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I just sent a long rant to the classics list. I do this every so often to stir them up. They need something besides debates on politics and the occasional mention of Latin and Greek. Here's what I wrote:
***
So, I want to know, if you are teaching a methods course for future Latin teachers, are you using Paul Distler's _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_ and if not, WHY NOT?
Rant time. :)
I have three observers this semester. I have had two books out with ordering information (off the web) for each for them to look at. The first book is the above mentioned book http://www.styluspub.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=47552.
And the other is Dexter Hoyos's _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_. CANE sells
it:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/cane.htm.
There is no other book on pedagogy like Distler's book. In fact, I may go back up to school where I left it because there's some things in it I wanted to reread this weekend. It's an incredible text that addresses issues of teaching Latin like no other book. It's DENSE with information and ideas for rigorous, effective teaching.
One of my observers never took Latin in high school, has never seen JCL events or anything like that, and in fact (in my eyes) it's a wonder she got hooked on Latin because it sounds like her Wheelocks Latin instructor was another facilitator (just a guide for the book) instead of a true TEACHER.
She instinctively knows she's not prepared for teaching, but wants to believe the university line that after participating in their shadowing program, taking methods and doing student teaching, that she will be ready.
But the real shame is that NO ONE seems to be using Distler's book as the MUST-READ that it is, ESPECIALLY for a methods course. No grad student should be allowed to teach a Latin course without having read it, quite frankly, and yet we all know that all too often TA's are tossed in and teaching Latin becomes a sink or swim sort of thing.
And there's absolutely no reason for that when there is a perfectly good (extraordinarily good) book, back in print, that should be required reading of anyone stepping in front of a group of students no matter what age the students are.
The Hoyos text I've talked about before. It was a true eye-opener in what was wrong with my approach to reading Latin and how to improve it--how to teach myself to read from left to right and to get students to read from left to right too. I SWEAR, IF I HAD HAD THIS AS AN UNDERGRAD I WOULD HAVE BEEN *B*R*I*L*L*I*A*N*T*. I certainly would have gone straight into grad school. (And now I feel like I need to wait until my kids are grown.)
Have you assigned this text to any of your students, undergraduate or graduate? Why not--it's cheap! AND IT MAKES SUCH A DIFFERENCE, especially with prose.
I'm waiting for the day when a person comes to observe me who says, "Oh yes, I was *given* Hoyos' book when I first declared my Latin major." It hasn't happened yet. I have shown the book around the classics department in the past at UT and got polite nods but no one ever assigns it. Quite frankly, if I were teaching a prose author--ANY PROSE AUTHOR--I would require the Hoyos text along side of the Latin. EVERY TIME. EVERY LEVEL. Teaching Livy?
Order your favorite Livy text AND Hoyos. Cicero? Add Hoyos. Tacitius?
Definitely add Hoyos. Wouldn't you rather feel like you are spending a class READING an author and not DECODING or merely GOING OVER LINES?!!!
Even if you don't have much of anything to do with the methods courses taught in your department, consider purchasing and reading these two books.
In fact, get some extras (esp of the Hoyos book because it's cheap) and give it away to an undergrad you love. It may make all the difference in the world to their future career.
(rant over!)
***
Maybe one day the professors will catch on. Truly, training teachers to be EXTRAORDINARY teachers should be challenging, not just something that is done... not fluff... not a course that no one seemingly wants to teach or one that seems to have no direction. Teaching may be an art, but it isn't abstract art.
***
So, I want to know, if you are teaching a methods course for future Latin teachers, are you using Paul Distler's _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_ and if not, WHY NOT?
Rant time. :)
I have three observers this semester. I have had two books out with ordering information (off the web) for each for them to look at. The first book is the above mentioned book http://www.styluspub.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=47552.
And the other is Dexter Hoyos's _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_. CANE sells
it:
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/cane.htm.
There is no other book on pedagogy like Distler's book. In fact, I may go back up to school where I left it because there's some things in it I wanted to reread this weekend. It's an incredible text that addresses issues of teaching Latin like no other book. It's DENSE with information and ideas for rigorous, effective teaching.
One of my observers never took Latin in high school, has never seen JCL events or anything like that, and in fact (in my eyes) it's a wonder she got hooked on Latin because it sounds like her Wheelocks Latin instructor was another facilitator (just a guide for the book) instead of a true TEACHER.
She instinctively knows she's not prepared for teaching, but wants to believe the university line that after participating in their shadowing program, taking methods and doing student teaching, that she will be ready.
But the real shame is that NO ONE seems to be using Distler's book as the MUST-READ that it is, ESPECIALLY for a methods course. No grad student should be allowed to teach a Latin course without having read it, quite frankly, and yet we all know that all too often TA's are tossed in and teaching Latin becomes a sink or swim sort of thing.
And there's absolutely no reason for that when there is a perfectly good (extraordinarily good) book, back in print, that should be required reading of anyone stepping in front of a group of students no matter what age the students are.
The Hoyos text I've talked about before. It was a true eye-opener in what was wrong with my approach to reading Latin and how to improve it--how to teach myself to read from left to right and to get students to read from left to right too. I SWEAR, IF I HAD HAD THIS AS AN UNDERGRAD I WOULD HAVE BEEN *B*R*I*L*L*I*A*N*T*. I certainly would have gone straight into grad school. (And now I feel like I need to wait until my kids are grown.)
Have you assigned this text to any of your students, undergraduate or graduate? Why not--it's cheap! AND IT MAKES SUCH A DIFFERENCE, especially with prose.
I'm waiting for the day when a person comes to observe me who says, "Oh yes, I was *given* Hoyos' book when I first declared my Latin major." It hasn't happened yet. I have shown the book around the classics department in the past at UT and got polite nods but no one ever assigns it. Quite frankly, if I were teaching a prose author--ANY PROSE AUTHOR--I would require the Hoyos text along side of the Latin. EVERY TIME. EVERY LEVEL. Teaching Livy?
Order your favorite Livy text AND Hoyos. Cicero? Add Hoyos. Tacitius?
Definitely add Hoyos. Wouldn't you rather feel like you are spending a class READING an author and not DECODING or merely GOING OVER LINES?!!!
Even if you don't have much of anything to do with the methods courses taught in your department, consider purchasing and reading these two books.
In fact, get some extras (esp of the Hoyos book because it's cheap) and give it away to an undergrad you love. It may make all the difference in the world to their future career.
(rant over!)
***
Maybe one day the professors will catch on. Truly, training teachers to be EXTRAORDINARY teachers should be challenging, not just something that is done... not fluff... not a course that no one seemingly wants to teach or one that seems to have no direction. Teaching may be an art, but it isn't abstract art.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-24 10:12 am (UTC)Nice to have found a bona fide classicist on LiveJournal. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-24 02:51 pm (UTC)This book should have been properly printed and from time to time I rattle cages making demands from publishing friends to buy the rights from CANE (Classical Association of New England) and get this book circulated. No more miss nice and quiet and polite for me. I'm ready to tell the publishers that they are fools. One day they'll listen to me. hahahahhahahahahahaha!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-24 03:23 pm (UTC)There may be a problem with payment. If you've read my own blog entry that was inspired by yours (BTW, do you actually use your Friends Page, as you don't seem to have any LJ friends defined?), you'll know about the difficulties of paying across the pond by anything other than credit card...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-24 04:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 04:44 am (UTC)I got a copy of Hoyos' book on your recommendation, and will hopefully get hold of Distler's too sooner rather than later.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 07:56 pm (UTC)It's really a thought provoking book.