Word Masters 17-18
Oak View, Weaver Lake and Zanewood Elementary Schools
What is the WordMasters Challenge?
The WordMasters Challenge is a national competition for students in grades 3-8 that encourages growth in vocabulary and verbal reasoning. Each year, over 125,000 students from some of the best public and private schools throughout the United States participate in the WordMasters Challenge.
Unlike other language arts competitions for this age group - which focus on grammar, punctuation, spelling and other language mechanics - the WordMasters Challenge helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically.
The contest addresses higher-level word comprehension and verbal reasoning in two ways:
- It challenges students to complete analogies based on relationships among words they have learned.
- It bases the analogies on special vocabulary lists, developed for each grade and difficulty level by experienced teachers, which participants are encouraged to study before each meet.
Excellence in the competition will require both a mastery of the meanings of the vocabulary words (of a difficulty appropriate to each grade level) and thoughtful reasoning about the relationships between these words and more familiar language used in the competition's analogies.
How Does WordMasters Work at My School?
Teachers Actions:
- Tell Kris Happe that you will be participating in WordMasters.
- Place dates in your calendars.
- Download the appropriate grade level word list from below.
- Share with kids. (especially that they do not have to be great readers to do well at this activity...! this is about the RELATIONSHIPS between the words and ideas....)
- Share with kids that the competitions - meets--tests-- are CUMULATIVE. They need to study all the words all the way up until the last competition.
- Integrate WordMasters into your word study section of your 90-minute literacy block.
- Check out the Schoology folder- with a dedicated folder for WordMasters resources & support. You are a member of already--- TAG Oakview, Weaver Lake and Zanewood(5th) Teachers (Access Code: GZZ4V-2FRB6)
- Contact Happe if you have questions. I don't need to introduce to your class-- it's pretty simple. You are a rockstar!
Students receive the first WordMasters list of 25 vocabulary words in the beginning of October. They will work on learning the multiple meanings of these words in their language arts class. They should also study at home.
The first challenge meet will be given the first week of December. The challenge meet consists of a 20 question multiple choice analogy test. The students have 20 minutes to complete the test.
The second list of 25 words will be available in December. Challenge meet 2 will consist of using the new words as well as the first list words. The third and final list will be available in February and the third challenge meet will include analogies using words from all three lists.
2017-2018 Schedule
Challenge Meet #1 Word Lists Available Online10/1/17
Challenge Meet #1 Tests Available Online11/10/17
Challenge Meet #1 Tests Administered 11/13/17 - 12/1/17
Challenge Meet #1 Score Reporting Deadline12/08/17
Challenge Meet #1 Results Available 12/22/17
Challenge Meet #2 Word Lists Available Online 12/4/17
Challenge Meet #2 Tests Available Online2/2/18
Challenge Meet #2 Tests Administered 2/5/18 - 2/23/18
Challenge Meet #2 Score Reporting Deadline 3/2/18
Challenge Meet #2 Results Available 3/16/18
Challenge Meet #3 Word Lists Available Online 2/26/18
Challenge Meet #3 Tests Available Online4/6/18
Challenge Meet #3 Tests Administered 4/9/18 - 4/27/18
Challenge Meet #3 Score Reporting Deadline5/4/18
Challenge Meet #3 Results Available 5/11/18
Cumulative Champions Announced 5/11/18
THE FIRST WORD LISTS ARE RIGHT HERE!
General Analogy Practice:
Analogy Jeopardy: http://www.quia.com/cb/148767.html
Choices: http://www.quia.com/pop/14975.html
Hangman: http://www.quia.com/hm/242970.html
Speedy: http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/analogies/analogiesx.htm
Word Relationships: http://www.quia.com/quiz/748000.html?AP_rand=1225189222
Kris Happe, TAG Specialist, Osseo Area Schools
Email: happek@district279.org
Phone: 612-598-8571