Geneva Middle School 'Wordmasters' Place 4th in Nation

A team representing the eighth grade at Geneva Middle School North earned Highest Honors in the 2012-13 WordMasters Challenge™ — a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 150,000 students annually.

The students placed fourth in the nation with an impressive 194 points out of a possible 200 in the last of three meets this year, and completed the season in second place with a cumulative total of 570 points. Eighth grader Joseph Traudt also achieved individual Highest Honors with a cumulative score of 59 points, which placed him in the top 10-15 students in his division nationwide.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge™, eighth graders Anna Gain, Alison Kummerer, Joseph Traudt and Bryce Nelson each earned a perfect score of 20 in the third and final meet.

Nationally, only 57 eighth graders achieved a perfect score. Other students at Geneva Middle School North who achieved outstanding results on the final meet include eighth graders Joseph Silvestri, Charlie Paul, Grayson Lee, Ally Barrett, Shane Allcroft, Elsbeth Pearce, Katia Savoni, Michael Fuller, Ryan Berg, Chase Malinowski, Carissa Dressel and Jack Billek.  The students were coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge™ by Kathleen Ritter.

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 Indianapolis, Indiana, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools.  Further information is available at the company’s website:  http://www.wordmasterschallenge.com.

SOURCE: School District 304 press release