Saturday, March 6, 2010
Scripps regional qualifier results
The regional qualifier for the Scripps National Spelling Bee was exciting! Congratulations to Jessia Connelly, who will go on to represent the Durham/Orange County region at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. Congratulations, also, to Amber McDonald for winning 2nd place. All the spellers were very impressive. What a great bunch of kids!
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What was the word? What schools were these two from? I am so bummed we were sitting in the ER and couldn't be there!!! Tell more! :) ~Valerie
ReplyDeleteJessia Connelly is a student at Orange Charter School in Hillsborough. Yay Jessia!! Congrats Connellys!! The Orange Charter School Community is very proud of you!!
ReplyDelete-Celeste Gardner
Orange Charter Board Chair
Hi Valerie, I'm sorry you had to be in the ER.
ReplyDeleteI didn't keep track of all the words or rounds. I am hoping someone else did and will post them. I think there were about 20 rounds. The last few were the top two spellers coming back in and out of the competition because of missed words. It was very suspenseful! The final group of 7 spellers were all very sharp (and all girls).
If I find a write-up about it, I will post a pointer here.
Ooo, I'm SO sorry I missed it the suspense! I'll check back to see if you found any links.
ReplyDeleteHere's the Durham Herald-Sun story:
ReplyDeleteSpelling bee crowns its queen
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/6597168/article-Spelling-bee-crowns-its-queen
It looks like it was 22 rounds, by my count.
ReplyDeleteIt was an interesting event. My son was in it for several rounds. I found it funny at the end that they did not use words from the study list. What was the point of studying all those words if they were not going to use them? It also seemed odd at the end that one girl got words like linearity and mysticity while the other got repast and macaw. But congrats to both girls!
ReplyDeleteAny word from Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged is fair game.
ReplyDeleteI agree the level of word difficulty was erratic throughout the competition.
Thanks! Fun! Anonymous, "macaw" is a pretty tricky word if you don't know for sure how to spell it. Several options for those vowel sounds.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to check the rules for next year, if your son will be in it, because indeed after they run out of words on the given lists, they move on to the dictionary. These words are provided by Scripps as well, but not given to the contestants. As G said, any word in that dictionary is fair game. Have you seen the spelling bee documentary and how those kids study the dictionary? :)
I realize that any word in the dictionary are fair game, it just seemed odd that they would vary from the given list. There were some extremely difficult words listed in the challenge words section that I thought would be used. I have seen how those kids study the dictionary! They certainly are dedicated!
ReplyDeleteSpelling G...were you at the regional bee? If so, I am curious if you noticed that the announcer mispronounced several of the words.
I was there and, yes, I noticed... I don't know if it affected the final outcome (probably not), but it was irksome. The word I had a hard time understanding was "grovel." At least, I think that's what she said; it was difficult to tell sitting out in the audience.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the kids know they should ask for alternate pronunciations for every word, even if they think they know the word. Always ask for the word used in a sentence, language of origin, part of speech, repeat the word, etc. In any case, all the kids did a great job. They are so mature.
Does anyone remember some of the other unusual pronunciations?
(n.b. ˌprō-və-ˈlō-nē is listed as the first pronunciation in MW3. ˈprō-və-ˌlōn is listed second. Ditto ˈäŋ(k)st ; ˈaŋ(k)st).
Yes. 'Ravioli' didn't sound right to my ear until it was repeated.
ReplyDeleteWe left before the end, so I may be remembering a different word, but I thought she was saying 'grabble', not 'grovel'.
It was the same at our school's spelling bee, though -- and I've lived several places, so it wasn't just a matter of regional dialect.
OK, "grabble" is what I heard, too, but someone told me later they thought the word was "grovel." I think you are right that it was "grabble."
ReplyDeletejessia...i know her!! she is like 1 of my best friends evvver!!! =D
ReplyDeleteWow! Great blog! Just to put my 2 cents in...when she said clapboard, it sounded like she said cladboard.
ReplyDeleteHere are some photos and audio from the Duke News site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/03/spelling.html
Here is a story from The News of Orange County:
ReplyDeleteOrange Charter student wins spelling bee
anyone know how McDonald spelled "pendule"?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't remember.
ReplyDelete