Williams/Ledger Elementary hosts 2nd annual spelling bee
By DARLEE LUCAS
CCISD
As the 90th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee got underway this week in Washington, DC, students at Williams/Ledger Elementary were already proving their spelling prowess last week before the summer break.
Williams/Ledger Elementary held its 2nd Annual Spelling Bee consisting of 15 participants chosen from the school spelling club.
Using the National Spelling Bee 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade word lists from 2015, the participants have been studying since the fall semester. Students from 1st and 2nd grade gathered twice a month, before the school day began, to practice their spelling with teachers Darleen Lucas and Crystal Chaco. Students also practiced every day the week before the big event. All students were very excited and nervous at the same time about being on stage and spelling in front of the entire school.
For second grader Jaelah Bynum, the hard work really paid off.
“It was cool, and it made me practice my spelling words so that I could be better,” Bynum said.
To ensure the competition was fair and unbiased, judges were selected to give definitions at the students’ requests. The judges also provided assistance in the confirmation of correct or incorrect spelling.
Renz De Guzman was disappointed in his performance but vows to make a comeback next year.
“I thought it was cool, but I also thought I would make it further,” De Guzman said. “I would join this club again to help me spell better. The spelling bee helps us become better spellers in class.”
During the spelling bee event which lasted about an hour, the number of rounds is determined by students missing words. When a student misspells a word, then next person tries to spell the same word. If he also gets it wrong, both students continue competing in the spelling bee. If the second speller spells the word correctly, then the one who spelled incorrectly is eliminated. The words increase in difficulty with each round until one final student is left standing. As students at Williams/Ledger spelled a challenging word correctly, the whole audience would cheer. Ultimately, only two were left standing on stage, said student Axel Peterson.
“It was very exciting and intimidating near the end, because when it came down to Isabella Grace and Jaelah, it was like a video game in which they both could have been eliminated by each other,” Peterson said.