How to conduct a Spelling Bee competition in schools.

SpellBytes
4 min readOct 12, 2023

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A few days ago, while I was simply surfing the internet, I stumbled upon a spelling bee news article about the recent Scripps National Spelling Bee contest. The coverage and attention amused me; the competition was getting. I was wondering how it would be to conduct a spelling bee competition in schools at places where spelling bee is not very popular. This thought has been in my mind for a long time, and I’ve been researching how to introduce the spelling bee competition to the schools around me. In this blog, I’ll be writing about the possible steps that will be involved in conducting a spelling bee contest in schools around us. The first step would be creating awareness among the people who are unaware of spelling bee contests.

Introduction- What is a Spelling Bee?

scrambled text for spelling bee learning

A typical spelling bee is a contest where competitors, typically students, must spell words aloud. It is a well-liked instructional activity that emphasizes expanding vocabulary and spelling abilities. In a spelling bee, contestants are given words that get harder as they go, and they must spell them all correctly in front of judges and spectators. But in the present era, a lot of different questions are introduced including antonyms, synonyms etc.

Perks to Students

Participating in the spelling bee comes with a lot of academic and developmental perks. Commenting on the benefits of spelling bee contests; it improves a student’s vocabulary, speaking skills, memory, and confidence. Spelling Bee at higher levels usually involves words that are not used in daily conversations. Hence preparing for a spelling bee contest with quality materials will help the students to boost their academic skills in higher classes.

How to Conduct a Spell Bee Contest in a School

announcing spelling bee competition

The first step involved in the conduction of any event would be the setting of eligibility criteria. The spell bee contests are mainly focused on school-going students. Setting up proper eligibility criteria is important to make sure that the competition provides a fair field for the participants. It’s also important to ensure that the participants have acquired enough basic academic levels to engage in a spelling bee contest.

While conducting a spell bee contest in school, it’s usually conducted grade-wise to ensure equal chances of winning for the group. Age-wise splitting of levels, in general cases might not be able to ensure equal chances due to many reasons.

As a part of their curriculum children will be studying or will be improving their vocabulary, but for attending and winning a spelling bee contest children should be ahead of their usual school curriculum-based vocabulary. Using quality learning material will help a lot in boosting a child’s vocabulary level. For ex- Wizycom’s SpellBytes learning portal is a unique approach to preparing students for spelling bee contests. It has grade-wise materials that prepare students not only for the spelling bee contest but for their overall development in English Language skills.

Another important part of organizing a spell bee contest is having a well-prepared word list, which will be asked during the contest. Different spelling bee contest can have their own pattern of questions according to the organizers set up. So, the materials can differ. Organizing a model exam before the actual exam can help the students boost their preparation and get familiar with the exam pattern. As in the case of most exams, the Spelling bee contest consists of purely knockout rounds. It’s either in or out at any level. Ideally, the organizers should have well-prepared materials and support features to help the students prepare for the exam.

In schools usually, the preliminary rounds of the exam are being conducted. The further levels will be conducted at a larger level.

The most important thing a student must understand is each contest they attend is a pathway to continuous learning. Each spelling bee stage boosts their confidence and their curiosity to proceed further in the field of vocabulary.

The amalgamation of modern technologies available in the conduction of a traditional spelling bee contest is something that can be very interesting. It was what the Spellbytes International Olympiad was providing the students with. Their coming-of-age technology-based tools are going to change the perspective of students and parents alike toward the spelling bee contest. Check out the Spellbytes portal to learn more about it.

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SpellBytes

A SpellBee platform with the best interactive learning portal and organizers of the Global Spelling Bee competition, SIO (SpellBytes International Olympiad).