THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100348
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Basketball is to Final Four as Vocabulary is to WordMasters Challenge.
And in a competition where strong analytical skills are worth more than a superior cross-over dribble, a bunch of fifth-graders at Old Donation Center have won one of the three rounds of the national championship.
Students around the country compete in WordMasters, a written examination that requires them to take challenging vocabulary words and apply them to the type of analogies that haunt the nightmares of anyone who's ever taken the Scholastic Assessment Test.
Try ``full is to glutted as leisurely is to . . .'' From brusque, meandering, sluggish, brisk and overt, the correct answer is sluggish.
``Most of them are pretty odd words,'' said 9-year-old Andrew Rudiger.
More than 175,000 students compete in three meets during each academic year. The top 10 scores per school count toward each round's winner. For this year's second competition, the Old Donation fifth-graders came in first in the nation. Of the 31 students nationwide to earn perfect scores on the 20-question test, five attend ODC.
``The Old Donation Center did terrifically well,'' said Nancy R. McGrath of the New Jersey-based WordMasters.
Terri Dannemann, one of the four teachers who coach the ODC students, said the time spent training for the tests fits in with what the center tries to accomplish with its students.
``It enhances vocabulary, critical thinking, logical thinking,'' she said. ``It helps them see relationships between words and ideas, and it helps them build confidence.
``What they come away with is a better understanding of the English language and problem-solving skills.''
The center serves 1,900 of the city's gifted and talented students in second through eighth grades. They attend classes at their home schools four days each week and at ODC one day.
To prepare for the tests, students play vocabulary games based on Bingo and the television show ``Jeopardy!'' They draw word maps - complicated, spider-like diagrams - that analyze different forms of the words, their origins, definitions and the like. And they spend time drilling at school and at home.
Allison Murphy, 11, said she studies with her father, testing words against their definitions. Then she tries them on her unsuspecting siblings.
``I like to stump my brothers and sisters,'' she said.
Justin Smith, also 11, said he uses a program on his computer to study.
``It basically drills me on the words,'' he said. ``It gives me the definition.''
Last year, the ODC team won the overall national championship, but they aren't likely to repeat this year, said Dannemann. They finished a strong seventh in the first round, but that makes it numerically impossible for the reigning national champions to place above second or third even if they win the next round.
And in case you worry that this new vocabulary is so much empty knowledge, the students say they make a point of using the words as they learn them.
``Once you get used to them, you really start to use them,'' said Celia Taylor, 10. ``When Allison's mad, she'll say she's going to shun me.'' MEMO: Answers to analogies on B1: 1. propeller hat, 2. pelt, 3. tear ILLUSTRATION: Color drawings by Janet Shaughnessy, The Virginian-Pilot
Analogies - see microfilm
Photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOT, The Virginian-Pilot
Students in Terri Dannemann's fifth-grade class practice for the
WordMasters Challenge. Celia Taylor, right, calls out words as team
members race to give the definitions. The Old Donation Center
students are the defending champions in the national vocabulary
competition.
by CNB