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Spelling Bee

From spelling bee
 

Congratulations to our 2010 Spelling Bee winners!

When is it?

During the month of October, all the students at Diamond Fork Jr. High get the opportunity to show their knowledge of spelling by completing a school-wide written spelling test. The top scoring seventh- and eighth-grade students participate in the school spelling bee on January 20, 2010. Ninth-grade students are not eligible to participate in the spelling bee due to age requirements at the national level.

If you qualify

Congratulations if you have qualified for the Diamond Fork Junior High Spelling Bee!  The competition will be held on Jan 20, 2010, at 8:45 a.m. in the school library.  Family is welcome to attend. 

The spelling bee is conducted in a traditional format with the announcer reading a word that the competitor will then have to spell correctly.  Once the competitor has misspelled a word, he/she will be eliminated from the bee.  The winner of the DFJHS competition will go on to a regional spelling bee. The 2010 Utah Valley Spelling bee will take place Saturday, March 27th at the Scera Theater in Orem- 9 AM. The champion of the 2010 Utah Valley Spelling Bee will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC to compete in the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

If you opt to participate in the Spelling Bee, please notify your English teacher before Christmas break. 

For the school spelling bee, students learn a list of 50 study words. When students master the 50 study words, they further prepare for spelling competition by learning the study words for other grade levels. Miss Anderson will provide you with a printed copy of the Study Words for 7th grade and 8th grade. She will pass these out on Monday, Dec 7. If you don't receive them from your English teacher, you may get a copy from her. Participants should master those words, and then study the words in 2010 Spell It! site from Merriam Webster.

Miss Anderson's recommendation: Take the spelling words from the handout I give you and write each at the top of a paper. Find words with similar sounds and parts and write them down underneath the header word. Look for patterns. By collecting related words, you will be able to discovers patterns in the English language. Learning these patterns is the key to being able to predict the spelling of new words.

What are the rules?

You may view a more comprehensive list of rules here.

  1. The spelling bee is conducted in rounds.  Each speller remaining in the spelling bee at the start of a round spells one word in each round.

  2. A speller is eliminated from the bee after incorrectly spelling a word. 

  3. Spellers must face judge when pronouncing and spelling a word.

  4. Spellers must make an effort to utter each letter distinctly and with sufficient volume to be understood by the judges.

  5. The speller may request the definition, a sentence, part of speech, language of origin, and alternate pronunciations (if any).  The speller may not request root words or alternate definitions.

  6. Spellers may ask questions at any time during their turn.

  7. The judge will determine whether or not words are spelled correctly.  The judge’s decision is final on all questions.

  8. If a judge senses that a speller has misunderstood a word, the judge may assist the speller and pronouncer in clearing up any misunderstanding.  It is sometimes impossible to detect a misunderstanding until a spelling error has been made. The judge is not responsible for the speller’s misunderstandings.

  9. The judge will disqualify a speller who

  • refuses a request to start spelling
  • does not approach the microphone when it is time to receive the word
  • engages in unsportsmanlike conduct
  • in the process of retracing a spelling, alters the letters or sequence of letter from those first uttered
  • in the process of spelling, utters unintelligible or nonsense sounds.

  1.  The Webster’s Third New International Dictionary will be used as the judge’s reference for the competition.

See Ms. Brooke Anderson for any further questions about the bee.

Read the article about last year's competition here.