Gwinnett Daily Post

Amy Truong

LAWRENCEVILLE -- A sixth-grade Gwinnett County student from Moore Middle recently learned she earned a perfect score in the first of three meets for the WordMasters Challenge, a national vocabulary competition.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge, sixth-grader Amy Truong earned a perfect score of 20. Nationally, only eight sixth-graders achieved a perfect score out of the 150,000 student participants from throughout the nation.

The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words considerably more difficult than that grade level.

The competition then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies, expressing various kinds of logical relationships. The challenge helps students learn to think both analytically and metaphorically. Though most vocabulary-boosting and analogy-solving activities have been created for high school students, the WordMasters materials have been specifically designed for younger students, in grades three through eight.

They are particularly well-suited for able and interested children who rise to the challenge of learning new words and enjoy the logical puzzles posed by analogies.

Truong will participate in two more WordMasters meets during the coming months. The sixth-grader was coached in preparation for the WordMasters Challenge by language arts and gifted Moore Middle teacher Laura Moon.Students fare well in academic bowlLILBURN -- Two Gwinnett middle school teams placed among the top five in the PAGE Academic Bowl competition for Middle Grades state championship.

The teams were from Duluth Middle (fourth Place), coached by Jenn Burley and Kelli Perry, and Hull Middle (fifth Place), coached by Connie Derrick and Carol Bates.South Gwinnett dancers honoredSNELLVILLE -- South Gwinnett High dancers won several awards in competition at the Showstopper Regional Dance Competition in the following divisions:

-- Nia Bentham, Jamaiya Harris, Marianne Javier, Jocelyn Jones, Lea Nelson, Helen Samuel, Victoria Walker, and Chelsea Warren: 1st Place, Platinum in Advanced Small Group Hip Hop -- 4th Overall

-- Jocelyn Jones: 1st Place Gold in Performance Contemporary Solo -- 5th Overall

-- Lea Nelson and Chelsea Warren: 1st Place Gold in Advanced Open Contemporary Duet -- 7th Overall

-- Nia Bentham, Lea Nelson and Chelsea Warren: 1st Place Gold in Advanced Contemporary Trio -- 6th Overall

-- Chelsea Warren: 2nd Place Platinum in Advanced Lyrical Jazz Solo -- 10th Overall

Frank Reddy writes about education. Good News from Schools appears in the Sunday edition of the Daily Post.