It took an E-L-E-C-T-R-I-F-Y-I-N-G 24 rounds of competition before a seventh grader from Cooper Middle School emerged as the victor of the District 21 Spelling Bee, which was held Feb. 5 in the Community Service Center and Administrative Office.
This year marked the fourth installment of the bee, which was reborn through Dr. Rob Drewry, literacy equity coach at Cooper. “A couple of years ago, we were discussing how talented our students were, as well as the opportunities we have for them, at which point Rob proposed the idea for a spelling bee for our middle schools,” Amy Breiler, director of teaching and learning for literacy, said previously.
This year’s bee continued the tradition established last year, which increased the number of competitors to include the top fourth and fifth graders from each elementary school. During the first and second years of the bee, only the top spellers from each grade at the middle schools were invited.
Prior to the event, each student was able to review a packet of 450 words, all of which were accompanied by their definitions. The words came from the Scripps’ School-Level Competition List, which are ultimately pulled from Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.
“The most common strategies students used to be successful were to rehearse the words silently or in a whispered voice while tracing the letters on the palm of their hands,” Drewry said. “Some students skilfully asked for additional information about each word, such as its definition, part of speech, example sentence, or alternate pronunciations. These questions can elicit helpful information about the word they are attempting. More importantly, they can give the student some time and space to slow down and think carefully about the letters or morphemes (small units of meaning, such as the word root mem, meaning ‘mind’) in each word.”
During each third round of competition, Drewry switched to vocabulary, which tasked competitors with identifying the definition for a given word between two potential choices. Following the 12th round of competition, Drewry reverted to “spelling only” and used a list of words the students were unable to study prior to the bee.
Ethan T., the seventh grader from Cooper, was ultimately crowned the champion, while Aadvik K., a fourth grader from Tarkington Elementary School, came in second. It took a further six rounds of spelling after the top two positions were named to break a tie for third place. From that bout, Abigale, a sixth grader from London Middle School, emerged in the third place position.
Due to conflicting schedules, Ethan will be unable to participate during the next round of competition. As the runner-up, Aadvik will represent the district at the 15th Annual North Cook ISC Scripps Spelling Bee on February 25 in Lincolnwood. If he finishes in the top three at that competition, Aadvik will move on to the All Cook County (minus Chicago) Bee, with the national competition as the final stop if he emerges victorious there.
The district is R-O-O-T-I-N-G for Aadvik in the North Cook Bee on February 25. Go get them!
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