fun & games? or teaching reading, etc.

I posted this to the Ecce list the other day.... I noticed that no one made a comment.

****
>Hi - this is an issue I've struggled with for a long time - it's easy
>enough
>to create "fun" grammar & vocab games when that material is new, and then
>the expectation once you get to the 3rd, 4th & 5th years is that all you're
>going to do is read and translate.

I balk at this. I know exactly what you mean, but it doesn't mean the end
to the fun unless all you do is old school "read X lines for homework and
we'll go over it tomorrow."

We need to increase oral skills; we need to get to a point where we are
teaching Latin more as a language and not as something to decode.

If we are teaching expressed reading skills from day one and have that as
the focus instead of too many gimmicky games, then perhaps by the time
students are at more advanced levels you can discuss the literature--perhaps
in Latin--instead of piecing together Latin.

My current Latin 3's (got through half of book 2 last year) were telling me
that all the forms and grammar were force-fed to them last year but they are
having problems integrating it all. Why? Because there is this assumption
that if you memorize it all then in your later years of Latin you will learn
how to assimilate it. WHY NOT teach students how to assimilate it from the
very beginning, incorporate more oral Latin, and even have students write
summaries in Latin from very early on so that Latin 3 isn't about "can I put
it together" and "is this tedious"?

Frankly, the way I read and make them read outloud we can prevent the
tedious aspect of this.

There are other ways to deal with passages than translation. The Vergil
unit I've done with 8th graders involves writing a film scenario instead of
actually writing out a translation, and gets them more in touch with the
Latin than writing out a translation. And after only teaching this 2 years,
I've read the passage (sea serpents scene) enough that I practically have it
memorized.

It's all about internalizing the language, and not just figuring out what it
means, having that meaning transferred to your pencil and onto the paper and
out of your body forever, which is what too many students do. They figure
out the Latin, they don't absorb it.

But I'm rambling now. Sorry. (Not enough sleep! Too much grading!)

For more on film scenarios, read
http://www.txclassics.org/ginny_articles2.htm.

ginnyL

Because, I think, when we study Latin in
>college & grad school, that's what reading is all about. It's a big shift
>for high school kids, even when they've been using Ecce - because you're
>going from having new material to learn to integrating it all.
****

Maybe I didn't make my point clear or maybe they thought I was a stick in the mud.

I do know what they are saying. There are ways of making the basics of Latin, the early morphology, all fun and games. Perhaps this is why middle school teachers/level 1 teachers get a reputation of too much fun and games. I use games too--nothing like a little hot & cold game where the students hide my little stuffed dog, I leave the room to count then return, and then I look for the dog while the students all chant the target set of whatever loudly or softly until I find the dog. This is good for learning new forms of sum, or this week we've used it to make sure everyone has mastered the first 3 declensions. I don't care about 4th and 5th--is that a lousy attitude?

Maybe I am lousy in this regard; maybe I should be one of those Latin teachers who says go home and memorize it all and then regurgitate it to me.

My Latin 3s had plenty of that with their previous teacher. 8 bright kids who did nothing but take it home and then regurgitate and move on to the next thing. And if that's all we do, then when it comes time to reading serious Latin they choke. Or they could care less. I can't *wait* to do the Vergil unit with them....

We *have* to teach reading skills. We should be teaching more in Latin all together. I keep slipping back into too much English on tests, I think. Well, in part this is admittedly because I just can't do it all--4 English classes, Latin 1 plus the split level 2/3. I don't even know if I have the original tests on file electronically anymore so I'd have to retype the whole thing, wouldn't I? Probably.

(This is one of those new teacher things (take note, future new teachers): you can't do everything the exact way you'd like or you'll totally burn out before the year is up. Have goals. I always say I have a 5 year plan--a plan to incorporate more oral Latin, to incorporate more this, more that. Give yourself TIME to become excellent.)

I do a lot of metaphrasing for warm-ups. Sometimes for other things too. I want students to understand how a sentence builds, how to read from left to right, how to APPLY those new forms IN THE LANGUAGE and not just do tedious exercises.

I haven't decided whether I regret my decision to keep the students on Ecce. I feel I hate the text more and more because I want the stories to REINFORCE the new grammar, and I don't feel they do. I don't feel they do much at all, not compared to Cambridge. I want model sentences. I want LOTS of passages to reinforce the language.

I'm half thinking about letting the 3's have a sustained silent reading day after the quiz--reading through the CLC unit 1 as far as they can. But maybe that's just me being a wimp. I know I really need to push on with them. I really do.

I guess my problem is that I'm still lost with exactly how to tackle Ecce. I guess I have conference and lunch to figure out what they're doing. Then I better figure out what they're doing next week while I'm gone! (I'm going to Bouchercon with Lindsey and Michelle!!!! Yippeee!!!! Madison WI here I come!)

But I'm rambling, aren't I, as usual?

At least my Latin 1's are sharp and progressing nicely. The freshman need watching, but the rest are good. I did my living map of Pompeii for stage 3 yesterday--pushed back the chairs and made Pompeii in the room. Kids became the city wall; I handed our cards with "turris" on them for the 11 towers, some with porta for the 8 gates, some with ad urbem X (whatever the city was) to go with each gate, etc. I put down butcher paper for the three main streets and we walked the town after we put it together. I tried to do much of this in Latin. I made notes the night before when I thought of doing this all in Latin, but I didn't use everything. The point is I tried to teach culture IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE. The goal is right; must just keep striving toward the goal.