Cobb >> In December Henry Thomas, a fifth grader at Cobb Mountain Elementary, achieved what only 52 other fifth graders nationally achieved: a perfect score on the WordMasters Challenge, a vocabulary competition for 150,000 elementary and middle school students across the nation.
The WordMasters Challenge is more involved than a simple word competition. It is an intense program which helps students understand the ins and outs of certain words. Three times a year teachers download a list of 25 words from the WordMasters website and distribute them to their students. The kids then spend months studying each word. First they must learn not only its definition, but multiple meanings, derivations, and Greek and Latin roots. Then students turn to analogies. During this stage, they’re responsible for understanding synonyms and antonyms, plus closely related adjectives, nouns and verbs.
After they’ve learned the words to the best of their ability, the students don’t have to leave the area to compete in the WordMasters Challenge — they simply take the test online. It’s cumulative as well, which helps them to remember everything they’ve worked so hard to learn. By the end of the year, each student should have a bank of 75 newly mastered words.
“I really think that it forces these students to be critical thinkers,” said Marc Morita, who prepares the kids for the competition. “It extends their daily vernacular.”
When Thomas came home one day to tell his mother of his impressive score, Kristy Thomas was thrilled, if not entirely surprised. From the moment Henry Thomas picked up his first book in kindergarten, he’s held an impressive academic record. “He’s a super reader which is probably why he has the marks he has with WordMasters,” she said. “I feel as though he can’t really blow me over anymore. This is his level of achievement, this is the way that he is … I think that it’s because of the enormous amount of words that he takes in.”
Henry Thomas is also a perpetually curious child. He’s always asking questions, often regarding things many kids his age don’t pay attention to. Kristy Thomas recalled a day she and her son were at a gas station, when he asked why she received a receipt for filling the tank. This constant line of questioning has lead to an impressive bank of knowledge — when Henry Thomas and his mother watch Jeopardy together, the fifth grader knows quite a few of the answers.
“Some people are kind of hyper-aware,” Kristy Thomas said. “It explains why he is where he is.”
Cobb Mountain Elementary has impressive test scores, according to Morita, and he attributes the school’s success to the WordMasters Challenge, which they’ve been using with their students for at least a decade. With an increased focus across California on Common Core educational standards, he said the staff were apprehensive about a new testing practice called Smarter Balanced. They expected less than stellar scores on recent examinations, but when results came back, everyone was pleasantly surprised by how well the students performed.
“We make WordMasters an emphasis,” Morita said. “I think it pays dividends; if you look at our test scores, they’re clearly higher than anyone else’s in the county.”
The students are as excited as the staff, eagerly using WordMasters in their daily lives. Morita’s students regularly report back to him if they hear one of their assigned words, even if it’s just from the mouth of a TV character. Most recently, the kids took a week long trip to science camp, and whenever a counselor spoke a word from their list, the kids would shout, “WordMasters!”
Morita feels this enthusiasm comes from his own excitement about the competition. “I think what it really comes down to is kids are passionate about what their teachers are passionate about,” he said. “We’re school-wide passionate about WordMasters.”
Achieving a perfect score is no small feat, but if anyone was going to do it, it was Thomas. Although he’s only in the fifth grade, he’s the kind of student who makes you feel almost lazy by comparison. Not only is Thomas a vocabulary master, he’s an athlete on the soccer field and a musician in the band room. He’s well-liked by his peers and a voracious reader. Just last week Morita gave him a copy of the first “Chronicles or Narnia” book, “Prince Caspian.” He expects Thomas is already onto the third volume in the series by now.
“He’s one of the brightest kids I know right now,” Morita said. “He’s gifted in so many areas. Whether it’s mathematically or language arts-wise, he’s probably my top student. It’s so easy for him, it’s hard to give him a real challenge.”
Kristy Thomas said that while academics come easily to her son, he’s also an exceptionally hard worker. It has a little something to do with a competition between Henry Thomas and his older sister, who’s in seventh grade. When she landed on the honor roll in the fourth grade, Henry Thomas wanted to achieve even higher honors.
In the classroom, Thomas may not appear to be the perfect student — sometimes he gets distracted, reading his own book instead of listening to Morita’s lesson. But Morita doesn’t mind. He often feels that whatever Thomas is teaching himself is probably more beneficial than that moment’s subject. “For most students I would be trying to get a student on task, but I know that his brain is working,” Morita explained. “When you check for understanding, he knows it better than anyone in the class.”
It can also take Thomas longer than other students to complete assignments, but the wait is well worth it. “It’s not that he’s unfocused,” Morita said. “When he finishes you’re so glad that he took the time because it’s remarkable work.”
It’s not difficult to see that Thomas is an exceptional student on his way to a bright future. But he isn’t the only academically successful student in Morita’s class, of course. He’s been grouped up with other fifth graders, and they all work to inspire each other. “He’s surrounded by such intelligent kids that it really helps him,” Morita said. “It helps all the students, to be surrounded by people who want to learn.”
Morita also gives credit to the Cobb community for the academic achievement of every child in the area. In order for students to succeed, Morita said, there are three factors that must be in place: the school, the community and parents. Cobb understands the importance of these essential parts of the equation. “If you can get all three working together it really creates synergy,” he said. “You really do see remarkable things out of our students … I think it’s a testimony to Cobb in general.”
Kristy Thomas echoed the sentiment. Her son could hardly accomplished so much without a lot of helping hands, from his parents, teachers and friends. “Our community is amazing in Cobb and I hope that this fire doesn’t disrupt too much of that,” she said. “It’s like no other place.”
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
