A Survey: Making Latin Fun

I was asked to participate in a survey on how we teachers continue to make Latin fun. For some reason, just the premise of the survey irritated me. Perhaps it's because I've come to see that too many level 1 Latin teachers have made their careers out of keeping Latin fun so their enrollments for level 1 are large--they must be large because their enrollments for Latin 3 and 4 are small.

Ok...that's sounding really crabby. I don't mean it to, but when I was CPL Chair (Committee for the Promotion of Latin) and getting stuff going with National Latin Teacher Recruitment Week, I was having to really think about WHY--*W*H*Y*--programs have problems building on the strength of Latin itself.

Is Latin really that hard? Or do we teach it in a way that weeds out anyone that isn't totally bright and can teach themselves more or less? Ok, still being a bit crabby, but I'm not talented with languages. I'm not fluent. I'm just your average nerdy disciplined student who has the ability to think creatively. I have to work at truly reading Latin, but NOW at least I know HOW to develop these skills. In fact, I told my students last Friday for NLTRW that my goal was to make them better at Latin than what I was.

ANYWAY, here's the survey:
***

> >>1. At what type of school do you teach?
> >>(public/private/parochial/cyber)

Public.


> >>2. Do you teach high school or middle school or both?
> What grades
> >>and/or age levels you teach?

Up until this year I taught at an inner city middle school. I am now in a growing town outside of Austin (TX) at a high school, though I think I will be split between high school and middle school next year.


> >>3. What textbook(s) do you use?

Cambridge Latin Course. I am finishing up the Latin 2's and 3's on Ecce Romani as well.


> >>4. Is the textbook geared for games and/or fun
> activities? Does your
> >>program come with ancillary activities on other media
> (e.g., CD, DVD,
> >>enrichment activities)?

There may well be activities available but I create my own to suit my own philosophical approach to teaching Latin and language acquisition.


> >>5. In general, what do you do in the classroom that
> enhances student
> >>enjoyment:
> >>a. decorate the room

Yes, I have a lot of posters, mainly those which I designed myself that are available through my shop at CaféPress called AnimaAltera (www.cafepress.com/animaaltera). These posters feature sites in Pompeii and Rome. I also have others that are downloadable that I created for NCLG that you can find at www.promotelatin.org.

> >>b. arrange desks

Occasionally, but not too often.

> >>c. give Latin names to students

Absolutely. And the names are used as well as bullas (on test/quiz days). I often can't remember the students' real names!

> >>d. Other

In Latin 1 currently (but not in Latin 2/3 which is split level and pressed for time anyway), we do the weather in Latin. I have rotating jobs and vaticinator/vaticinatrix is one of them. They have a prompt sheet (poster) and picture cards for the weather. The script goes something like this:

"salvete! vaticinator hodiernus sum. mihi nomen est Marcus." The audience then says, "salve, Marce! quod caelum est?" Marcus then replies, having flipped through the cards and found appropriate cards, "sol lucet et ventosum est." The audience repeats the terms. Then Marcus says, "gratias et valete!" and the audience replies "vale!"

We get to practice vocatives, among other things, by doing this and all names are learned. I need to revise what I do with this to include the day of the week, etc.

> >>6. What learning styles do you use that may increase
> student enjoyment
> >>and learning?

I do a wide variety of things--some visual, oral, audio, written, you name it. I'm big on oral, esp when supported with written (to look at) for those who need it. I read A LOT to my students--very dramatically. My captive audience.... I read and read again. I discuss what I do and why and try to build the idea that Latin is a language to be read and spoken, NOT deciphered. Each year I try to do more and more oral Latin in class--more questioning and discussing of the text in Latin, etc.


> >>7. What traditional games do you employ in your
> classroom to increase
> >>student enjoyment and learning (e.g., VINCO - Latin Bingo, popcorn,
> >>Latin Jeopardy, Periculum Latinum, tic-tac-toe)?

I have used flyswatter and will occasionally use calidum/frigidum (where I hide a toy dog and the students chant whatever (sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt, etc) either loudly or softly depending on how close I am to the dog. It's good for getting over the initial hump of troublesome conjugations. But I don't do a ton of games just to keep Latin fun.

> >>8. What games have you developed?

Playing Go Fish (I Piscatum) in Latin based on terminology from a Vives dialog and other research. We play entirely in Latin, working noun/adjective agreement; acc plurals; subj verb agreement, etc. The students think they are just getting a day off, so to speak, from reading Latin, but they are practicing many forms and building up their comfort levels in speaking Latin and expanding their abilities to express themselves outside of the set vocabulary of the game.

