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I'm sure I've spoken about this elsewhere, but I've answered this question on two different lists lately. So I thought I'd put one of the replies here:
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On the National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week website at http://www.promotelatin.org/nltrwrfaq.htm#advice
I have the following:
***
Do you have advice for someone who wants to become a teacher? How about for someone training future teachers?
Yes. Anyone who is considering teaching should read the flyer, "So You Want to be a Latin Teacher?" It offers excellent advice about coursework, books to read, and skills that need to be mastered before becoming a teacher. Professors advising and training future teachers will find a wealth of advice, articles and books that should be incorporated into the methods course curriculum.
Recently, there has been some question raised regarding teaching at the middle school level, the amount of academic rigor that can be demanded or whether it is all fun and games. A thorough and thoughtful treatment of teaching Latin at the middle school level can be found in "The Principles of Learning in a Middle School Latin Classroom." While focusing on issues specifically related to teaching at the middle school level, this article will be instructive for those also teaching high school. Instructors are also asked to consider the article, "Teacher Prep: New Ideas, New Approach."
[links to these articles are on the actual website listed above]
***
I try to do more oral Latin teach year as well as to write instructions in Latin on the agenda and on the warm-up (praeparatio). I frequently greet students at the door with a question in Latin and offer prompts on a white board. For instance, today it's really windy here (beats the 100+F weather we were having) so I had quod caelum est? plus the choices of fulget, pluit or ventosum est. (We had done weather terms for fun after a test a few weeks ago.) But I might have a grammatical question of sorts or something that reviews what we are learning. For instance, for sing/pl nominatives, I will ask quot sunt Unus canis et duo canEs? Thus they see singular and plural noms and practice the plural. (I will be holding some toy McDonald dogs...) I might ask perfEcistIne pEnsum as well....
Once class is going, I will use many instructions, such as dEpOnite librOs et libellOs or scrIbite nOmen tuum et diem hodiernum in paginA.
I read the stories in CLC outloud to them, often a couple of times, as part of the prereading activity. I also have them read with me. I have a set of sentences per stage--just a couple of lines--that we practice and they have to phone in and leave on my voice mail for me to grade with a simple rubric. I have them read sentences. I sometimes (but not often enough) use questioning in Latin--quis, ubi, quid facit, etc. when we go through a story.
This year I've been trying something new with the last story in each stage. I write a micrologue of 4 key sentences from the story, draw pictures on an overhead (no Latin or very little--pointing to things), and then teach the story to 1 student (the four sentences) while the rest of class writes them down as dictation. After telling the story in Latin that go with the pictures many times, I ask questions of the student who's learning it, do the sentences again myself, and then have that student try. Afterwards, I do some oral substitution drills. Yesterday it was Caecilius _servum_ quaerit. We subbed in a variety of words in the accusative. We'd practice the sentence several times and then focusing on one row at a time I'd point and snap at a kid and give them a new word in the accusative which they would have to sub in. I hope to work up to transformations. This is strictly oral/aural with nothing written in front of them. The rows compete for perfection and chocolate. :)
The colloquamur posters (which need some minor revisions, admittedly) can be found at their new location at http://www.promotelatin.org/downloadablematerials.htm.
Do look at the first link at the NLTRW site listed at the beginning of this note. The flyers mentioned there also list books and other things that are really worthwhile to know about and own WELL BEFORE you enter the classroom.
Hope that helps.
****
On the National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week website at http://www.promotelatin.org/nltrwrfaq.htm#advice
I have the following:
***
Do you have advice for someone who wants to become a teacher? How about for someone training future teachers?
Yes. Anyone who is considering teaching should read the flyer, "So You Want to be a Latin Teacher?" It offers excellent advice about coursework, books to read, and skills that need to be mastered before becoming a teacher. Professors advising and training future teachers will find a wealth of advice, articles and books that should be incorporated into the methods course curriculum.
Recently, there has been some question raised regarding teaching at the middle school level, the amount of academic rigor that can be demanded or whether it is all fun and games. A thorough and thoughtful treatment of teaching Latin at the middle school level can be found in "The Principles of Learning in a Middle School Latin Classroom." While focusing on issues specifically related to teaching at the middle school level, this article will be instructive for those also teaching high school. Instructors are also asked to consider the article, "Teacher Prep: New Ideas, New Approach."
[links to these articles are on the actual website listed above]
***
I try to do more oral Latin teach year as well as to write instructions in Latin on the agenda and on the warm-up (praeparatio). I frequently greet students at the door with a question in Latin and offer prompts on a white board. For instance, today it's really windy here (beats the 100+F weather we were having) so I had quod caelum est? plus the choices of fulget, pluit or ventosum est. (We had done weather terms for fun after a test a few weeks ago.) But I might have a grammatical question of sorts or something that reviews what we are learning. For instance, for sing/pl nominatives, I will ask quot sunt Unus canis et duo canEs? Thus they see singular and plural noms and practice the plural. (I will be holding some toy McDonald dogs...) I might ask perfEcistIne pEnsum as well....
Once class is going, I will use many instructions, such as dEpOnite librOs et libellOs or scrIbite nOmen tuum et diem hodiernum in paginA.
I read the stories in CLC outloud to them, often a couple of times, as part of the prereading activity. I also have them read with me. I have a set of sentences per stage--just a couple of lines--that we practice and they have to phone in and leave on my voice mail for me to grade with a simple rubric. I have them read sentences. I sometimes (but not often enough) use questioning in Latin--quis, ubi, quid facit, etc. when we go through a story.
This year I've been trying something new with the last story in each stage. I write a micrologue of 4 key sentences from the story, draw pictures on an overhead (no Latin or very little--pointing to things), and then teach the story to 1 student (the four sentences) while the rest of class writes them down as dictation. After telling the story in Latin that go with the pictures many times, I ask questions of the student who's learning it, do the sentences again myself, and then have that student try. Afterwards, I do some oral substitution drills. Yesterday it was Caecilius _servum_ quaerit. We subbed in a variety of words in the accusative. We'd practice the sentence several times and then focusing on one row at a time I'd point and snap at a kid and give them a new word in the accusative which they would have to sub in. I hope to work up to transformations. This is strictly oral/aural with nothing written in front of them. The rows compete for perfection and chocolate. :)
The colloquamur posters (which need some minor revisions, admittedly) can be found at their new location at http://www.promotelatin.org/downloadablematerials.htm.
Do look at the first link at the NLTRW site listed at the beginning of this note. The flyers mentioned there also list books and other things that are really worthwhile to know about and own WELL BEFORE you enter the classroom.
Hope that helps.
