Word of the Week, a way to acquire a great vocabulary

I bet you are wondering, what does Word of the Week (WoW) mean? Great question! WoW was created by our teacher, Paul Wilgenkamp. The program requires students to use an advanced vocabulary word verbally, in their writing, or find it in a book. You can even have someone famous use the Word of the Week. Some words our class has used in the past are irreparable, hindsight, vehemently, haphazard, ubiquitous, plethora and vilify to name a few. Crazy right? “Doing this really adds a plethora of visitors to my desk, but I am willing to do this for my students because it helps my students. It benefits them,” states Mr. Wilgenkamp.

The rule of the Word of the Week is that you must say the word to the teacher before Friday, and if you do, you get one point so that your teacher knows you know how to say it correctly. Now if you used the word in your writing, you get five points, or if you find the word in a book, you receive five points, too. If you get a famous person to reply back using the word of the week, you get 25 bonus points. So far, “The Karate Kid,” Ralph Macchio, and Rangers player Rick Nash have used the Word of the Week. Whoever has the most points for that week either chooses a prize, a dollar, or a homework pass. At the end of the year, the grand champion wins $20. This program not only makes you smarter, it helps you learn a plethora of new words and gives you a Brobdingnagian vocabulary.