Scripps National Spelling Bee
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| Scripps National Spelling Bee | |
|---|---|
){kind=logo} | |
| Frequency | Annual (late May or early June) |
| Location(s) | Washington, D.C. area |
| Inaugurated | 1925 |
| Genre | Spelling bee |
| Patron(s) | The E. W. Scripps Company |
| Website | |
| www.spellingbee.com | |
The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in the Washington, D.C., area during the week following Memorial Day weekend. Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor, Maryland.
Although most of its participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored regional spelling bees in the U.S. (including territories such as Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea). Participants from countries other than the U.S. must be regional spelling-bee winners as well.
Anyone who is in eighth grade or below and is 15 years old or younger is eligible for this contest.[1]
Since 1994, the cable-television channel ESPN has televised the later rounds of the bee; since 2006, earlier rounds have aired on ESPN during the day, and the Championship Finals have aired in the evening on ESPN.
History
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The National Spelling Bee was formed in 1925 as a consolidation of numerous local spelling bees, organized by The Courier-Journal in Louisville. Frank Neuhauser won the first National Spelling Bee held that year, by successfully spelling "gladiolus".[2][3] the spelling bee has been held every year except for a short absence between 1942-1946 due to World War II. Later, the E.W. Scripps Company acquired the rights to the program. The bee is held in late May and/or early June of each year. It is open to students who have not yet completed the eighth grade, reached their 15th birthday, nor won a previous National Spelling Bee. Its goal is educational: not only to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling, but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of the English language.
An insect bee is featured prominently on the logo of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, despite the word "bee" being completely unrelated to the name of the insect. The origin of the word "bee" as used in "spelling bee" is unclear. "Bee" refers to "a gathering", where people join together in an activity,[4] and the origin of this sense of "bee" is related to the word "been".[5]
The Bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 288 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Ghana, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.
Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools.
Schools enroll with the national office to ensure their students are eligible to participate and to receive the materials needed to conduct classroom and school bees. During enrollment, school bee coordinators receive their local sponsor's program-specific information—local dates, deadlines, and participation guidelines.
The official study booklet is available free online.[6]
The champion of each sponsor's final spelling bee advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C.
The competition
Qualifying regional competitions
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To qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, a speller must win a regional competition. Regional spelling bees usually cover many counties, with some covering an entire state, U.S. territory, or foreign country. Regional competitions' rules are not required to correspond exactly to those of the national competition; most notably, the national competition has since 2004 featured time controls that are designed to ensure its conformity to the programming schedule of its nationwide television broadcaster (see Regulations of oral rounds below) and that are not intended to be implemented at lower levels of competition.
Most school and regional bees (known to Scripps as local spelling bees) use the official study booklet. Through competition year 1994, the study booklet was known as Words of the Champions; during competition years 1995 through 2006, the study booklet was the category-based Paideia; and in 2007 the format and title were changed to the 701-word Spell It!. The booklet is published by Merriam-Webster in association with the National Spelling Bee. It contains approximately 1,150 words, divided primarily by language of origin, along with exercises and activities in each section. This booklet is changed yearly. Most bees whose winners advance to regional-level competition use the School Pronouncer's Guide, which contains a collection of Spell It! words as well as "surprise words" not listed in Spell It! but featured in Scripps' official dictionary, the unabridged Webster's Third New International Dictionary.
Scripps provides a Sponsor Bee Guide to administrators of regional bees. The Sponsor Bee Guide consists of two volumes, each of which contains both words from Spell It! and "surprise words". Bees need not use the words from Spell It! to be considered official.
Sponsors
To participate in the national competition, a speller must be sponsored. Scripps has 288 sponsors (mostly newspapers) from the U.S., Canada, The Bahamas, New Zealand, Asia and Europe covering a certain area and conducting their own regional spelling bees to send spellers to the national level.
National-competition format
Preliminaries
The Preliminaries consists of a test (Preliminaries Test) delivered by computer on Tuesday, May 28 and two rounds of oral spelling onstage on Wednesday, May 29. Spellers may earn up to 36 points during the Preliminaries: up to 30 points on the Preliminaries Test, three points for correctly spelling in Round Two and three points for correctly spelling in Round Three.
