Verbal child becomes national WordMaster
Hey everyone! I am so proud of my Niece Maddie Tran! She won a competition for national WordMaster. She is one of my three nieces that all make me very proud. I also have a nephew on the way too!! Man, I'm getting old.
Original Article: Taken from the Tacoma News Tribune
DAVID WICKERT; The News Tribune
Published: May 17th, 2006 01:00 AM
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Therese Tran said her daughter Maddie has always been a verbal child. So maybe it’s no surprise the 10-year-old can wrap her mind around words like thwart, garnish and luxurious.
But Maddie, a student at Chambers Primary School in University Place, recently demonstrated an unusual grasp of language and logic in a national competition. She was one of just 205 fourth-graders across the country to earn a perfect score in the WordMasters Challenge language arts competition held in February.
Nearly 7,400 fourth-graders took the test. It requires students to solve analogies based on relationships among words they have learned.
For example, Maddie had to answer this question: “attack” is to “thwart” as “rumor” is to: a) snare b) tarnish c) squelch d) ignore e) garnish. The correct answer is “squelch.”
“These are not your everyday words,” said Linda Hay, Maddie’s teacher.
Maddie correctly answered 20 questions. Hay said Maddie is a good reader and a good thinker. She said the perfect score is “very impressive.”
Maddie, the daughter of Thai and Therese Tran, said she enjoys reading, especially fantasy books like “Redwall” and the Harry Potter series. But she admitted some of the analogies were tricky.
“I guess I kind of surprised myself,” she said.
Since Maddie took her test, three other students in Hay’s class – Mary Richards, Galen Chen and Erin Brand – have earned perfect scores.
“In my classroom, we’re not allowed to say something’s hard,” Hay said. “It might be challenging.”
David Wickert: 253-274-7341
david.wickert@thenewstribune.com
