Arp High School named Texas state champion in 9th Vocabulary Bowl

Published 3:55 pm Monday, February 5, 2024

ARP — Television personality Tim Gunn once said there are few activities “as delightful as learning new vocabulary.”

Thanks to the efforts of Arp High School’s Spanish teacher Anjee Deards, students at Arp High School have mastered 44,275 words — a feat that named them not only state champions in Texas but national runners-up in their division in the 9th Vocabulary Bowl.

The biannual competition brings together K-12 schools across the United States and Canada to showcase their vocab and literacy skills.

“They answer questions about definitions, synonyms, antonyms… fill in the blank and spelling,” Deards said. “It’s a two-month-long competition… I started doing it at my previous school in California and brought it here to Arp High School where the students have just really taken off with it.”

The competition, hosted by Vocabulary.com, assembled more than 380,000 students from 2,100 K-12 schools to compete for the top title in each of their respective states and regions.

“It has been such an improvement for us,” Arp sophomore Alice Smith said. “It’s so fun because we get to compete with each other and we get to compete against other schools, and we’re actually learning new words and we’re learning to spell.”

Sophomore Jaycee McCollum said the team at Arp enjoyed the competitiveness of the bowl.

“It’s really cool to see how much fun we can have when we learn a new word and then we incorporate it into a sentence,” Jaycee said. “It’s just a process that gets very competitive with other schools all over (North America).”

To become a master of words, students log in to the website and answer multiple questions about each word, rather than just memorizing the word.

“To see the kids collaborating and working as a team for something that’s not an athletic sport has been really great,” Deards said. “It has allowed some kids to shine that aren’t shining in the traditional sports kind of way.”

The Vocabulary Bowl gives educators an opportunity to personalize instruction, boost literacy skills and inject competitive spirit into education. With every activity, students gain points and achievements so that they can level up in the rankings while building their vocabulary, according to the site.

“I incorporated it into my Spanish class because studies show that a student cannot be better in their second language than they are in their first,” Deards said. “By having a stronger vocabulary in their first language, it’s going to help them understand a second language also.”

Many words in Spanish and English are cognate, meaning they look and mean the same or they have similar roots because they come from Latin or Greek.

“If they have more of an understanding of the words in their own language, then it helps them when we get to some of the vocabulary in Spanish,” she said. “Plus, honestly, it’s just fun. It’s fun to see the kids compete and learn and help each other.”

In the 9th bowl, Arp was named No. 1 overall in Texas, No. 2 nationwide in Division 3 schools, No. 6 overall nationwide (No. 5 among all high schools), and No. 2 nationwide among rookie schools.

“It was really awesome to be named state champ,” Alice said. “It proved that the hard work pays off and doing it for those two months really, really pays off in the end.”

Approximately 175 students from Arp High School participated but they hope to have more next year.

“We always are trying to get more people that are in the school that would like to join us, because the more students that we can get to answer questions, the more words we’re gonna master. Because that’s how it works, it’s not just a competition of who can master the most words,” McCollum said. “If we have more students answering questions and mastering words, then it’s gonna end up better and we’re gonna have a better chance of winning.”

Local companies, like Red Dirt Hat Co., Dutch Bros, and World Market in Tyler, have donated items to keep the kids motivated.

“We know that kids respond to tangible incentives so we’re… always looking for community support to have things that the kids will like,” Deards said. “I will run a weekend challenge to keep students motivated and at some point hand those prizes out. They’re doing a great job earning that.”

Deards and the students hope to keep the community incentives going.

“I am so incredibly proud of the students and how well received the competition is and how much the kids are learning and helping each other and the community support,” Deards said.

The fall bowl season was held Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 with awards announced Dec. 1-31.

“The achievement is a testament to the school’s commitment to promoting language arts and developing students’ vocabulary,” bowl organizers said of Arp. “Its success in the Vocabulary Bowl not only demonstrates the linguistic excellence of learners but also highlights the power of language education in today’s world.”

The Vocabulary Bowl’s spring season started Feb. 1. This year, the bowl will honor champions at all levels, including schools, individual teachers and newcomers to the competition.

“With the right support and an engaging environment, anyone can experience the joy of enriching their vocabulary. The Vocabulary Bowl is a unique event that makes it easy for educators to foster an enduring love of literacy and create spaces where learners are eager to develop their vocabulary skills,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, Vocabulary.com’s parent company. “Hosting this competition fills us with pride and we cannot wait to see the remarkable progress schools make in the upcoming Spring season.”

For more information, visit www.vocabulary.com/bowl.