Spell it out: Paris’ Champs-Elysees hosts mass ‘dictation’ event

Paris’ most famous street the Champs-Elysees was transformed into an open-air mass “dictation*” spellathon, pitting* thousands of France’s brainiest bookworms* against one another.

Revealing a very French love affair with words, over 50,000 children and adults applied to participate in the event, a world first, in which hopefuls attempted to transcribe* a text read aloud to them without making any mistakes.

Over 5000 applicants aged from 10 to 90 were chosen to participate in three sessions led by novelist Rachid Santaki.

With 1779 desks laid out on Paris’ most famous boulevard* each session, organisers tried to break the world record for a dictation spelling competition.

In the first round, an excerpt* from a French novel by renowned* writer Alphonse Daudet was read by journalist Augustin Trapenard.

The competition went beyond French literary classics, with a sport themed round read by rugby player Pierre Rabadan, and another with a contemporary flavour read by writer and journalist Katherine Pancol.

Marc-Antoine Jamet, president of the Champs-Elysees Committee which hosted the event, said it went beyond spelling.

“Dictation helps us to live together. It’s unifying,” he said.

Australia’s very own Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee will return in Term 3. Administered by Kids News, registrations open July 24.
More information and entry details will be announced at kidsnews.com.au

POLL

GLOSSARY

• dictation: speaking or reading words aloud for someone else to write down
• pitting: causing someone to compete against another person or thing
• bookworms: people who love words, books and reading
• transcribe: to make an exact written copy of spoken material
• boulevard: a very wide street in a city or town, often lined with trees
• excerpt: generally short section taken from a book, document, script, composition or film
• renowned: well known and thought of very highly

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QUICK QUIZ

1. Which famous Paris street hosted the mass dictation spellathon?
2. How many adults and children applied to participate in the event?
3. What was the age range of participants?
4. How many desks were laid out along the boulevard each session?
5. How many people were chosen to participate?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Summarise the article
A summary is a brief statement of the main points of something. It does not usually include extra detail or elaborate on the main points.

Use the 5W & H model to help you find the key points of this article. Read the article carefully to locate who and what this article is about, and where, when, why and how this is happening. Once you have located this information in the article, use it to write a paragraph that summarises the article.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English; Science

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.