> >>9. Have you learned that certain games or activities
> lend themselves to
> >>certain grammatical or cultural topics? Please list and explain.

See above.


> >>10. Do you use crossword puzzles? If so, how do you create them?

Rarely. I'd rather my students actually do something active with the language. Now...if I made up the crosswords in Latin, that might be something else... Hmmm....anything that keeps them in the language would be good....

I do use Puzzlemaker from time to time (online) when I need puzzles, but usually that's for something with my own children at home.


> >>11. What technology do you use in planning and
> implementing lessons?

In PLANNING? I sometimes use PowerPoint, esp for the Latin 3's, for warm-ups, but I don't have access to a projector so I rarely use PowerPoint for the whole class. I use it for warm-ups for Latin 3 because there are only 8 of them and I can build in the answers after they do whatever has been set for them.


> >>12. Do you use www.quia.com, www.linguazone.com, or
> other websites for
> >>planning and implementing lessons? Which ones and how?

Quia. Extensively. Test prep, mainly. www.quia.com/pages/drippinglatin1a.html, www.quia.com/pages/drippinglatin1b.html, www.quia.com/pages/drippinglatin2.html, www.quia.com/pages/drippinglatin3.html.

I use these because I am trying to support learning the language IN THE CONTEXT OF A SENTENCE. Students get immediate, one-on-one feedback, and if my comments in the feedback section isn't enough for them, I am roaming around the room monitoring progress and helping to understand certain concepts--subj/verb agreement, for instance, or when the dative is used, etc.


> >>13. Do you use index cards for games or in an interesting way?

I often drill vocab with large flashcards. Occasionally we play Build-A-Sentence which uses flashcards. I got this from Joe Davenport. It is a structured composition game that is team based. You have two sets of cards that have the same words. For instance, you'd have these:

Ancilla/ancillam (front/back)
Servus/servum
Canis/canem
Est
Portat
Pulsat

Teams go up and you call out an English sentence: The slavegirl carries the dog. The dog hits the slave. The slavegirl is a dog. Etc. The first group to hold up the correct cards wins a point. We freeze, discuss what's right with the one group and what's wrong with the other group. After playing for about 8 sentences, I then put the same sentences on the overhead for students to translate into Latin correctly individually. It's a good way to see who's getting certain concepts and who isn't.


> >>14. Please comment if you have any engaging strategies
> in teaching the
> >>following:
> >>
> >>a. Pictures/drawings/Digital Photos
> >>b. Cultural Projects
> >>c. Festivals (Saturnalia, Lupercalia, Lemuria, Ides of
> March, etc)
> >>d. Philadelphia Classical Society project
> >>e. National Latin Exam
> >>f. National Myth Exam or Medusa Mythology Exam
> >>g. Inspiration
> >>h. Vocabulary
> >>i. Derivatives
> >>j. Movies and or videos
> >>k. Pop Culture
> >>l. Special phrases and mnemonics- “Ham and 5 eggs,” “PAIN” words

Because the perfect tense conjugation is tricky, I use the following song to the tune of 3 Blind Mice:

i, isti, it; i, isti, it
imus, istis, erunt; imus, istis, erunt
You take the 3rd principal part
Drop the i and then you add
i, isti, it, imus, istis, erunt

For regular ending I use most must isn't (m/o, s, t; mus, tis, nt).

I have developed my own model sentences for use with Cambridge until all cases are met:
ancilla puellae statuam dat.
ancillae puellis statuas dant.
dominus servo anulum dabat.
domini servis anulos dabant.
mater* patri infantem dedit.
matres patribus infantes dederunt.

I use these because it keeps the endings in context (declining is artificial) and gives the students something to hang the endings on. They work well. I add on phrases for the genitive and ablative later on, and then eventually teach the noun ending song that's at Able Media. You can't get away from how charts are organized. But more important than being able to decline is being able to UNDERSTAND. Plenty of adults can still decline a noun and tell you about derivatives, but they can't read Latin. I want my students to be able to read Latin first and foremost.


> >>m. Noun and verb endings
> >>n. Other: _______________ (list and explain)

I try to limit my game playing to something that's tied directly with using the language. I don’t do as much as I'd like--partially because of time constraints, partially because of administrivia, etc. But I don't want to play games that only work knowledge level learning. Too many teachers of level 1 Latin do nothing but knowledge level work--memorize this chart, etc--and then hope that students will be bright enough to put it all together. I try to do things that work on the other skills on Blooms Taxonomy, that build comprehension and synthesis and analysis. I try to build in the steps in between--and it's not all games. I do a fair amount of metaphrasing for warm-ups. I might give them a set of nouns in different cases which they have to metaphrase like this:

Ancillam> Someone verbed the slavegirl.
Cani> Someone verbed something to/for the dog.
Hospites> The guests verbed something OR Someone verbed the guests.

