Spellbound

Who said spelling has to be dull? Back with the fifth grade yesterday, I gave the students their weekly test in the subject: 18 words, all ending in –able (lovable, likable, usable, etc.), plus three complete sentences, each with another –able word. For added fun, there were to be a couple of bonus words.

Before administering the test, I told the class about my own spellbinding misadventure. Back when I was in the fifth grade, I won a class spelling bee. Any small pride I took in the accomplishment immediately vanished when I learned that my reward was to be entry in a broader community contest at a local VFW post. That second spelling bee required wearing a jacket and tie, and on a Sunday afternoon!

Fast forward to the big day. Peevish about being forced to surrender my free time on the weekend and nervous about the competition, I lined up on the stage with the other children. Here came my first word: “desert.”  The spelling bee’s administrator put it in a sentence: “The desert is a large, dry area of land.”

“Desert,” I repeated. “D-E-S-S-E-R-T. Desert.”

Boing! The rude buzzer loudly proclaimed an incorrect response. Banished from the stage, I had to join the audience of proud parents through the interminable elimination rounds. Speeches praising the winner followed, along with photos of all of the contestants.

I never misspelled that word again, I told the class.

“But how can we remember “desert” and “dessert?” asked Kyle.

You always want a double helping of dessert, I told him, echoing the hint I received too late to be of use to me when I most needed it.

O.K., it was time for their test now. I dictated the 18 words and three sentences. Then, to enliven an expanded bonus round, I asked for volunteers. One-by-one, five different students came to the front of the classroom.  While I held an oversized children’s dictionary, each student in turn, with eyes closed, opened the dictionary and blindly pointed to a spot on the page.

The first bonus word is “eclipse,” I announced.

And so on for several additional words—“planet,” “counter,” “undertone,” and “practice”—stopping twice to veto words I thought too easy for fifth graders: “candy” and “oven.”

“Let’s keep going,” said the class. There was time for just one more—a super bonus word. I would choose. Can you guess the word?

The super bonus word is “dessert,” I said.

All but one student spelled it correctly.