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HABLA ESPAÑOL?
City Schools Host First Spanish Spelling Bee
Posted: March 18, 2015
By AMELIA BRUST
HARRISONBURG — Many have heard of the
Scripps National Spelling Bee, which had its
regional contest in Harrisonburg last month,
but another event is debuting in the area this
year for students to demonstrate their
non-English language skills.
City schools are competing in the National
Spanish Spelling Bee for the first time to see
which students have the best “vocabulario.”
Nine fourth-graders competed at W.H. Keister
Elementary on Tuesday for the school title.
Kristy Rios Ramos, 10, took first place, and
Cynthia Puerto-Ramirez, 9, took second. The
National Spanish Spelling Bee is sponsored by
publishing group Santillana USA, in association
with the New Mexico Association for Bilingual
Education and the Alliance for Multilingual
Multicultural Education.
Spanish teacher Kimberly Lindberg organized
the bee to promote bilingualism and biliteracy
at Keister. This year, the school has 231
students with limited English proficiency —
about 45 percent of the student body —
according to the division’s Sept. 30 enrollment
data.
Kristy Rios Ramos, 10, reacts to winning the
National Spanish Spelling Bee at Keister
Elementary School on Tuesday. This is the first
year city schools participated in the Spanish
Spelling Bee. (Photos by Austin Bachand / DN-R)
“No matter what happens, you are all winners,”
Lindberg said to the participants before the
contest began.
The crowd of third- and fourth-graders, as well
as faculty and some parents, waited in silence
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Cristal Acosta Cruz (left), 9, and Kristy Rios
Ramos, 10, both fourth-graders at Keister
3/18/15, 7:30 AM
DNRonline
as each speller approached the microphone
with a whiteboard to write out their word. After
each correct spelling, the judges remained
silent. If incorrect, a judge would hit a small
bell.
http://www.dnronline.com/articles/print_preview/habla_espanol
Elementary School, talk about the bee during the
awards ceremony. Kristy took first place.
Students had to give the Spanish pronunciation
of each letter, including any accent marks or
tildes in the word. This was the downfall for
three of the spellers, said judges Sonny
Rodriguez, a home-school liaison, and Regina
Shultz, school nurse.
The Spanish alphabet contains 30 unique
letters. Some combinations or variations, like
“ch” and “?” have unique sounds. For example,
in Spanish the letter “n” is pronounced
“en-neh,” while the letter “?” is pronounced
“en-yeh.”
Kimberly Lindberg, a Spanish teacher at Keister,
introduces the students before the competition
begins. Lindberg organized the bee for the school.
The bee lasted six rounds with Kristy winning for “asado,” or “roasted” in English. She was
the last remaining speller as Cynthia misspelled “pol?tico” and Byron Diaz-Aceituno, 10,
misspelled “chorizo.”
In the seventh round, Byron took third place after he forgot the accent in “?ltimo,” while
Cynthia won second place for correctly spelling “koala.” Although koala comes from the
Aboriginal Australian Darug language, the term is the same in Spanish.
“What courageous students we have here,” Principal Anne Lintner said.
Kristy, Cynthia and Byron will compete against the top three spellers each from Spotswood
and Smithland elementary schools and Thomas Harrison and Skyline middle schools. The
division Spanish spelling bee will take place at THMS on April 8 at 7 p.m.
Contact Amelia Brust at 574-6293 or [email protected]
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3/18/15, 7:30 AM