We invite you to start getting ready for Amco’s International

Spelling Bee!
What is the International Spelling Bee?
Amco’s Spelling Bee started as a simple gathering of schools to practice and demonstrate
our students’ English skills. Eight years later, we can proudly say that it has become the
largest Spelling Bee competition in Latin America! The Spelling Bee is just one of the
events in our annual Amco Summit, which also showcases students’ talents in robotics,
makerspace, and debate competitions. This event will take place in July 2023, but schools
that choose to participate will need to hold internal competitions to select the students
who will attend the International Spelling Bee.

Why should your students participate?

The Spelling Bee is about a lot more than just spelling. This event will give students the
opportunity to:

● strengthen their social and emotional skills as well as their academic abilities.
● practice healthy competition and sportsmanship while building a sense of
community.
● have the enriching experience of gathering with and learning from students coming
from different places.
● build essential skills for studying, training, and preparing.
● develop their authentic use of the English language as they reinforce their auditory
comprehension, enrich their vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, and recognize
spelling patterns.

How should you conduct School Spelling Bee Competitions?

We suggest having an internal Spelling Bee competition per grade in your school, following
the rules that are laid out in the following pages. Following the rules precisely will ensure
that your students authentically practice for the experience they will have in the
International Spelling Bee. From each grade level, the school will select just one winner.
This elimination process is detailed in the Rules section of this document.

Your school will receive an Spelling Bee School Competition Kit, which contains a list of
words for each grade, as well as presentations with sentences, definitions, and audio clips of
each word. The lists we send will have 200-250 Regular Words per grade as well as 50
Challenging Words to be used to facilitate the elimination process.

Will the same Word List be used at the International Spelling Bee?
The International Spelling Bee will have two initial rounds of words from the lists delivered
to schools. After these initial rounds, however, the words given will not be from the lists.
The Summit gathers talented spellers from all our schools, and this cannot simply be a
memorization contest. We seek winners that have gone above and beyond to authentically
improve their understanding of the English language.

Don’t worry…we have lots of recommendations for how to prepare on the following page.

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How can your students prepare for the Spelling Bee?
Of course, your students should study the Word List we send to schools. But how can they
prepare for the words they will not receive beforehand? Here’s a list of tips and
recommendations.

1. Read as many books and articles as possible.

Good spellers are always avid readers! Students should read lots of different texts and look
up words they do not know in a dictionary. Then, students should try using the words they
have just learned in conversations, so they stick better in their minds. Students in 5th and
6th grade can enroll in Amco’s Reading Club course in Aluzo, which has many different types
of texts to enrich and expand vocabulary

2. Use a dictionary.
If your student does not already own an English language dictionary, we suggest purchasing
Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary. You can always use the online dictionary, but
many students find the physical book easier to study with. Break study sessions into short
activities, like the following ideas:
- Pick a few pages to read at random. Observe how words build off of others and notice
any root words.
- Pick three words from a random page, practice spelling them, and try using them in a
sentence.

3. Practice being nervous.

Guess what… sometimes the best spellers lose simply because they are nervous, not because
they don’t know how to spell a word! The Spelling Bee can be a little scary. After all, it
requires standing up in front of a crowd. So, like anything, your students will need to
practice. We suggest telling your students to think of the Spelling Bee as a performance!
Students should find ways to practice “performing” by having friends or family members
pretend to be the Spelling Bee Word Caller. The more they practice, the less nervous they
will be at the real event.

4. Study spelling roots and patterns.

Although English words sometimes seem to not follow spelling rules, the way words are
spelled is usually not random at all! Especially for students in upper elementary, identifying
and learning patterns is essential. Familiarity with Greek and Latin roots, as well as prefixes
and suffixes, can help students guess the spelling and meaning of new words. So, make sure
students look up and study root words and affixes.

5. Look out for words that sounds the same.

English has plenty of homophones, which are words that sound the same but are often
spelled differently. For example, the homophones scent, cent, and sent have the same
pronunciation but have very different meanings. Students should look up homophones, and
practice using them in sentences.

6. Use your Amco books and online activities to practice.

Students can find plenty of activities, including spelling quizzes, online in their Learning
Tracker course on Aluzo. They can also use their physical books to study. We suggest
students review all word lists and use texts from every subject to practice their vocabulary.

7. Highlight the most important part of the competition.

The most important thing students should understand is that they are all already winners.
Just by participating, they will be building skills that last a lifetime. Practicing good
sportsmanship and a growth mindset will be just as essential as studying the dictionary, so
make sure this is the attitude students have towards the competition.

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Rules

1. The internal Spelling Bee competitions will be led by the participating school, and the
school will determine who will organize, judge, and carry out the competition. During
these competitions, schools will decide whether to use the provided audios or if the words
will be said aloud by Word Callers. (During the International Contest audios will not be
used.)
2. Students will be standing throughout the competition. If they commit a spelling error, the
judge(s) will indicate this with a bell or any other way the school determines, and the
student will sit down. The student should face toward the judge(s) at all times while
spelling so that the judge(s) can better understand each letter.
3. Once the student has started to spell, they should do so continuously. Pauses for more
than five seconds are not permitted and will result in the student’s elimination.
4. The student should always follow this procedure while spelling:

Open word /spell word /close word

Example: bear / b-e-a-r / bear

The student, BEFORE SPELLING (in other words, they can have opened the word but cannot
have started spelling), can request TWO of the following options in order to ensure they have
understood the word:

Lifelines:

A. Word Caller repeats the word.

B. Word Caller says the word’s definition.
C. Word Caller uses the word in a sentence.

PLEASE NOTE: In the International Spelling Bee at Amco’s Summit, students will only be
able to request ONE LIFELINE.

