On the Spelling Bee

I hope you enjoyed watching Akeelah and the Bee recently in class. Although the movie was made in 2006, it still accurately shows how competitive the Scripps National Spelling Bee is, and how different the spellers can be from each other sometimes.

The Scripps Bee has been going on in Washington, D.C. since 1925. The movie accurately portrayed the pressure and that many spellers have coaches, but only touched on the fact that the best spellers READ a lot. If you look at the link to right called "Local Spelling Bee Finalists give advice," you will hear some of them tell you how important reading is to learning new words and spelling correctly. Another thing they say is to think of the words "in syllables," which is something we have been doing all year.


The school has said they will put our official school rules on our school web site by Friday, 5/18. But they have given us some guidelines already, and I will put them below:

-          Spelling Bee

-          First Round in Class

-          Should start from next Monday till the last day of May.

-          The final round student list should be ready by the end of May 31.

-          Grade 1 and all the junior highs are not in the final round

-          G2-4:G4-6&6C

-          6/7: Grade 2-4 (period 7-8)

-          6/8: Grade 5-6 (period 7-8)

-          Location: Gym (parents will be invited)

-          Final Round Rules

-          The word will be repeated twice by the judge.

-          Contestants need to say the word then spell, and then say the word again. For example, Book b-o-o-k book.

-          The first letter must be spoken out within 10 seconds. If contestants cannot open their mouth until the 11th second, then they are out.

-          Contestants need to spell correctly within 20 seconds.

-          The word must be spelled at once.

-          Students have only one chance.

-          It’s okay for students to ask the judge to repeat the word and ask for a definition.

-          The first 3 rounds, spellers will be given on grade words. The following 4 rounds will give out words that are mixed within the same group.

-          Until the 11th round, judges will give out words that belong to the next 2 grades.

-          In the very end, we will start to use the challenge list.

                                - If the student is absent in the final round, it means that student has giving up.

A couple of more points:
Grades 5 & 6 Teachers will manage the younger students (Grades 1 to 4) and Teachers from grades 1 to 4 will manage the spellers in Grades 5 & 6.

There will be a practice session for grades 5 and 6 during period 1 on June 6 in the gym.


I wish all of our spellers good luck, and have fun with the contest!

We want to say congratulations to the winners of the in-class contest we did last week:

Anna, Shaunna, Lucas, Tim, Amy

They will represent our class in the grades 5 and 6 spelling bee on June 8th. You guys need to know grade 5 and 6 words well, and if you want to win I suggest studying the grades 7 and 8 lists. If you are reading regularly, that helps. Read more English materials or novels and be a machine about looking up new words!

Dear Students,

Welcome back to school! After Lunar New Year Break it is hard to get back into good study habits again, but that is the best thing for you. I recommend you use your best exercise and sleep habits to help you with your studies. Going to sleep early and getting 8 hours of sleep each night is quite helpful, as is getting at least a half hour of activity each day which makes you sweat. Another good habit is to study for a half hour as soon as get home after school, certainly before playing any games. Depending on what time you get home, it may be reasonable to eat first or say hello to your family!

What I want to remind you about now is that there are some students who still have not handed in their winter break homework. You either had to write about something interesting you saw or did during this past Lunar New Year vacation or else you would have to finish the movie review you already got. If you still have not finished, please finish it by this week. You can download the needed files on the right side of the blog.

I would also like to mention that the school needs people to write good articles for the Yoder Magazine, so if you have something interesting to write about, for example a hobby or interesting experience you want to share, please talk to me or teacher Jacob.

Oh, another thing that has changed this semester is I have decided to try to simplify things with tests. Before I was asking students to show me their parents have signed the test, but now I am not asking for that. I am also not using Zip Grade for shorter tests, only for longer exams. If there is a problem with your test score, meaning you got under a 60%, then I will contact your parents by email or by using your communication book.

I hope your semester goes well and that our class keeps developing its study skills and English!

Storytelling Contest

We will have an in-class competition for the storytelling contest. We need to choose the top two students by the end of November. So we will be using all available time to let students read or recite their stories in class. During the real contest, you will need to memorize the story. I have heard the story must be 3 to 5 minutes long. I need to check on the exact time and make your stories shorter so you can finish them in the required time.

