Published: November 19, 2009 11:17 pm      

SUPER SPELLERS: Borden Elementary hosts statewide spelling contest

Borden Elementary School hosted a battle on the hardwood Thursday evening like it has never seen before. But it wasn’t basketball that had nearly 4,500 Hoosier students pitted against each other inside the gymnasium. And the coaches were teaching their teams more than just Xs and Os.

This was a battle of words and all of the letters in the alphabet were required.

Clad in school colors and armed with nothing but their smarts, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students rattled off — letter by letter — words like boondoggle, hyacinth and umbelliferous in their quest to be the best at the 17th annual Indiana Academic Spell Bowl .

Unlike the increasingly popular and nationally televised Scripps National Spelling Bee, the students participating in Thursday’s event got to write out the words they were spelling and they competed as part of a team. “[The students] enjoy the competition ... and they feel confident about their spelling ability,” said Pat Renn, fifth grade teacher and co-coach from Henryville Elementary.

Renn has been coaching her team with sixth grade Henryville teacher Shawn Turner for several years.

“This type of kid enjoys an unusual challenge,” Turner said. “They enjoy academic challenges.”

Eight students per team, from Borden, Henryville, Jonathan Jennings and Silver Creek elementaries competed in the bowl against each other as well as students from all across the state.

The rules of the event had each child competing individually by being presented seven words and given twenty seconds to spell each word correctly. The competition lasted eight rounds and the number of words spelled correctly were part of an aggregate score for the team.

After the competition is over, the total scores are sent off to the state, tallied up and then the top ten teams in Indiana are recognized, according to Borden Elementary School Principal Myra Powell.

And just like any other team sport the kids participating practiced outside of school and had tryouts to make the team.

The practice paid off for fifth grade Henryville student, Kolin Edrington.

“I really practiced three-days-a-week, for about an hour-and-a-half or so,” he said. “I tried to do it last year, but I didn’t make it so then this year I started practicing more ... and I got on [the team].”

Not only did Edrington make the team, but he led off the bowl notching a perfect score of seven words spelled right.

Edrington wasn’t the only student competing for the first time.

Garrett Burke, a fourth grader at Jonathan Jennings was participating in his first spelling bowl.

“I like to spell and I got a lot of 100 [percents] on my spelling tests,” he said.

Burke said he was excited to compete and thought his team would do well, but expected some though words.

“I like competing,” he said.



SO YOU KNOW

The statewide results of the spelling bowl will be posted at noon today at www.iasp.org

Click on the academic competitions listed under Department Headings, then look for Competition Results at the top of the page