I might provide an entire sentence to be metaphrased, esp if it is one that most people messed up somehow on an assignment or test:

(Pulling a sentence at random from the nearest book:)
Subito feles sacra, quam Clemens mulcere solebat, e templo exiit.

Here are the steps they would take (mind you, this is just for a warm-up; we wouldn’t do this for every sentence!!)

Suddenly someone verbed something.
Suddenly the cat verbed someone OR the cats verbed someone OR someone verbed the cats
Suddenly the sacred cat verbed someone (demonstrates how adjectives can disambiguate nouns)
Suddenly the sacred cat, which someone verbed, verbed something.
Suddenly the sacred cat, which Clemens verbed, verbed something.
Suddenly the sacred cat, which Clemens verbed to pet, (and we now easily EXPECT solebat--thus are reading with expectation, as any good reader should), verbed something.
Suddenly the sacred cat, which Clemens was accustomed to pet, verbed something.
Suddenly the sacred cat, which Clemens was accustomed to pet, verbed from the temple.
Suddenly the sacred cat, which Clemens was accustomed to pet, left from the temple.

NOW, my point is that if you are a dynamic teacher, and you read with lots of dramatics, and get your students to read with lots of dramatics, AND you give them the tools to read in word order so that long sentences do not freak them out, then you have made Latin fun WITHOUT ALL THE GAMES.

Yes, it's important to have fun in Latin. But frankly, winning a game isn't nearly as much fun or deeply satisfying as TOTALLY understanding the Latin or being able to speak and read it. My proudest moment last year was during my all Latin week. I was still teaching at an inner city middle school, didn't have a lot of high achievers, but one day we sat in a big circle took turns reading outloud from the beginning of CLC Unit 1. You read as much or as little as you wanted (at least one sentence) then pointed to your neighbor. I had fun reading when it was my turn, and after having read a whole story (that was a favorite of mine), other students realized they could do that too. One squirrelly boy--bright but not a great student--read an entire story (I think about the thief in stage 6) so well and so dramatically and with such personal enjoyment that I went home knowing I had done my job well after all. (It had been a tough year--gangs, discipline issues at school, and being terminated because I spoke up against what the new administration was not doing.)

Fun and games? They have their place. Have your students read outloud and read well--now that's fun.

More on Lifelong Learners of Latin

This was a continuation of the discussion on Latinteach.  Was I out of line?  Perhaps.  But do we want the study of Latin to rely solely on JCL?  Do we?  Should Latin be left as that language that helps you to learn other languages, that helps you to learn English, that affords the opportunity to study mythology and history?  Is that how we've saved Latin?  Is that saving Latin?  

Can you imagine Shakespeare being read the way we dissect Latin?  Can you imagine if English were taught and we told students that we understand learning differences and that some won't cotton to the King's English and thus we won't force it but you can learn mythology instead?  It's ok if you learn about the Elizabethan Age, about they way they dressed, etc, but you never really learn to READ the literature of the age????  Oh, we might take a famous speech or two and dissect it word for word and read it through once--or, worse, have each student read and interpret one line and the whole speech never be read together....

I'm in the minority, I know.  I've just pissed people off with this post, I know.  Too many Latin teachers studied Latin because they were afraid of speaking a modern language.  At what age to we develop that fear of learning languages?  Not in elementary.  It's cool in elementary to speak a secret language.... it's when we develop this need to always be a winner, when grades matter and learning seems to come in second.

Anyway, here is part of someone's comment and what follows is my reply.

****
>I don't think it is my job to make sure that every child becomes a lifelong
>learner of Latin so much as to present material of sufficient variety, and
>by sufficiently varied means, to ensure that there is something for each of
>them to take with them. In other words, they will become lifelong learners
>of SOMETHING if I am catholic enough in my approach. As a new teacher, I
>find this to be the greatest challenge.

While I respect your position because I know it is the position of many, I challenge you to look at the national standards, at your school district's standards for LOTE, etc.  Just because we teach Latin doesn't mean we should ask for a waver on certain aspects because we're not like modern languages--from oral Latin to creating lifelong learners.

And truly, I'm not trying to pick on you or anyone in particular, but just to raise the question: are we creating lifelong learners of Latin, because in the standards for languages that's one of the goals.  We teach culture to enrich the reading process and to make it easier to understand the allusions, etc, and they can be enjoyable in and of themselves.

