at and to) between those two nouns and the verb, those nouns become property of the prepositions! They’re not direct objects! the

Let’s try a transitive example! Because scrutinize is transitive, it must have a noun following it! scrutinize(verb, tr.) — to examine or observe something with great care. Which of the following showing sentences is grammatically incorrect? Vocabulary Collectors noun form: scrutiny or scrutinizer Showing sentence: We left the police detective alone with the murder weapon so that he could scrutinize it for any evidence we might have missed. My vocabulary haiku: Innate scrutinyHas her sniffing the meadow airFor predators’ stench. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences Showing sentence: When my teacher has a sub, I know she writes my name on her “bad kid warning list” because all I see is the substitute do is stare and scrutinize. The haiku is about nature, but are two things being juxtaposed? The second sentence is wrong; it provides no direct object when one is needed.

Let’s try a transitive example! Vocabulary Collectors • Showing sentences must feature the vocabulary word (or a form of it), and they may only use action verbs throughout the sentence; no linking verbs at all! Can you find any linking verbs in either sentence above? • Showing sentences purposelyleave context clues; if a reader doesn’t recognize a word, there should be enough hints made by the other words to intelligently guess what the vocabulary word might mean without needing the dictionary. Good authors leave hints. What are the best hints I left in the two showing sentences above? • Showing sentences, in the interest of being descriptive and detail-filled, should make use of more than one action verb. You will underline and properly identify (as transitive or intransitive) two action verbs in your showing sentence. Prove you know the difference! Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

Vocabulary Collectors Click here for a printable version of this rubric for your students. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

impromptu(adj.) — done without being planned or rehearsed. noun form: impromptu too! Vocabulary Collectors Showing sentence: The dark, relaxed theater resounded with applause after the actor put onan impromptuactfor us. (resounded = intransitive; put on = transitive) Jared may have only earned a three with this entry. How come? Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

tumult(noun) — a loud, confused noise, especially coming from a mass of people. adjective form: tumultuous adverb form: tumultuously Vocabulary Collectors Showing sentence: The tumult began with that single grape that soared through the air and plunked in my enemy’s soup. (soared= intransitive; plunked = intransitive) Did Mackenzie use enough context clues to make it to a four on the rubric? Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

introspective(adjective) — describing someone who examines their own feelings and experiences for meaning. Introspective Reflection I would live all my life in nonchalanceandinsouciance,Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance. --Ogden Nash noun form: introspection adverb form: introspectively Vocabulary Collectors Showing sentence: After witnessing the fight between the girls, John needed to sit alone and introspectively decide if he had caused the ruckus with his comment. (decide= intransitive; caused= transitive) Since nouciance is a nonsense word, choose one of the other two underlined vocabulary words and look it up. Working with a partner, create a showing sentence that uses only action verbs and gives the reader two context clues about your vocabulary word’s meaning. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

Vocabulary Collectors Try and score a four on this rubric with your sample showing sentence. Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences

And don’t forget there’s a fun lesson online that has students explore “showing writing” in a slightly different way, but in a way that supports the learning about verbs with this lesson. Thanks for watching. Collect vocabulary to better your future. People like you if you have a good vocabulary. Author Josephine Nobisso wrote a picture book called Show; Don’t Tell! Secrets of Writing. It teaches students how to show ideas by making their readers infer more, which is what real writers do! Vocabulary Collectors Meaningful writing activity = showing sentences There is a free-to-access online notebook lesson called Showing Riddles based on this book. Click here to see that lesson.

Vocabulary Collectors