१३ एप्रिल, २०१३

Now, as in real life, at the National Spelling Bee, it's not enough to know how to spell words...

... you need to know what they mean.

३९ टिप्पण्या:

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Marriage n. -?

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

Then it's not a spelling bee, is it?

Christy म्हणाले...

For the life of me, I cannot figure out the significance of your headline.

I usually know the meanings of words but can neither spell nor pronounce them.

Bill, Republic of Texas म्हणाले...

tt's? I know tatas but I don't tt's

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

I drive a TT.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

But yeah, I misspelled "it."

I went out on the first round.

The pre-test.

dreams म्हणाले...

I like it for as the sportswriter Bill Plaschke said on the Around The Horn ESPN show that now they have to play the whole game rather than rely on trick shots.

Bill, Republic of Texas म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Bill, Republic of Texas म्हणाले...

Ann Althouse said...
I drive a TT.

4/13/13, 12:10 PM

That explains it (I guess). I was thinking it was more a Murphy's Law thing.

Known Unknown म्हणाले...

Will is be one of the words? Because, according to recent history, there are wavering definitions.

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

I think that's a fun change to the format.

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

spurl
blurgits
plewds
watarum
briffit
growlix
nottles
jarns
quimp
agitron
dites
emanata
solrad
lucaflect
indotherm
squeans
wafteron
vites
boozex
nittles
sphericasia
whiteope
oculama
crottle
swalloops

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

The students preparing for spelling bees will learn a lot more this way. Plus, it's exciting in that it throws off the highly systematized study methods that have been developed for bees. Will be interesting to see how these methods adapt.

Unknown म्हणाले...

St George
I think you misspelled white hope.

edutcher म्हणाले...

In the old days, they'd tell you the meaning because, if you'd been exposed to Latin and/or Greek, you could figure out the spelling.

Now they change the rules.

If you like your bee, you can keep it...

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

What?

I thought I was home free when I leaned how to spell.

Dante म्हणाले...

Spelling Bees never made much sense to me. Memorization. It reminds me of the Scrabble players.

Even with meanings, it's still memorization. That's what google and spell checkers are for.

Unknown म्हणाले...

It's more than memorization.
It's knowing how language works, knowing root words, knowing word origins and spelling conventions from those origins.
Or, it's an ability to memorize, or having a photographic memory.
Or none of the above.
All I know for sure is I'm not very good at it.

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

It's linguistic knowledge and the ability to design efficient study systems more than memorization.

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

It's also team-building, usually within families. You can't win all on your own.

samanthasmom म्हणाले...

As a teaching tool, spelling bees suck. The kids who need the most help learning to spell are the ones kicked out of the game first. A better way to teach spelling would be to let the kids sit down when they spell a word correctly. But then we'd get accused of ruining the self-esteem of the last kid standing.

Iconochasm म्हणाले...

St. George, are those uncommon words, or some of the newer Pokemon?

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

I don't think spelling bees are intended to teach spelling to kids generally. I think it's more of a study system competition between elite studiers.

अनामित म्हणाले...

"Hairless. H-A-I-R-L-E-S-S. Definition: the most horrible way a woman can be."

Peter

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

"Marriage n. -?"

Really?

The state of being united to a person in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.

Unknown म्हणाले...

As if writing most line code isn't just rote and memorization but I bet you think coders are super creative right? Spelling bees are like the one nerdy thing that connects us to our lingusitic and cultural past and tradition so its a shame that's going to be undermined.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

They should have the faint kid back.

Fritz म्हणाले...

I learned a new word yesterday, 'olecranon', when I went to the Dr. because mine was swollen. After hearing him pronounce it I had no clue how it was spelled; I would have guessed it started with an e or an a. Learn something everyday. Sometimes, it's just not a good thing.

Patrick म्हणाले...

Well Fritz, I hope the ol' cranon gets healthy.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

You know what sucks about real life?

The fantasies.

Dante म्हणाले...

wyo sys:

It's knowing how language works, knowing root words, knowing word origins and spelling conventions from those origins.

Isn't that too memorization? I may have mentioned it before, as an engineer, I wasn't very happy with my English GRE scores. So I memorized a bunch of words and my score jumped over 30%.

ndspinelli म्हणाले...

The kid who won the San Diego regional Spelling Bee won w/ the word "bonspiel." A difficult word for kids in SoCal, but easy for Badger and Gopher kids.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

A spell to spell and dispel a notion that we are a nation of appalling spelling.

jr565 म्हणाले...

.Spelling bees measure spelling,not vocabulary.
There are some words in there you might be able to spell but have no clue as to meaning. And prior to now you could have someone ask the judge for the meaning. This sounds more like a really hard vocabulary competition

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

It's only the opening test that includes meaning.

Seems like they're trying to get a more well-rounded set of language mavens.

Eric Jablow म्हणाले...

Can you imagine a Scrabble™ tournament with this rule?

cheddar म्हणाले...

The girl who won our elementary school spelling bee won by spelling LAHAR. Previous year's winner won with KNAVERY. I think the national competitors are freakishly intense and I wouldn't recommend that my child devote that much time to studying words but at the school level the bee is pretty fun.

cheddar म्हणाले...

The girl who won our elementary school spelling bee won by spelling LAHAR. Previous year's winner won with KNAVERY. I think the national competitors are freakishly intense and I wouldn't recommend that my child devote that much time to studying words but at the school level the bee is pretty fun.

cheddar म्हणाले...

and I think knowing the meanings at the local level would be very useful, too.