5. Once the student has begun spelling (having opened the word and begun to spell it),
they are allowed to ask to start over again ONLY IF they have not mistaken by saying, “May I
start again?” If this happens, they should begin the complete procedure again: opening,
spelling, and closing the word. If they do not open or close the word, this will cause their
elimination.

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6. If there is a double letter, the student can either say the repeated letter twice or say the
word “double” in front of the letter. For example:

parrot / p-a-r-r-o-t / parrot

o
parrot / p-a- double r-o-t / parrot

7. Capital letters and special characters, including spaces, should be mentioned by the
speller. If they are not, the word will be considered incorrect.

Example:
Judge: Andrea, please spell “Norway”
Andrea: Norway / capital N - o - r - w - a - y / Norway
(Note that the capital letter was mentioned.)
Judge: Sergio, please spell “far away”
Sergio: far away / f - a - r - space - a - w - a - y / far away
(Note that the space was mentioned.)
Judge: Fernanda, please spell “merry-go-round”
Fernanda: merry-go-round / m - e - r - r - y - dash - g - o - dash - r - o - u - n - d /
merry-go-round
(Note that the dash was mentioned. Students can say “hyphen” or “dash.”)

8. Although this is not a pronunciation contest, the student should do everything possible
to say each letter as clearly and loudly as they can in order to be understood by the judge(s).
If a judge determines that a student should repeat the spelling, the student should repeat
the complete spelling procedure: opening, spelling, and closing the word.

9. The students should do their best to pronounce each letter correctly. They should pay
special attention to differentiating between the letters v and b, c and z, m and n, as well as t
and d.

10. When a student has a spelling mistake and is eliminated, the same word will be
assigned to the next participant until a student spells the word correctly.

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11. The elimination process for determining 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be as follows:

The students in each grade’s Internal Spelling Bee will spell from the Regular Words category
for 30 minutes, or until there are five students or less left, whatever happens first. Make
sure to move on to the next step only when a round has finished completely, to give all
students a fair chance.

For the remaining students, the Challenging Words category will begin at this point. Judges
or assistants chosen by the school will make especially sure to keep track of the rounds at
this point, because elimination for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place is as follows.

All spellers eliminated in the same round are tied for the same place. For example, if
three out of five participants lose in the same round, the remaining students who did not
make a mistake during this round will continue on to compete for 1st and 2nd place, but the
losing students will be tied for 3rd place. In this moment, judges will conduct tiebreaker
rounds between these students to determine the 3rd place winner. Once the 3rd place
winner has been determined, a new round will begin to determine 1st and 2nd place. Once
again, the round has to end in order to get a winner. So, if student A loses, student B has to
end this round spelling the same word correctly in order to win.

ONLY ONE STUDENT WILL BE ACCEPTED per grade per school for the International event,
so the student that will participate is the 1st place winner. The 2nd place winner can serve as
a backup participant should the 1st place winner not be able to attend.

12. The judges are in complete control of the competition. Their decision is final and
unappealable.

13. The participants, parents, school chaperones, and any other person present in the
classroom must remain in silence and avoid making any sort of gestures or
expressions that can distract or give hints to the students. If the judge determines
that this has happened, the attendee will be asked to leave the room.
Everyone present should respect the participants by not entering or leaving the
room while students are competing.

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14. Once the competition has begun, the entrances and exits to the room that are
considered emergencies will be moderated by the judge in order to minimize distractions for
the students.

● Any exit of a participant still competing that has been authorized by the judge may
pause the competition until the student has returned.

● If an attendee or a student no longer participating needs to leave, the competition will

not be paused and the person will not be allowed to enter to the room again.

15. The judges can only speak in English with students, parents, attendees, and school
personnel during the competition. In case anyone requires more information, they should
direct themselves to the people in charge in every room.

16. Taking notes of the words or any aspect of the competition is not allowed and can result
in the removal of an attendee and/or disqualification of any student they accompany.

17. Students cannot bring their Word Lists to the competitions.

18. Once the competition has started, the use of cell phones or any other mobile devices will
no longer be allowed. They must be turned off or in silent mode.

19. Taking pictures or audio recordings during the competition is not allowed.

20. Not following these rules will result in the elimination of the participating student.

21. The rules will be explained in Spanish before the competition begins.

22. All attendees should respect the rules of the competition and the authority of the judges
at all times, setting an example of calmness and sportsmanship; encouraging the student by
transmitting respect, and confidence so that the students can enjoy the competition as
much as possible.

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 We wish you the best of luck, and hope you have a great experience
practicing for the International Spelling Bee.

You are
already a
w-i-n-n-e-r!