Several teams representing Louise Archer Elementary achieved Highest Honors in the recent WordMasters Challenge™ — a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 125,000 students annually. The fifth grade team scored an impressive 190 points out of a possible 200 in the first of three meets this year, placing first in the nation. In addition, the third grade team scored 179 points to finish fifth nationwide, and the fourth grade team captured tenth place with 158 points.
Competing in the very difficult Gold Division of the WordMasters Challenge™, fifth graders Ayaann Ghala, Luke Janda and Benjamin Plowgian each earned a perfect score of 20 on the challenge. Nationally, only 9 fifth graders achieved this result. Other students from Louise Archer Elementary who achieved outstanding results in the meet include third graders Teddy Major, Caroline Nagelin and Linda Wang, and fifth graders Ela Altug, Nylah Nasim, Sabrina Remy and Zyla Smith. The students were coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge™ by third grade teachers Meghan McGrath and Rebekah Skousen, fourth grade teachers Anne Marie Harris and Christine Fish, and fifth grade teachers Tracy Resnick and Kristen Toth.
The WordMasters Challenge™ is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships. Working to solve the analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. Although most vocabulary enrichment and analogy-solving programs are designed for use by high school students, WordMasters Challenge™ materials have been specifically created for younger students in grades three through eight. They are particularly well suited for children who are motivated by the challenge of learning new words and enjoy the logical puzzles posed by analogies.
The WordMasters Challenge™ program is administered by a company based in New Jersey which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools. Further information is available at the company’s website: http://www.wordmasterschallenge.com.
