Appoggiatura
Jason watching the spelling bee out in the lobby on ESPN. For some reason, it was more fun to watch it on the TV than live. Go figure.
Today was a lot more relaxing than yesterday because Jason wasn’t competing. We really enjoyed watching the spelling bee. Over time we’ve met some of the spellers and their families and had many great kids to cheer for!
Some of the highlights:
Several kids made funny comments while at the mike. In her string of questions about her word, one girl snuck in the question, “Could you spell that?” Dr. Bailly did not fall for it!
Two spellers, after correctly spelling their very obscure words, said, “Thank you, Mom!” So heartwarming!
We got to know the family of speller 133, Hannah Smith. Hannah has 5 sisters and a brother. They’ve been homeschooled and the girls all love babies, as Joanna found out. Their dad has taught them all Greek and Latin since age 5, and their spelling ability shows it! Hannah placed 11th. The 2 sisters we met were very sweet, outgoing, and well-spoken. Hannah was able to spell one of her words correctly because she saw a related word on a book at the Air and
There were many homeschooled spellers. 15% of the 273 spellers were homeschooled, and 2 of the top 6, or 33%, were homeschooled. My parents caught the news this evening after the spelling bee, and they said the reporter mentioned that, even though recently homeschoolers had been dominating the spelling bee, this year the winner went to public school. Funny they had to point that out!
It was amazing to see how many words, even up to the last few rounds, came from the Consolidated Word List in the “Frequently Used” section. Jason definitely needs to finish learning that list. It was also obvious that the top 5 or so finishers had studied the words they were given and weren’t guessing, except on their misspelled words. Anurag had studied his winning word, “appoggiatura”. His group of study friends let up a cheer when he got the word because they knew that he knew it!
I knew a few music words (like “appoggiatura”) and an art history word (“pronaos”) that were given in the final few rounds, but I could not have spelled most of the other words that those spellers got!
The winner was very sincere and gracious in his comments after winning. He said a big part of going to the national spelling bee was the camaraderie and friendship. He had been studying via email and instant messaging with friends he made at last year’s bee, all of whom were determined to come back this year. His advice to potential champions was to “have fun” and enjoy the journey. I think Jason’s done that!
This year’s winner placed 47th last year, close to Jason’s 52nd. When asked how going to National last year helped him, he said, “I found out what it took to do really well and I decided that I was going to do it.” He studied all year since then. Jason is seriously thinking about whether he wants to put this kind of time into next year’s bee. It would certainly be a worthy endeavor, but a big commitment as well.
Studying spelling is not just about rules or memorizing. It’s incredibly broadening. You learn so much about many different fields of knowledge, and you learn to systematically think through a word, to make connections, even to think before you speak!
Well, tomorrow will be another day of sightseeing and the awards banquet, with a “farewell party” for spellers afterwards. It’s been a wonderful week of memories with more to come.
posted by Jennifer @ 6:48 PM
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