MATTOON – Spelling education today is about more than oldlearning jingles like “i” before “e” except after “c.”
Young spellers can depend on technology with spellcheck programsthat offer hints and prompts. There are creative ways throughtechnology to show how word building works.
But on Friday afternoon at Mattoon Public Library, several dozenMattoon Middle School students were asked to stand and deliver theright spelling of words without the help of computer wizardry. Thethree winners of the MMS bee will advance to the Coles CountySpelling Bee later this month.
The students were being asked to hammer out words like a wordsmith.some had the sparks flying, while others flickered out. they wereexperiencing the challenge their parents and grandparents havefaced long before them during past spelling bees.
In that spelling education has not changed.
“Spelling is not about knowing every single word,” said MMSassistant principal Denise Titus. “It is learning about how wordsare built. it is about problem solving, and knowing the tricks,word structure and language.”
Rachel Stuart, a MMS language arts teacher announcing the wordsduring the schoolwide spelling bee, explained students’ use oftechnology can help and hurt their spelling skills.
“Spellcheck helps their spelling because it helps correct errorsthey might not catch. But texting taking down their spellingbecause they are texting so quickly,” Stuart said.
Titus said the irony of students’ use of technology is how thecomputers and the social media keep adding new words to thedictionary each year as any adult mystified by newer verbs like”retweet” and “unfriend.”
“Technology language is like their slang. The students are more upon those terms than we are as adults,” Titus said.
As the initial rounds progressed during the bee, some studentsrealized they had to depend on the sound of the word and then tryto visualize the word as they built it mentally.
That can be a new challenge as American culture becomes morediverse. But the mixing of languages into American English isnothing new.
But when you’re growing up bilingual a spelling bee can produce atug-of-war in your head. Different languages have different soundsfor different letters.
“I think it’s easier but I get confused sometimes. The ‘J’ inEnglish sounds like an ‘H’ in Spanish.,” said Jessica Ruiz, a MMSseventh grader from a household that mixes English and Spanishregularly. “Spelling is one of my favorite subjects. I do thinkEnglish is easier to learn. But I do want to learn more aboutwriting Spanish.”
Some students might shrug their shoulders when it comes to learningspelling with all the technological shortcuts. Eighth-grader LukeCollings thinks that is a big mistake.
“If you don’t know how to spell throughout your life it willdefinitely hurt you. It’s an important skill,” said Collings, wholike Ruiz and many students stumbled in Friday’s bee.
Contact Herb Meeker at or 238-6869.
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