Mar. 16, 2009 - And the winner is . . .
This post is available on the following site with pictures: FitzGerald Familog
The Spelling Bee on Saturday was so much fun! We’ve never been to one in person before, so this was a new experience for all of us.
Our homeschool support group, Home Schoolers Loving God, hosted the Bible Spelling Bee. We had three age groups: 5-8, 8-12, and 12-18. The U8 group only had two young guys, and because there was only one U18 speller, the judges opened up the competition to anyone who wanted to compete at that level. All available chairs were quickly filled with eager children trying to win the coveted gift certificate to a local ice creamery. In the end, the speller who had actually studied the list won that level, but he was surprisingly challenged by a younger girl from the U12 group who held on for quite some time. My 10-year-old daughter Shannon was in the U12 group along with twelve other spellers.
Each word for the Bee was found in the Scriptures, and if the children needed context for the words they could ask for the verse to be read. The tough rules for this competition did not allow the children to self-correct if they realized they had made an error, and they would also be disqualified if they correctly spelled the wrong word. This is one reason the verses were so important as they gave the much-needed context for the words, some of which were homophones. Each child spelled one word per round. The children were not allowed to request definitions or information about word origins. Previous study and strength in spelling would determine the winner!
I had the unique honor of being the reader for the Spelling Bee, thus relieving our two judges to be able to focus on listening carefully to the spellers. I had to work hard on pronouncing the words as in normal speech, not carefully with syllable breaks or any other emphasis as I am so accustomed to doing in SWR dictation. I had to remember I was testing, not teaching.
By the eighth round of the U12 event, the field had been narrowed to only five spellers. These kids had studied hard, and the competition was strong. Entering the nineteenth round Shannon was still in the game with only two other students. The three of them spelled words correctly for another eleven rounds, each listening carefully to the words being read, each slowly spelling one letter at a time, each walking away from the microphone victorious. We wondered if they would exhaust our list!
At round thirty, little Abigail listed the wrong vowel in the word palace, an easy mistake to make. She had been a tenacious and talented opponent! We were down to just two, Solomon and Shannon.
Finally, in round thirty-three Shannon received the word justify. How many times had we practiced this word? As commonly happens in a competition like this, she slipped a cog. She proceeded to correctly spell:
j - u - s - t - i - f - i - e - d.
Wow! The Y’s Exchanging and ED rules had properly been applied . . . to the wrong word.
When Solomon correctly spelled the next word qualify, he was announced the winner of this year’s U12 Bible Spelling Bee. Congratulations, Solomon!!!
Shannon was a very gracious runner up, and several of the parents commented on what a great encourager she had been for the other children during the competition. We were so proud of her!!!
One of the words Shannon studied was abundance. A technique we use to remember how to spell is called think to spell, in which we “think” the word in syllables as they are written, not necessarily how we speak them. While working on this spelling word, I promised my daughter that if she could place in the top four at the Bee, we would take her to get a Cinnabon cinnamon bun where she could do A Bun Dance.
We all enjoyed the sweet fruits of her success later that evening!
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Mar. 11, 2009 - Spelling Bees and SWR
My daughter will be participating in her first spelling bee this coming Saturday. We're busy preparing her for it, practicing the words, and reviewing like crazy. As we've been working, the questions other people have raised about spelling bees on our SWR Yahoo Group have come to mind. I thought I'd share about how SWR can help a student prepare for a spelling bee.
Letter Names Not Sounds
The first issue we've been having to deal with is that in a spelling bee, the student is required to spell words aloud using letter names, not the phonogram sounds which are second nature to SWR users. It is because of this element of bees, that I do NOT recommend having younger students or beginning readers participate in this kind of event. Brain research has indicated that the storage of letter names occurs in a different part of the brain than the sounds used in speech. When a student is learning to spell and read, the sounds of the words must be available for instant retrieval, not letter names. This is a strength of SWR as the phonogram sounds are emphasized in both reading and spelling. While letter names are certainly taught, they are learned in the process of analyzing words through reliable rules and the interaction between letters to make words. Shannon is doing well with the naming of letters to spell aloud, but occasionally she slips back into sounding a word out loud instead. Although this could be a problem during the bee, my overall goal for her is that she will spell well throughout life. It would appear that the foundation for that has been well laid!
Spelling Dictation
SWR has prepared us well for practicing the words on the bee list. I teach each word with the standard SWR spelling dictation, and Shannon writes them in a spiral notebook we are creating for this event. She is dividing words into syllables and using the SWR markings to analyze the words. Again, the work we've done with SWR is lending itself naturally to this further study.
