Oregon Schools students excel in national vocabulary challenge

        A team representing Oregon City Schools achieved highest honors in the 38th annual WordMasters Challenge —a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 125,000 students annually.
        The third-grade team from Jerusalem Elementary School scored 167 points out of a possible 200 in the first of three meets this year, placing sixth in the nation.
        Competing in the Gold Division of the WordMasters Challenge, students from Oregon City Schools who achieved outstanding results in the fall meet include Jerusalem Elementary third-grader Addison Allen and Eisenhower Intermediate School fifth-grader Grace Bickford. The students were coached in preparation for the challenge by instructors Susan Linville and Robin Sneed, and Amy Bittel, respectively.
        The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking that encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words which are 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 New Jersey-based company dedicated to inspiring high achievement in American schools. Learn more about the challenge at wordmasterschallenge.com.