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McDonogh fifth graders did it again! Our team of students, coached by middle school English teacher Nancy McFadden, placed sixth out of 705 teams in the nation in the final WordMasters Challenge of the year. The group also placed sixth last winter.

WordMaster’s is a national language arts competition that occurs three times a year and is entered by approximately 260,000 students. The contest encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies. The Challenge has been administered for the past 24 years.

During the most recent meet, McDonogh’s team scored 185 out of 200 possible points. The mean score for the nation was 109.

Students with outstanding results in the 2010-2011 WordMaster’s competitions were honored at the Middle School Spring Recognition Assembly on Friday, May 27.

The student with the highest achievement, only four mistakes in the entire year, was Scott W.

Sierra F. and Brett S. both earned perfect scores in one of the three competitions. Nationwide, only about 63 out of 37,000+ fifth graders earn a perfect score during any given meet. Sierra also earned 19 out of 20 at one meet.

Reid Q. and Uriah S. earned 19 out of 20 in one of the contests. About 111 out of 37,000+ students achieved at this level.

The following students earned 18 out of 20 during one meet and missed only one answer in another: Andrew C., Zachary L., Adam R., Alexander Z., Jake S., Lauren S., Amrita S.

Noah A., Kate C., Landen K., Jessica T., Katie T., and Alexi T. scored 18 out of 20 in two of the three meets.

Students recognized for earning 18 out of 20 on one of the three tests this year were Alex P., Jonathan R., Ellie S., Zachary W., Nathan W., and Jaime Y. Only 192 out of 37,000 + students achieved at this level.

Congratulations to McDonogh’s 2010-2011 WordMasters!