Round One
The Preliminaries Test (also called round one) has four sections, most of which administered by a computer system. Round One of the preliminaries consists of two sections; Section A consists of spelling 24 words, identical for each contestant, with each correct answer awarding 1 point (but only 12 of the 24 words are actually scored). Section B consists of 24 multiple-choice vocabulary questions using a similar scoring format. Section C and D, preliminary rounds two and three, consist of a single multiple-choice vocabulary question each. The questions are unique to each contestant, and worth 3 points towards their Preliminaries score. The highest possible score in the preliminaries is 30.[7]
History of Round One
Round One was a written spelling test, and has changed in format several times. In the few years prior to 2008, Round One consisted of a 25-word, multiple-choice written test. However, in 2010, changes were made in the formatting of this test. It consisted of 25 words, sometimes called "the written round". All spellers gathered at the Maryland Ballroom by 8:00 a.m. Jacques Bailly, the Bee's official pronouncer, pronounced each word, its language of origin, definition, and usage in a sentence. Spellers are given a 30-second pause in which to write down their word with the two pens given to them, and then Bailly repeated the word and all information. There was another 30-second pause, and then they moved onto the next word. Each correctly spelled word on the Round One written test was worth one point. In 2011, they stayed with that format. In 2012, they changed to the original computerized test, 50 spelling words, half scored and half not scored.
Beginning in 2013, the test now includes vocabulary questions, such as being asked to choose the correct definition for a word. While met with criticism by past contestants for deviating from the concept of a spelling bee, organizers indicated that the change was made to help avert perceptions that the competition was based solely on memorization skills (as had been showcased by television broadcasts), and to help further the Bee's goal of expanding the vocabulary and language skills of children.[8]
Round Two
Round Two is an oral round, in which spellers spell a word from Spell It! [9] a.k.a. Round Two Study Guide [10] Each speller receives a unique word. Every speller participates and has a chance to take the stage. A correct oral spelling in Round Two is worth three points. If they miss their word, the head judge will ring the bell, and the speller is eliminated from the competition. Dr. Bailly will offer the correct spelling, and the speller is escorted off stage. All spellers who misspell in Round Two will tie for the same place.
This round is broadcast live Wednesday mornings every year on ESPN3.
Round Three
Round Three is an oral round. Every speller who spelled correctly in Round Two spells a word from the Round Three Study Guide.[11] Like Round Two, it is worth three points for a correct spelling. If a speller misspells, then he or she is eliminated from the competition and is escorted off stage. The judges total scores from the remaining spellers to determine scores. The maximum possible is 36. The top 50 spellers qualify for Round Four.
This round is usually broadcasted live on Wednesday afternoon also on ESPN3.
Round Four
Round Four was recently changed in 2013. It is a computerized Semifinals Test, similar to the Preliminaries Test. Once a speller finds out he or she qualifies for the Semifinals, they have approximately two hours before the test at 7:00 pm on Wednesday.
The Semifinals Test has four sections:
- In Section A, the speller will spell 12 words using a computer keyboard. All 12 spellings count toward the speller’s Semifinals score and will be labeled “score spelling words” by Bee officials prior to May 28. Score spelling words are the same for all spellers. This part of the test will be labeled as Round Four.
- In Section B, the speller will respond to 12 multiple‐choice vocabulary questions. All 12 vocabulary responses will count toward the speller’s Semifinals score and will be labeled “score vocabulary questions” by Bee officials prior to May 28. Score vocabulary questions are the same for all spellers. This part of the test will also be labeled as Round Four.
- In Section C, the speller will respond to one multiple‐choice vocabulary question that will be labeled as a Round Five vocabulary question and, if correctly answered, count three points toward the speller’s Semifinals score. The speller’s Round Five vocabulary question will be unique to the speller.
- In Section D, the speller will respond to one multiple‐choice vocabulary question that will be labeled as a Round Six vocabulary question and, if correctly answered, count three points toward the speller’s Semifinals score. The speller’s Round Six vocabulary question will be unique to the speller.
After this test is taken, all of the semifinalists will participate in Round Five.
Rounds Five and Six
These rounds are broadcast live on ESPN2.
Round Five
After the Semifinals test, all semifinalists participate in Round Five. It is an oral round, similar to Rounds 2 and 3 except there is no study list. Spellers who spell correctly have three points added toward their score, go back and sit down and will spell again in Round Six. Unfortunately, spellers who misspell will be eliminated from the competition.
Round Six
All remaining semifinalists will spell one word each in Round Six. Like Round Five, if they spell correctly, three points are added to their score, and if they misspell they are eliminated from the competition.
End of Semifinals Procedures
After Round Six, it will be late afternoon and the judges will tally up all the remaining semifinalists' scores. They will start from 72 and work their way down, ending up with no more than 12 and no less than 9 championship finalists. All spellers who did not qualify for Round Seven will all tie for the same place.
