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Malick Secondary Comprehensive speller, Malikah Dyer, poses
with her challenge trophy.
Photo courtesy: MPPA
By
Carol Quash
When Malikah Dyer, Renee Des Vignes, Kurlene Mahabir, Ricardo
Goodluck and Christian Samuel signed on to enter their school’s
first ever spelling bee competition, they had no idea of
the challenges and benefits they would derive from this
venture.
The five Malick Senior Secondary school teenagers beat out
ten other contestants to make it to the final round of the
competition, where they were subjected to 20 gruelling rounds
of spelling words with which even the most erudite among
us struggle. In the end, it was 14-year-old Dyer who walked
away with the challenge trophy, having gained just a few
points more than second and third place winners, Des Vignes
and Mahabir. But the anxiety that plagued them during the
competition paid off, as the teens say they are now armed
with a vocabulary to be envied by most of their peers, and
a better knowledge and understanding of their potential,
strengths, and weaknesses.
Preparation time
Preparation for the competition definitely took some extra
effort, and the five each unearthed their own unique method
in their approach to getting ready to defeat the competition.
Dyer made good use of her retention ability, coupled with
the ever popular good night’s rest, while Mahabir utilised
her lunch hour and the assistance of one of her teachers
to keep on top of things. Goodluck retained the services
of a private tutor (a neighbour), and also made use of his
friends, while Samuel engaged the assistance of his entire
English class.
“Miss
split the class in two and made us compete against each
other,” he recalled. Des Vignes relied on her natural
ability, and perhaps some luck. “I didn’t study
much. I just learned the words I felt like learning.”
Fortunately for the teenagers, their English teachers were
supportive enough to make their preparation part and parcel
of the respective everyday lessons in the lead-up to the
competition.
And what role did the parents of the finalists play in getting
their babies in tip top spelling shape? The five concurred
that they received top class support, especially from their
moms. An embarrassed yet pleased Samuel admitted, however,
he felt his mother, Lucy Gibbs, “overdid it” when
she assumed the role of his “one man cheering squad.”
It was a claim she did not deny, but did not take offence
to. “I am always encouraging him to do his best. In
fact I encourage all my children, because when they achieve,
I achieve,” she said. Every award they receive, I don’t
care how small or how big, I am proud and I will shout.
It tells me that I did something right. Why take that away
from me?”
Birth of bee
Prior to the movie Akeelah and the Bee, spelling bee competitions
were almost unheard of in this country. Apart from the regular
oral spelling tests that crop up time and again in English
classes, there was nothing remotely close to a spelling
bee. So what prompted this novel idea at the school?
Well, according to Malick Past Pupils Association (MPPA)
representative Raenelle Mitchell-Thomas, she was the mastermind
behind the competition. “The idea came to me last year
while I was invigilating the CXC English Language exam.
MPPA
representative Raenelle Mitchell-Thomas, centre, is flanked
by spelling bee finalist from left,
Renee Des Vignes, Christian Samuel, Ricardo Goodluck, Kurlene
Mahabir, and Malikah Dyer.
Photo: Keith Matthews
A
literary challenge
Based
on what was written on the cover pages of some of the answer
sheets, I realised that many of the students had a problem
with spelling, and that phonemic awareness needed to be
addressed.” She said she felt that in order to combat
the problem she needed to start from the source. “And
that was how the idea of a spelling bee was born.”
Planning and implementing
Mitchell-Thomas, the MPPA President Sheldon Thomas, and
three other past pupils took up the planning challenge,
and the rest was history, literally. She said one of the
most challenging experiences for the committee was getting
the early rounds of the competition on schedule. “All
three official rounds took place at the school, but we were
forced to keep re-scheduling because the school had a major
water problem, and there were a lot of other things going
on at the same time. But I kept at it because I didn’t
want the competition to fall through the cracks.”
She admitted that the response to advertisements for participants
in the competition was poor, especially from the Sixth Form
students. “We were thinking that they were the ones
who would have come forward to enter, but the response came
from the lower forms. Of those who showed an interest, only
15 were consistent.”
The choice of words were varied in terms of rules governing
the English language, and were categorised into form levels.
All the rounds, with the exception of the finals, she said,
were held in a private setting because the competing students
were not used to being in the spotlight in front of large
audiences, and the committee did not want peer pressure
or unkind comments by their schoolmates to scare them out
of the competition.
However, two weeks prior to the finals, there was an anxiety-easing
mock final round in the school’s auditorium, in which
all 15 students were called upon to participate.
This better prepared the finalist to shine, as they did,
before the entire school body at the finals on January 18.
Mitchell-Thomas said she thinks the real test of the abilities
of the five finalists was the fact that the words they were
required to spell were at the Sixth Form level.
The Spelling Bee has established itself as an annual event
at the Malick Secondary Comprehensive.
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