Westside school spells success
Their teachers aren’t ready to declare a spelling dynasty.
But after schoolmates Emma Johanningsmeier and Jenny Solheim made consecutive trips to the semifinals of the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, their teachers at Westside Middle School do concede there’s something great going on.
“It’s a delightful development,” said seventh-grade English teacher Sarah Schoenrock.
Westside Community Schools in Omaha enrolled 6,023 students last year, making it Nebraska’s seventh-largest school district.
Emma tied for 20th in last year’s national bee. She misspelled “dysautonomia,” a disorder of the nervous system. She was the first Nebraska speller to advance to the national semifinals since Sarah Mirza of Grand Island in 2007.
Jenny tied for 19th place this year, bowing out on the word “scopolamine,” a medication for motion sickness.
Both girls are voracious readers and driven to succeed, their teachers say. They study hard, compete fiercely and have parental support.
In addition, teachers at the Westside district have taken steps within the bee rules to accommodate the high-achieving girls so they can chase their dreams of a national spelling championship.
In the run-up to the Midwest Spelling Bee, which draws kids from Nebraska and western Iowa, Kristen Job, Westside’s excellence in youth coordinator, provided the girls with supplemental books, guides and word lists to help them hone their spelling skills. Job arranged for the girls to do independent study in her room.
“We make time in their schedules so that they can focus at least a good 40 minutes a day on the spelling bee,” Job said. “You just have to sit and read the dictionary and you have to look at the words and you have to break them down. There isn’t a lot of time to do that in the regular classroom.”
The girls used the extra time to study the etymology of words — that is, the history of changes to words, such as the Greek and Latin roots, and how the different parts fit together.
Official rules of the Scripps bee require that spellers take a normal class load and not focus entirely on studying for spelling bees. The rules say a student must take at least four courses of study other than language arts, spelling, Latin, Greek, vocabulary and etymology for at least four hours per weekday during the school year.
The two Westside girls have competed against each other since elementary school. Each made it her goal a long time ago to qualify for the national bee, Job said.
Second Grade Spelling Words - News
Migration was a powerful word that resulted in some very powerful change for many people. My second encounter with a "gration" word came in the mid sixties. I was going into fifth grade and had little notice or warning as to how this "gration" word
"They may be motivated in the second grade, but in the third grade, everything just clicks. Sometimes, that's what learning is for kids." One other reason, said School 49 third-grade teacher Bonnie Severson, is that kids might not be getting the help
“We make time in their schedules so that they can focus at least a good 40 minutes a day on the spelling bee,” Job said. “You just have to sit and read the dictionary and you have to look at the words and you have to break them down.
Schlehuber and second place finisher Amanda DaSilva went back and forth for 14 words in the final round, before Schlehuber had the opportunity to spell disaster and chemical to clinch the win. The 5th Grade Spelling Bee, held Wednesday morning at the
When I was in the fourth grade, you know, back in the cave, the teacher asked one of my classmates to write out all the spelling words for the year on slips of paper. She chose him because he had pretty neat handwriting, but I was incensed because my
Second Grade Spelling Words – Free 2nd Grade weekly List ...
Use two sentences from the list during each spelling test. After writing all the spelling words, students write the sentences as you read them. This helps ensure that students are making the connection between the spelling words and how they are used in context. It also allows you to check and correct problems with language conventions such as capitalization and punctuation.
Second Grade Spelling Words - Bookshelf
Making Words: Second Grade, 100 Hands-On Lessons for Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Spelling
How to Teach Your Dyslexic Child to Read, A Proven Method for Parents and Teachers
When the child is about to complete the second second-grade reader (fifty ... They study the week's spelling words nightly, get an A or B on that week's ...The American journal of education
Second Grade. — Fifth Render, Speller, Intellectual Arithmetic, Written Arithmetic, ... Spelling words read, (orally.) Music — Reading and rote singing. ...Get Ready! for Standardized Tests: Grade 2
Expect your second grader to incorporate more multisyllable and irregularly spelled words into her spelling repertoire. Most second graders begin to ...Curriculum-based assessment, the easy way
The teacher refers to die complete 2nd grade spelling word list or a unit which focuses on that skill, and selects five words that contain short vowels (one ...Information Search Directory
Second Grade Spelling Lists
A complete set of printable Spelling word lists, ABC order worksheets, and word scramble puzzles you can use with your 2nd grade students.
Second Grade Spelling Words | Spelling Help Worksheets and ...
Second grade spelling words and home spelling help. Second grade spelling worksheets and lists of spelling words for a second grade spelling test. ...
Free 2nd Grade Spelling Words / Second Grade Spelling Lists
Have your second grader play games with you too like a modified version of Scrabble or Upwords to practice his or her second grade spelling words. ...
3rd Grade Spelling Words / Third Grade Spelling Lists
First Grade Spelling Words / 1st Grade Spelling Lists / Spelling Activities ... Seventh Grade Spelling Words / 7th Grade Spelling Lists. Other Education Related Sites ...
Second Grade Spelling Word Lists
Second Grade. Spelling Word. Lists. How to use: Day 1 --Introduce new words to child. Read ... Start each day having the child read out the week's. spelling words. ...