Regulations of oral rounds
Before 2004, a speller could not be required to spell a given word until the judges deemed that the word had been clearly pronounced and identified by the speller; even then, judges rarely if ever instructed a contestant to begin spelling unless it was obvious that the speller was making no further progress in figuring out the word and that s/he was instead simply "stalling for time". Most local and regional competitions continue to follow this rule and enforcement pattern, although they are not obliged to do so.
Starting in 2004, the Bee adopted new rules. A speller is given two minutes and thirty seconds from when a word is first pronounced to spell it completely. The first two minutes are Regular Time; the final thirty seconds are Finish Time. During this time limit, a speller is allowed to ask the pronouncer for the word's:
- Definition
- Part of speech
- Use in a sentence
- Language(s) of origin (the complete etymology of the word is not provided)
- Alternate pronunciations
- Root (A speller may ask whether a word comes from a particular root word or word element, but the competitor must specify that root's language of origin and definition.)
A chime signals that regular time has expired, and the judges inform the speller that Finish Time has begun. The speller may watch a clock counting down from thirty seconds; no timing devices are allowed onstage. During Finish Time, a speller may not make further requests to the pronouncer but rather must begin spelling the word. Any speller who exceeds the time limit is automatically eliminated; judges do not acknowledge letters spelled after the end of Finish Time. A speller is allowed to stop spelling a word and restart spelling, but if she changes the letters already said, the alteration counts as a misspelling and causes automatic elimination.
Recent spelling bees
| Year | Competition details |
| 2005 | 78th Competition |
| 2006 | 79th Competition |
| 2007 | 80th Competition |
| 2008 | 81st Competition |
| 2009 | 82nd Competition |
| 2010 | 83rd Competition |
| 2011 | 84th Competition |
| 2012 | 85th Competition |
| 2013 | 86th Competition |
Proposed international bee
In May 2012, Scripps announced tentative plans for an international version, in which three-person teams from as many as sixty countries would compete. Although each speller would be able to confer with teammates once during each contest, all spellers would eventually compete and win prizes as individuals. If logistical and financial details can be reached, the event would be officially announced in early 2013 with the first competition to take place the following December.[12][13] As of mid March, these plans are on hold.
Champions and winning words
Prizes
The winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee receives a $30,000 cash prize and an engraved loving cup trophy from Scripps, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica, $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc.
All spellers receive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged on CD-ROM from Merriam-Webster, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, which is a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, and a cash prize from Scripps. These cash prizes are determined based on the round in which the speller is eliminated. They range from $100 for a speller eliminated before the Quarterfinals to $12,500 for the second-place finisher.
In popular culture
Fiction
The drama film Bee Season (2005), based on Myla Goldberg's novel of the same name, follows a young girl's journey through various levels of spelling-bee competition to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, as did the drama film Akeelah and the Bee (2006).
Contestants in the musical-comedy play The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which ran on Broadway starting in 2005, are competing for a spot in the National Spelling Bee.
The novel Spelldown (2007) by Karon Luddy is a fictional account of a South Carolina girl's journey from the Shirley County (fictional county) spelling championships to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Nonfiction
The Academy Award-nominated documentary film Spellbound (2002) follows eight competitors, including eventual national winner Nupur Lala, through the 1999 competition.
The book American Bee, by James Maguire, profiles five spellers who made it to the final rounds of the competition – Samir Patel, Katharine Close, Aliya Deri, Jamie Ding and Marshall Winchester – as well as giving an overview of the history of the bee.[14]
See also
References
- ^ Staff (undated). "Eligibility". Scripps National Spelling Bee. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
- ^ Fox, Margalit (March 22, 2011). "Frank Neuhauser, a Speller's Speller, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
- ^ Brown, Emma (March 21, 2011). "Frank Neuhauser, Winner of First National Spelling Bee, Dies at 97". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ "What Is the Origin of the Term Spelling Bee?".
- ^ Spell It!.
- ^
- ^ "At this year’s spelling bee, make way for meaning". Boston Globe. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
- ^
- ^
- ^
- ^ "A new spelling bee for the world". Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ Hickerson, Micheal (29 May 2012). "Scripps exploring creation of international spelling bee". Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ Bruno, Debra (May 28, 2006). "Word Nerds: Superbright Youngsters Who Vie To Make the Best-Speller List". Chicago Sun Times.
Further reading
- Gormley, Amelia. Verbomania: Experiencing the National Spelling Bee.
- Maguire, James. American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds.
- Kimble, Paige, Trinkle, Barry, and Andrews, Carolyn. "How To Spell Like A Champ."
External links
- SpellingBee.com, the competition's official website
- 2008 Spelling Bee Press Release
- Final rounds of 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee to be broadcast live on ABC during primetime (press release)
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