Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303300389
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT NEWSFUN WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Well, that may be fine for people who can already spell, you murmur to yourself, flipping through the onion-skin pages of your trusted Webster's.
But sure enough, there it is. That word. You found it, and now you can spell it.
At some point in our lives, we all get stumped for words. Even this year's contestants in the regional spelling bee coming up Saturday.
In fact, you might rest better knowing they study for the stand-up-and-spell-a-word competition just like you study for your 10-word spelling tests at school. (And most use a dictionary.)
They do, however, have a whole bag of other worries only spelling bee contestants have to contend with.
Erin Porter is the Roanoke County spelling champ. The eighth-grader at Northside Junior High School says she studies a lot from a book filled with words. Her strategy? She looks their meanings up in the dictionary and spells them for her mom.
"It's just a lot of hard work," she says. To prepare for the regional bee, she's been spending her weekends studying words.
Part of being in a spelling bee is standing up in front of an audience and spelling a word, without missing a letter. Erin says that makes her nervous. But "as long as you're not staring at [the audience], it's OK. I don't mind them staring at me as long as I'm not looking at them."
Josh Humphries, a sixth-grader at McCleary Elementary School and the Craig County spelling bee winner, says he gets nervous, too. Last year, when he entered a spelling bee and lost, "I was shivering, sweating," he laughs. "I was nervous." But today, he says being in the bees have helped him adjust to doing most anything in front of crowds.
Winning the bee has helped him in another way too. "I was just cynical that [winning] would happen. I didn't want to study. I just went `What the heck,' and did it."
And he did study. Josh scans words (from the same kind of book Erin uses) while listening to country, space or '60s music. He also looks their meanings and pronunciations up in the dictionary, though the meanings are only slightly helpful to him, he says.
That's how he was able to spell "hatchet," the word he won the county bee on. And how he managed to spell his hardest word yet - "narcolepsy."
The Wythe County spelling bee winner, Misty King, spelled "outrageous" to beat other Wythe Countians. The Rural Retreat Elementary School sixth-grader says she was nervous competing on stage in front of others, but going over a list of words, knowing their meanings, and writing them down helped her win.
Another strategy she uses is reading. Misty's favorite author is Susan Cooper, and her favorite book is Cooper's "The Dark is Rising." Misty says reading a lot of books helps her spelling.
Botetourt County's spelling champ is Douglas Coffman, a sixth-grader at Troutville Elementary School. Like Erin, Josh and Misty, he studies words, but has a different way of recalling them in the spelling bees.
"I'll just try to remember how the words look, and try to bring up a picture of how it looks when I spell it," he said.
That spelling strategy is especially helpful for English words, where Douglas and the others know there are no spelling rules that aren't broken at some point. "You just have to go by what you know," Douglas says. "If not, maybe you'll just get lucky and spell it right."
Luck or no luck, Douglas spelled "flatter" correctly to win the county bee. His most difficult spelling word was "acoustical."
Douglas says the bees have helped him by making him more comfortable in front of other people. And, they "give me confidence in myself."
"It's fun," he says of being in the bees, especially of winning. "But scary too. Some people don't worry about it, probably. I'm scared, and I'm happy, and I'm excited. It's a unique experience."
Other kids participating in the 20th Annual Roanoke Times & World-News Regional Spelling Bee are: Lee Meadows, Bland County; Joy Appel, Salem; Jennifer Leitch, Covington City; Anne Vogleweed, Smyth County; Melanie Morris, Giles County; Barnett Carr, Montgomery County; Jennifer O'Meara, private/parochial division; Liam Mooney, Alleghany Highlands; Jacob Dunaway, Floyd County; Lorie Hoover, Bedford County; James "Marty" Puckett, Radford City; Elaine Banvard, Roanoke City; Marcus Eure, Pulaski County; Marcy Montgomery, Franklin County.
by CNB