Spelling Bee

by Katie Thwaites,
Teacher of Modern Foreign Languages

After having noticed common spelling mistakes when marking exercise books, I decided to organise a Spelling Bee as a starter for one of my classes.

Minimal preparation was required- I added the names of the students to a name generator and gave each student a mini-whiteboard. The chosen student came to the front of the class and had to spell a word of my choice in the target language. At the same time, all other students wrote down their spelling of the same word. If the chosen student misspelt the word, I would then choose a different student to read out their answer.

The name generator would then select the next student, and the game continued until the same student was able to spell at least three words correctly; for which they received a Pause Plus Point.

It was an engaging way to focus on the common errors, particularly prior to assessments!