School days – Spelling Bee

The SpellMaster calls out D’s word GRASS. D without any hesitation spells out the letters in a confident, strong voice  G-L-A-S-S. The SpellMaster indicates that the spelling is not correct.  D quickly prompts the school coach to protest on the grounds that the SpellMaster did not pronounce the word with sufficient clarity. The contest is halted for some time while this is sorted out, eventually D is allowed to spell another word.

“Ivan, Ivan, Ivan…  it’s your turn.” Ivan spells with the rhythm that the audience finds amusing and then does the trademark hesitation and head scratching routine before belting out the last two letters.

S asks the SpellMaster to repeat the word twice and says the word out loud each time. Following the coaching routine, S then asks the SpellMaster to use the word in a sentence. S is now comfortable to start the process of carefully spelling the word.

C repeats the word after the SpellMaster. On getting confirmation that that is indeed the correct word, C asks the SpellMaster for the Greek root of the word. With the radar in place C is able to proceed with the spelling aspect of the process.