The Middle School Spelling Bee took place on Feb. 11 at the Upper School theater and consisted of 15 middle school students, with the rest of the middle school sitting in the audience. Participants nervously went one by one, spelling out words presented by humanities teacher Tamar Gasko. 

By the final round, eighth-grader Malka Lederman correctly spelled “aversion” to win the spelling bee over two other finalists. 

In preparation for the spelling bee, preliminary rounds occurred in the classrooms. Students took a 25 word test and the top scorer from each classroom was chosen for the spelling bee. 

In preparation for the event, Middle School Language Arts and Social Studies Department Chair Deborah Feigenson-Savoie advised Lederman to practice spelling out words at home with her family. 

“If they gave me a word I couldn’t spell, I wrote down the correct spelling and practiced it,” Lederman said. 

However, eighth-grader Jonathan Gordon practiced differently. 

“My friends and I who were also in the spelling bee, we read words to each other. I think a lot of us watched videos and actually he [Scripps National] Spelling Bee on TV,” Gordon said. 

Each round, Gasko read each word with its most common pronunciation, and students were allowed to ask for an alternate pronunciation and a word origin if necessary. The students did not get multiple chances to spell a word correctly, however. If they said a wrong letter, they were immediately eliminated. The middle school audience, however, cheered for their peers whether words were spelled correctly or incorrectly. 

Lederman became especially nervous when the competition came down to the final three. Her win qualified her for the Montgomery County regional spelling bee.  

“Nowadays, kids don’t really learn how to spell well because we use autocorrect, but spelling’s important, Lederman said. “If you’re writing a letter for someone, you don’t have autocorrect on a piece of paper.” 

Feigenson-Savoie believes spelling bees are a fun and important way to celebrate her students’ talent.

“We need to have a large variety of opportunities for students to show their talents and I think the Spelling Bee provides that opportunity,” Feigenson-Savoie said.