Highland Middle School Students Earn Perfect Scores in National WordMasters Challenge

eighth-grader Brian Vickers, along with sixth-graders Edward Moy, Franklin Borre, Jared Hedlund and Margaret Shutts were awarded the highest honors recently in a national language arts competition called WordMasters Challenge.

Two of the students –Brian and Edward- competed in the very difficult Gold Division of the Challenge and earned perfect scores, said teacher Kerstin Cholewin, who coached along with fellow teacher Kristen Kubala. Nationally, there were only 62 eighth-graders and 26 sixth-graders earning perfect scores last December.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the challenge and earning perfect scores were Franklin, Jared and Margaret. In the entire country, only 120 sixth-graders earned a perfect score in the division.    

As a team, the Highland sixth-graders tied for sixth place in the nation in the difficult Blue Division of the Challenge where 403 school teams competed against one another.        

More than 220,000 students compete each year in three separate meets. The December meet is the first competition of the year.

WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking. Students become familiar with a set of new words above their grade level and then use the words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships. Highland students will participate in two more meets this school year.

Other Highland students receiving outstanding results in the meeting included eighth-graders Katherine Liu, Will Maes, Hannah Manetsch, Sam Scheck, Elliot Stahnke, Julia Thurau, Alexander von Ruden, Serena Amdur, Hannah Bouford, Eric Metzger, Luke Miller, Jillian Ruff, Jacqui Widmark, Hannah Loizzo and Nick Silivis. Seventh-graders doing well included Amanda Fan, Jack Sanders, Alex Duffy, Olivia Fordham, Max Lund, Daniel Samelson and Patrick Vickers. Sixth-graders earning outstanding results included Mary Cate Buchert, Alexander Dzierozynski, Leah Hartung, Veronica Houle, Michelle Katta, Mary Lothspeich, Ainslie Lounsbury, Jonas Maes, Jack Miller, Pater Wacnik, Katie Stahnke, Katie Lund, Colin Miller, Kate Roleck, Benjamin Sutter and John Zhou.

Working to solve the Challenge analogies helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. The challenge appeals to students who enjoy the challenge of learning new words and logical puzzles posed by analogies.

Information provided by Libertyville Elementary School District 70.