Schools

Siblings Soar in City Spelling Bee

The Biggs kids both represented Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School downtown.

To Wilson Biggs, participating in Philadelphia Tribune/Scripps Regional Spelling Bee might have been old hat. That is until his sister, Elliot, began to give him a run for his money.

The siblings represented at the citywide spelling bee, with first-timer Elliot following in the footsteps of veteran brother, Wilson, .

"My dad was pretty excited that we both got it," Wilson said.

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"It was really fun. My dad was planning on making us T-shirts that said 'Team Biggs,'" Elliot said.

Both Biggses qualified against a pool of talented Cook-Wissahickon students. Now an eighth grader, Wilson returned to his second finals against other sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Elliot was in the fifth-grade division.

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Held at the High School of the Future, the event brought together students from schools across Philadelphia.

At first, Wilson breezed through his words—easily spelling "mentor" and "ingenious." However, number three, "contrapuntal," which is a music term meaning "with two or more independent melodic lines," threw him off.

"It's an Italian word I'd never heard of before. I said 'p-u-n-t-l-e,' but it was 't-a-l,' so I spelled it wrong," he said.

Wilson said he was confident, but Elliot said she had some jitters.

"It was my first time, and I was freaking out," she said. "I was one of the first people to get the words."

Elliot made it through the first round by correctly spelling "bungalow." However, like Wilson, an Italian word befell her—"Parmesan."

"I got all the e's and a's mixed up," she said.

Each of them trained independently, but closer to the finals, Wilson and Elliot began studying together with their mom helping.

"We kept going back and forth, but neither of us got 'Parmesan,'" she said.

Seventh and eighth language arts teacher Jose Ramos coordinated the local spelling bee for the first time. Next year, he said he will alter the spelling bee study plans.

"I know that the coaching aspect needs to be tweaked... In terms of languages, we'll definitely look at more Latin-based words," he said.

Though they both excel in language arts, Wilson said he's more interested in science and math. Last week, he took home second place at the George Washington Carver Science Fair for an Earth science exhibit. He plans on attending the Science Leadership Academy for high school.

Elliot considers herself more of a creative type.

"I love music, and I love art," she said.


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