On Saturday, April 23rd, Río Real, a K-8 Dual Immersion school in the Río School District hosted for the 1st annual county wide Spanish Spelling Bee/Concurso de Deletreo, in Ventura County. Students from Río SD, Ventura Unified, Ocean View SD, Oxnard Elementary SD, and University Charter Schools, participated in the Spanish Bee. Students competed much like in a traditional bee, however in the Spanish Bee students have to denote letters like y griega for “y”, b larga for “b” and b corta for “v”. This makes competition much more of a challenge for students who have to know the rules of accent marks, diuresis and the silent h. Although it seems like students who are native speakers have an edge, several of the finalists in our Bee were students who entered a dual language program in Kindergarten as English only speakers.
When we provide programs and competition in Spanish, we elevate the level of the language, increase student engagement and it also has an effect on acceptance of other cultures and languages in our society.
Student who placed in each category are: 3-5th grade 1st place Brianna Velasco, Río Real, Río SD, 2nd place Nicola Hammond, Montalvo Elementary in VUSD, 3rd place, Noe Espinoza, Juan Lagunas Soria, OESD. In 6th-8th Grade 1st place Angelique Ibarra, Río Real, Río SD,, 2nd place Kai Paris, Anacapa MS, VUSD,, 3rd Place Diego Knowlton, Anacapa MS, VUSD.
The 1st place winner of each grade level category in our local Bee is now eligible to compete in the National Spanish Spelling Bee on July 16-17 in San Antonio, Texas.
Judges for the competition were: Dr. Antonio Jimenez Jimenez, Professor of Spanish and Language Department Chair at California State University Channel Islands, Dr. Ana DeGenna, Director Curriculum and Instruction, VCOE, and Consuelo Williams, Director Curriculum and Instruction, VCOE.
