SPELLING BEE GUIDE - TeachingBooks.net€¦ · The school spelling bee enters its final,...
Transcript of SPELLING BEE GUIDE - TeachingBooks.net€¦ · The school spelling bee enters its final,...
By the award-‐‑winning team who created The Twelve Days of Kindergarten, The Twelve Days of Winter and The Twelve Days of Springtime
EDUCATOR’S GUIDE TO THE SPELLING BEE BEFORE RECESS The school spelling bee enters its final, nail-biting round—two finalists, one minute to
recess, and no one is winning! When the principal throws in a great big word as a tiebreaker, the spellers must spell and tell what the word means.
Who will triumph, and who will strike out?
In 2013, the year the book was published, Scripps National Spelling Bee changed its rules to require all spellers not only to spell each word, but tell what each word means. Common Core Standards 2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. 2.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g. regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem or song. 2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. 2.6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud. 3.5 Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections. 3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. About the author and illustrator Deborah Lee Rose is an internationally published, award-winning author of 14 children’s books (deborahleerose.com). She lives in California. Carey F. Armstrong-Ellis is an internationally published, award-winning author/illustrator (slugworksrocks.com). She lives in Maine. For a school or conference visit, email Jason Wells at [email protected].
www.abramsbooks.com
From THE SPELLING BEE BEFORE RECESS
What famous poem is the book based on? The Night Before Christmas Is this book fiction or nonfiction? fiction, inspired by true events Who is the narrator telling the story? The Slugger Where and when does the story take place? at school, right before recess The Slugger uses metaphors from baseball to describe what’s happening and how he’s feeling. What do you think these phrases mean? —“Kids called me ‘The Slugger.’” [he loves baseball and is a strong hitter] —“I never struck out.” [he always wins] —“…took my best swing” [he tried his best] —“my turn at bat…” [his turn to spell] —“…dug in my cleats” [he tried really hard] —“The words flew like fastballs right over home plate.” [it was hard for him to keep up] —“…in the ninth inning…” [the spelling bee was almost finished] —“I was out.” [he spelled his word wrong] —“I’d been benched.” [he was taken out of the spelling bee] —“Like a batter who hears the ump’s cry of ‘Strike three!’” [feeling like he struck out] Why do you think a spelling bee is like a baseball game? Each speller is like a team, each one gets multiple turns, each one wants to win. How does the artist illustrate the spelling words in the story? She combines different words/images in the illustrations, like a laughing llama. What does Smart Ruby know that The Slugger doesn’t? She knows the meaning of the winning word. What does sesquipedalian mean? It means inclined to use big words.
Where can someone find the meanings of words? In the dictionary!
“Colorful, expressive illustrations support the excitement and anticipation created
through the text. This story will fill a need in school libraries for books about spelling, vocabulary, sportsmanship, and school community-‐‑building.”—School Library Journal
“I enjoyed and laughed my way through this epic spelling bee story.”—USA Today
“...the story unfolds with ease, wit, and frequent baseball metaphors. The telling works
exceptionally well...A lively picture book.” —Booklist
AUTHOR’S NOTE To create this book, I looked at hundreds of spelling words in lists from public and private schools across the country. I chose words from many school subjects and themes, including animals, language arts, the environment, science, and math, as well as words that allude to everyday kid stuff. I also chose words with lots of varied sounds and letter combinations,
and rhyming words with different spellings, so this book is a lesson on many levels!
Sesquipedalian became the tiebreaker because Tom Chapin uses it in his wonderful song “Great Big Words,” and it’s a word that helped clinch victory for a real-‐‑life national spelling
bee champ. Plus the misspelling of it in the story includes the word “alien,” which kids probably do know how to spell! The fact that it means “inclined to use big words” was perfect, and being able to teach its meaning along with the spelling was so much fun.
To this day, I remember my own elementary school bee when I misspelled “similar”
as though it rhymed with “familiar,” and thus began my love affair with the dictionary.
“Cute characters, lively rhymes, ample word lists and a good level of dramatic tension bolster
the clear message that to succeed, you must understand the meaning of words— not just memorize spellings—and the key to that is reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle