Each newspaper can send up to two spellers to the national competition. The competition is open to students in grades four through eight, Wilson said. Contests usually start at the classroom level, and top spellers end up representing their schools at the district competition. All the students nationwide study the same vocabulary list provided by the national organization, Wilson said. During a competition, students are given a word, and they can ask the pronouncer for a definition, to use the word in a sentence or to repeat the word.
Students can then spell the word out loud or write it on a board.
If a word is misspelled, the next competitor gets a new word. The contest continues until one student is left and spells the last word correctly.