Danbury student heads to regional spelling bee

March 13, 2017

Fifth-grader to compete for spot in national contest

For Alexandra Ilardi, a fifth-grade student at Stadley Rough School, a good memory and a love of words were the winning combination at her school's spelling bee in February. Now Alex is headed for the regional bee in less than two weeks to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Bee in Washington, D.C.

This year, the school's spelling club started in October with 33 students in the fourth and fifth grade and, by the Feb. 23 school spelling bee, it was down to just 13. Spelling the word “exacerbate” in the finals earned Alex the school title.

“I think she knew in her heart this was her time,” said Marc Poliquin, Stadley Rough teacher and spelling club coach. Poliquin noticed Alex’s potential as a champion speller back in the third grade, and she’s been working with the club ever since.

On March 25, Alex will be one of nearly 100 competitors from across the state at St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford. The finalist will represent Connecticut in May at the national bee. Alex is sponsored by the Noah Webster House.

Alex said that the most helpful tips from being in the club with Poliquin are those for languages, which include characteristics of each. For instance, Alex said, in Dutch there are irregular vowel blends, in Greek there is no letter “f” but rather “ph,” and Italian has lots of double consonants.

“I’m exposed to so many new words and can use them in writing and speech,” Alex said of the advantages of studying spelling.

“We focus on language origin tips to use as an aid in spelling,” Poliquin said. “Alex is good at applying language origin tips and commonalities.”

At the spelling bees – both regional and national – competitors are allowed to question the language of origin, what part of speech, the definition, alternate pronunciation and use in sentence.

Alex tries to memorize as many words as possible, but also relies on language of origin and pronunciation.

At least one student from Danbury has qualified for the regional competition for the past eight years. Three students have competed in the national bee.