Understanding Roots
A key to being able to spell is to recognize the root in a word under study and then to apply any spelling rules needed to create the derivative. For example, one of Shannon's words is mysteries. Before working on that word, we analyzed the root word mystery. Then we discussed the Y's Exchanging Rule which explains how the target ended up with the -ies ending. Whenever the word on her bee list is a derivative, we do this root work first. This not only improves her ability to accurately spell the target word, but it reinforces the work we've been doing in SWR with the rules.
Syllable Breaks
Anyone wanting to learn to spell accurately should first learn how to break words into syllables. This relates very strongly with the idea of perceiving roots in the target words. When Shannon can recognize the root of a word, she can easily apply the rules to transform that root into the derivative under study. Is there a prefix at the beginning of the root? Simply add the already-known prefixes. Is there a suffix at the end of the root? Apply the appropriate rule, and there you go! The simple act of breaking words into syllables can give cues as to the correct spelling. Is there a vowel at the end of a syllable? It is likely spelled with a single vowel instead of a multiletter phonogram. In addition, breaking a word into syllables first helps her mentally keep track of where she is in a word to be able to verbally spell it aloud. It breaks long words into small and manageable chunks which she can spell more carefully. Knowing and thinking in terms of syllable breaks is a huge advantage!
Review, Review, Review
There can be a lot of pressure on kids in a spelling bee. Everyone is looking at them. People hold their breath as each word is spelled slowly and carefully. One single letter out of place can disqualify the student in a moment. How does a student prepare for this? REVIEW!!! We are doing this in different ways. She practices saying the words aloud in syllable chunks. She practices spelling aloud. She practices writing the words. As she becomes more and more proficient at spelling them, my dictation and the pace quickens. This helps to replicate the pressure she'll feel at the bee. The words have to be so well ingrained that they will come out correctly when all eyes are on her. This is similar to our goal with SWR. We want the 2,000 Wise words to be so well learned that they are correctly and automatically spelled when the student's mind is occupied on the writing process instead of having to focus on spelling. We review while driving. We review while cooking dinner. We review while getting ready for bed. Review is the name of the game at this point.
Complexity of the List
We practiced today while working out at Curves. As we progressed around our circuit, the ladies overheard Shannon spelling her words. One of the ladies commented on how complex the words were that she was learning. That surprised me, but it shouldn't have. With SWR we are able to take apart any word in our language and reduce it to its most simple parts, syllables and phonograms. The phonograms and rules will apply to all words whether they are in a first grade reader or in a college Physics text. Our "think to spell" technique helps us remember those tricky parts of the words. For example, when the word enmity is pronounced in the flow of speech, the /n/ is often lost. Using "think to spell" we hear this distinctly while pronouncing the word in syllables. What about that I in the word view? We "think" this as a two-syllable word: vi + ew. No problem! With SWR spelling the words in our language makes so much sense!
How do I think she'll do this Saturday? I have no idea as this is her first spelling bee. I have communicated that I am thrilled with her practice and her attitude regardless of how well she performs on Saturday. She'll be a winner in my eyes even if someone else comes in first.
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Jul. 10, 2008 - John's review of SWR
My 13-year-old son John will be joining me for the first time this weekend while I teach an SWR Seminar in Santa Rosa, CA. He will be busy today learning what all the materials are at the book table, how to write up receipts, and about adding sales tax. In the process of preparing him to be an SWR representative, he realized that he needed to have a way to explain why he likes learning the SWR way. He decided to write a paper about it. Wow! I just had to share with you all what my son had to say about the program. Enjoy!
by
John FitzGerald
SWR builds a firm foundation with only a few simple rules that are easy to remember. These 28 rules are highly consistent whereas other curricula have many bizarre, complicated, or just plain wrong rules which result in multiple exceptions and contradictions. It is frustrating when you come across a word that doesn't sound the way it looks. However, the SWR rules and phonograms help me understand why words are built the way they are. English makes sense this way! SWR can be a simple, helpful curriculum that is logical and that the whole family will enjoy.
SWR is also fun. We like playing games such as “Guess That Word.” First, we take turns suggesting names of movies. Mom then says a line from or about the movie which includes the spelling word. This game helps us stay focused and interested. Writing sentences is fun, too. We practice adding strong verbs, who/which clauses, and other stylistic techniques we are learning from our writing class. It's a blast when I can think of crazy ideas, too. The fingergrams are sometimes funny because they involve weird hand and finger contortions. Try the fingergrams for “to” and “known” to understand some of my favorites. SWR can be enjoyable for kids like me.
I think Spell to Write and Read is the right way to teach kids. It is simple for them to understand, and the possibilities for fun while learning are endless. Both of these elements are important, but the most significant aspect of SWR is that it teaches children to sound out any word to know how to read and spell it. This is why I think SWR is better than any other spelling program!