The path to the New Mexico State Spelling Bee

Adrian Gomez, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
·4 min read

Mar. 19—On Saturday, March 23, spelling bee champions — 25 of them — will compete for the title of the New Mexico State Spelling Bee champion.

Each speller can participate in anywhere between 15 to 25 rounds of spelling, depending on their successful spelling.

This is how they got there:

ENROLLMENT: Interested schools register with the Scripps National Spelling Bee program and gain access to online resources to coordinate their school's spelling bee program.

RESOURCES: Throughout the entire progression, the students all use the "2024 Words of the Champions" resource from Scripps.

The words are divided into levels of difficulty so teachers/school bee coordinators can use them for classroom, school and district bees, selecting the appropriate level words.

The New Mexico State Spelling Bee does not use vocabulary meaning (end of the word list) in state competition, but the national competition does.

CLASSROOM SPELLING BEE: There is no minimum age limit to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program, so many schools hold classroom spelling bees first with age appropriate resources and words. A student cannot turn 15 years old before Aug. 31 of the fall semester to compete.

SCHOOL SPELLING BEE: The first level for many schools, this bee brings together skilled spellers from a variety of grades, competing to correctly spell the same words across the grades. The school recruits volunteers from the school and community to serve as officials who manage the bee, including:

Pronouncer — pronounces each word to be spelled, determines/announces if word was misspelled, answers allowed questions:

Can I have the definition of the word?

Could you pronounce the word again?

What part of speech is the word?

What is the language of origin?

Can you please use the word in a sentence?

I don't understand the word, can you give me any other information?

Chief Judge — Moves the spelling bee through the process: Guides the "Practice Round" using easy words so spellers can practice approaching the microphone (adjusting it if necessary), practice listening to the word pronounced, saying the word back to the Pronouncer, spelling the word and returning to their seat.

Judges — Listen to word pronounced and spelled, provide input if questions arise about whether the word was pronounced and/or spelled correctly, help with rulings.

Audio Recorder — Records the speller spelling the word.

Timekeeper — Keeps track of the allotted time for the speller to spell the word, rings a bell if the time is up before the speller has finished spelling and has to stop.

Appeals Official — Receives appeals' forms filed by parent/school bee coordinator/teacher, works with officials to review audio recording, assists with ruling.

Dictionary Consultant — If necessary, consults the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, the official dictionary of the Scripps Spelling Bee Program, to affirm the correct spelling of the word in question.

School Spelling Bee — Divided into rounds, with all spellers participating in the first round. As spellers misspell words, they drop out and the next round continues with the remaining spellers until a speller wins the final spelling round, then correctly spells the Champion Round to win.

DISTRICT SPELLING BEE: Same process as above with the champions from the district's schools "districts" can be: school districts, counties, other geographic or school system areas, determined by the district spelling bee coordinators.

Some are grouped by type of school:

ABQ Multi-School District — mostly non-APS schools like charter, private.

ABQ Parochial School District.

Sandoval County District — Non-RRPS schools in and around Sandoval county.

Multi-State District — schools in isolated areas around the state.

For example, APS had 50 schools in their district, so only allowed one school bee champ to progress to the District Bee.

Smaller counties/districts with only three or four schools might allow each school to send up to three (the maximum number of champs per school) to the District Bee for a more robust bee.

ONLINE STATE QUALIFYING SPELLING BEE: This year there are 55 spellers from around the state, so the test is online to avoid travel. The champions of the District Bees progress to the online State Qualifying Bee according to this formula: For every five schools in the district, the district can send one champ to the online SQB.

Spellers for the SQB take the test at their school in a private room with a school official as proctor. Both speller and proctor must sign an integrity and assurance pledge and return it to me to be eligible to progress to the State Spelling Bee.

STATE SPELLING BEE: Same process as school and district bees. The top 25 scorers from the online SQB (regardless of district or school) progress to the State Spelling Bee.

For the State Spelling Bees, Scripps sends the pronouncer's guide with 350 words from the "Words Of the Champions" (that the students have been studying), as well as 150 words from the dictionary. Awards are presented to the top three spellers.

All 25 finalists receive a medallion.

NATIONAL SPELLING BEE: The National Spelling Bee is held in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area the week of Memorial Day weekend.