Here are the assignments:

A Androcles and the Lion (5 minutes)

B Icarus and Daedalus (7 minutes)

C Damon and Pythias (7 minutes)

D The Battle of Marathon (11 minutes)

E Pegasus, the Winged Horse (11 minutes)

Androcles & the Lion	Icarus and Daedalus	Damon and Pythias	The Battle of Marathon	Pegasus, the Winged Horse
Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E
Hazeline	Marcia	Vic	Lucas	Serenna
Stephanie	Oliver	Anna	Brian	Alice
Yvonne	Astor	Ryder	Eagle	Eason
Tim	Kaiwon	Una	Wish	Livia
Renee	Jamie	Maggie	Toby	Amy
Ricky	Jay	Weber
Kyle	Wendy

Students do not need to read either the “about the story” or the “a few words more” parts when reciting their story. The first time, or round, you are allowed to read from the paper in class. The goal, however, is to memorize it. You will need to have eye contact with your audience and to put feeling into the words. 

Because there was a soccer competition during our second class on Friday, I could not hand out the papers to students. I have uploaded them here for you. You may get the original story any time by clicking on the pages you see below. It is a scan, not a typed document in Microsoft Word:

A – Androcles and the Lion 1

A – Androcles and the Lion 2

B – Icarus and Daedalus 1

B – Icarus and Daedalus 2

B – Icarus and Daedalus 3

C – Damon and Pythias 1

C – Damon and Pythias 2

D – The Battle of Marathon 1 

D – The Battle of Marathon 2

D – The Battle of Marathon 3

E – Pegasus, the Winged Horse 1

E – Pegasus, the Winged Horse 2

E – Pegasus, the Winged Horse 3

E – Pegasus, the Winged Horse 4 

Some of the information you see here can be found on the "5B Storytelling Assignments" link to the right. I will also give it to the class as a handout on Monday with the paper copies of the stories.

I have described "memorization method 1" called "the Loci" method, which was used in ancient Greece and Rome. "Loci" is related to the word "location," and is plural, so it means "locations." 

The way to use it is to memorize your speech out loud in familiar locations. You could use your home, your school, or another place that is easy for you to remember. However, you need to say the speech out loud there and memorize it while in that location.

I described it to you like this in class: If I have four paragraphs to memorize, I would imagine walking through my front door, and then I would be in my living room. So I would memorize the first paragraph in the living room my reading it out loud many times there. Then the second room I might choose would be my kitchen. There I would say the second paragraph and remember it by associating it with that room. Then the third paragraph is memorized in the computer room, and the fourth in the bedroom. This is the natural way for me to walk through my house. Then, when I am nervous on stage, and I forget my place, I simply walk through my house in my mind, and I can easily remember the part of the speech I had forgotten. It may take a moment but I must calmly go the same steps I did while practicing.

I also describe a more advanced way called "backwards buildup," but that works for words you cannot pronounce, or for sentences or even for speeches. You start from the end and go the front. I suggest using this after you are more familiar with the story. But some students use it from the early stages of their memorizing. I also heard about this when I was playing piano for recitals. You basically get stronger at the end of the piano piece or at the end of the piece, because you have spent more time learning it. 

If you combine both methods I have just described, you start with the last paragraph in your bedroom, the the third paragraph in your computer room, then the second paragraph in your kitchen, and finally the first paragraph in your living room. If you forget something you walk through your home backwards. If you are new to speeches, I suggest just going forwards the first time. But if you do a speech every year and get good at them, this might be a good change for you to try later.

Remember, you need feeling in your sentences, eye contact, and to memorize your speech. The first step is to be able to pronounce all the words correctly. Start right away and ask for help if you need it, because I want to help you!

Welcome to Our Class Blog

Hello 5B Students! This will be our place to post some announcements, and for me to put some information for you on how to be a better English learner so you can do well in our L.A. class. But there may be some other interesting things for you here, like riddles, questions, or materials for class.

Our upcoming exam is on November 8, and I am going to put more information for you about the test here soon. I will try my best to get you a study guide today! I hope you can start using Quizlet to learn the vocabulary better.

Enjoy your Friday and weekend!

Teacher Rob