But we're supposed to be teaching students to read Latin, and we struggle with our arguments to keep programs open when all we can throw out are SAT scores, English writing skills and other aspects of culture which can be covered in other courses.  There's an article today featured in Rogueclassicism (blogsite) where the kids are talking about how much they love JCL and derivatives, etc.  Nice.  Does anyone talk about liking what the Romans had to say???

And...we should all ask ourselves...are we lifelong learners of Latin?  What Latin have you read this week that was NOT part of your curriculum???

:)

***

These discussions are good for me too.  What real Latin have I read with my students this year?  What real do I intend to read?  Do I even have a plan for my Latin 3's this year?  So I'm thinking and starting to plan.  One is a senior going on to possibly Baylor.  Her transcript will read Latin 3, but that won't be what she's gotten--not entirely my fault; I could only take her from where her previous teacher got her.  But she needs to be more prepared, she needs to be able to say she read an author...so why not Martial???  I can pick my own selections that I like for whatever reason, we can read them, discuss them, and then they can perform him. An epigram recital. Might be the right way to end the year....Time to start planning.

A possibility...  but English will take over my life once school starts again.  This is when I totally resent teaching English.  I should be able to put my time where my passion and interests are... but it's just until the end of this year.

 

 

More Martialis: CRAS, as in, don't proCRAStinate

Martialis V. 58

cras te victurum, cras dicis, Postume, semper
     dic mihi, cras istud, Postume, quando venit?
quam longe cras istud, ubi est? aut unde petendum?
     numquid apud Parthos Armeniosque latet?
iam cras istud habet Priami vel Nestoris annos
     cras istud quanti, dic mihi, possit emi?
cras vives? hodie iam vivere, Postume, tardum est.
     ille sapit quisquis, Postume, vixit heri.


The translation from the Loeb:

You say you will live tomorrow, Postumus, always tomorrow. Tell me, that tomorrow, Postumus, when is it coming? How far off is that tomorrow? where is it, or where will you go to get it?  Is it hiding in Parthia or Armenia?  That tomorrow of yours is already as old as Priam or Nestor. How much, tell me, would that tomorrow cost to buy?  Will you live tomorrow? It's already overlate, Postumus, to live today. He is wise, Postumus, who lived yesterday.

WOW.

Who are these Romans that we study?  Who is Martial?  He was raunchy, outspoken, and clever.  He apparently had a wife, but seemed keen on boys as well.  He could say the meanest, vilest things about people, poke fun at others' misfortunes... and here he is, with the ultimate of truths.

You can't live for tomorrow.  Carpe diem, fine, but Horace is a bit challenging and too lofty for the average reader/listener perhaps. But here it is for anyone to get, using the name Postumus--how apt.   And not even live for today, but pointing out that whoever has lived YESTERDAY is wise.

We don't know what will happen to us.  We can't say we're going to do X tomorrow or next year and know that can happen.  This year I've seen the worst of car crashes, cancer, and heart disease.  You only get older and your body betrays you.  Live for today, not tomorrow.

This is why I read Martial.

Volucrum regina revisited

Ok, let's revisit V.55

Dic mihi, quem portas, volucrum regina? "Tonantem."
       nulla manu quare fulmina gestat? "amat."
Quo calet igne deus? "pueri." cur mitis aperto
       respicis ore Iovem? "de Ganymede loquor." 

A kind reader of my blog has pointed out several things.  My romantic inclination was imagining that Martial was talking to some old bird lady carrying the eagle.  But now I understand the footnote given: we are to imagine him talking to a painting or other artwork picturing an eagle with Jupiter on his back.  Volucrum regina = aquila.  This interpretation, supported by some googled art (see other entry), makes better sense of such words as mitis--the eagle has a gentle mouth (as one might say of a hunting dog that doesn't bite into the prey it's fetched) because it isn't hunting.

Now I'm wondering how many other passages Martial has like this, talking to art.

If I do put together a unit of Martial for my students, I was thinking of grouping themes.  There are numerous ones about writing and reciting poetry (both by M and by others, esp others ruining his poetry).  There are the insults/the comic put-downs making fun of the average person. There are the gentle, heart-felt ones, like Erotion's death.  Of course the Saturnalian ones, ones honoring the games/kiss-ups to the emperor, etc--but those latter ones don't interest me much.

So, does he talk to art much??  

I don't know.  I never took a course in Martial.  But these are questions I'm willing to ponder.

I know there are names that repeat, people he constantly talks to/about.  I want to look into that some more too.  But sadly... I know my days for playing with this are numbered. It's Thursday; I haven't graded a thing and spring break is about to end.

Time to do a little googling for stuff on Martial....