Word Masters

For the fourth consecutive year, the St. Mark’s fourth-grade class finished first in the nationwide WordMasters Challenge. More impressive, this year’s Class of 2026 moved up from the Blue Division to the more difficult and competitive Gold Division. After completing the first two challenges in the fall and winter, St. Mark’s ranked third, but leaped ahead following the spring competition to win the national title. 

 

“This year, the teachers chose to switch to the more challenging Gold Division words and analogies. This didn’t stop our boys from performing beautifully and keeping the tradition of yet another first-place finish,” said Sherri Darver, Head of Lower School. “The analogies are quite challenging, and of course, our fourth-grade Marksmen are always up for a challenge!”

 

Each year, more than 150,000 students compete in the national vocabulary competition. The boys were required to learn the definitions (often multiple definitions) of 75 words throughout the year, as well as synonyms and antonyms.  Additionally, boys had to apply those meanings to solve analogies and analyze word pairs. They worked on this daily from September to May. 

“We are so proud of the perseverance the boys demonstrated throughout the year,” said Lynn Terman, who coached the boys along with fellow fourth-grade teacher Shannon Nadalini. “Going into the final challenge in third place was a difficult place to be, but it was exciting to see the boys dig deep and give it their best effort to come out on top.”