Eighth-Grade Whiz Kids at GMS North Are Second in the Nation—With a Shot at First

Whiz Kid(s): Eighth-grade WordMaster students

Whiz Kids School: Geneva Middle School North

Whiz Kids Accomplishment:  GMS North eighth-grade students have a chance to win first or second place in the nation in the final WordMaster challenge this spring after earning fourth place in the nation during the first two competitions. 

Whiz Kids Key to Awesomeness:  The WordMasters Challenge is a national language arts competition, which consists of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year: fall, winter, and spring. Each set includes 25 words, and each challenge uses the new words and also includes the old ones. WordMasters helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically.  It is an exercise in critical thinking that encourages students to become very familiar with a set of interesting new words which are considerably harder than grade level.

Knowing the definitions of the word is the first step. From there, students are challenged to use the words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships.

This year, 28, 390 eighth-graders across the nation are participating.

In the first competition held in December, Connor Weddle earned a perfect score 20/20. Only 37 eighth-graders in the nation did this. This is .0013 percent of students in the nation.

Gigi Hansen, Caroline Stukel, Jenna Soldati, Brenna Littleson, Allison Bryan, Morgan Tryon, Sean Johnston, Kyle Bertauz, Austin Chaon, Kayley Gerbec, Aaron Knol, Megan Newingham, Hailey Kissane, and Katherine Smith earned 19 or 18 along with only 284 students in the nation.  This is .010 percent of students in the nation.

In the second competition held in February, Connor Weddle, Nick Poretto, Laura Neswold, Alyana Meyers, Cassie Kuyawa, Andrew Krieger, Emma Hazel, Gigi Hansen, Madi Glover, Zach Gauntt, Maddie Petit, Robbie Machlet, Jacob Rieck, Nathan Krupa, Justin Poythress, Marshall Miller, Brenna Littleson, Michael Landi, Nathan Donati, Jacob Walker, and Robert Schroeder all earned 19’s or 18’s

“The words have lots of different definitions, and there are so many different variables,” explained Connor Weddle. “You just study as much as you can. Some of it is luck and some of it is whether you studied enough.”

GMS North eighth-grade Language Arts teacher Kate Ritter encourages her students to learn the definitions of the words with fun games, challenges and extra-credit offerings. 

“These kids are phenomenal,” Ritter said. “It’s such a higher level of thinking about the relationships between and among words. We have a really great chance of getting first or second in the nation accumulatively. Their perseverance and determination will prevail.”

While I visited the classroom the students played a game with flashcards trying to be the first at their table to remove the most cards when the correct definition was read.  The winner got to pick a piece of candy from Mrs. Ritter’s basket of goodies.

If students find the words they are studying in every day life while reading a book or online, they can bring the example to Mrs. Ritter and she offers extra credit.

Students in Mrs. Ritter’s class shared some of their study techniques with me:

• Sean Johnston covers up the definitions and looks at the words to recall the definition.
• Austin Chaon has his parents quiz him. He admits that his parents don’t know most of the words.
• Kayley Gerbec uses flash cards and looks over all the WordMaster worksheets.
• Allison Knop makes flash cards and studies them every night. Her mom says the definitions and Allison matches it to the words.

The third challenge will be held on April 21, and GMS North has the potential to take first or second place in the nation. Schools are trying to earn a 200/200 for all three Challenges for a total accumulative score of 600. Geneva North is in second place with a score of 378 and needs to beat Discovery School in Granger, IN, with 385. Carleton Washburne; Winnetka, IL, and Greta Ostrovsky; Wood-Ridge, NJ, are both in third place with 376.

Think you’re smarter than an eighth-grader? Try these sample WordMaster Challenges:

PERSON : IMMATURE :: BEHAVIOR : _______________

(a. puerile / b. inchoate / c. mawkish / d. amorphous / e. mercenary )

RUMOR : PERNICIOUS :: REMARK : _____________

(a. corrosive / b. portentous/ c. concordant / d. trenchant / e. pungent )

Special thanks to Kate Ritter, GMS North eighth-grade language arts teacher, for nominating these wonderful students and inviting me to her classroom to meet them.