from my GT workshop--Is It A Cheetah?

Please read this:  http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm
more later.  Lots of food for thought.

What to do with Latin 5 with no 2nd AP test

I'm going to put down a few ideas here that came to me today.  I am still SOOOOO FAR behind in grading, I have no business being here, but I'm also getting sick so I don't care.  Nanner, nanner, as gets said in my house.

So the biggest WHINE about losing the alternating AP exam has been that if you needed something for Latin 5 you now had nothing, and unless you could offer AP as a carrot, kids wouldn't sign up because w/o AP the class most likely won't count for extra GPA points--and everyone is all about GPA these days.  Can't afford to lose a point.

At the Gifted and Talented workshop today, we discussed that AP is not the same as GT and vice versa.  We have in Texas something called the Texas Performance Standards Project.  http://www.texaspsp.org/

Of course, this document is geared toward core subjects and TEKS, but some of the topics for GT projects got me really thinking how they could be applied to Latin, certainly at an advanced level.  For instance, this one caught my eye:

The Comedic Lens: Analyzing a Society through Its Use of Comedy	English Language Arts, Social Studies	Students will explore the use of comedy as a means of social commentary throughout history. Students will learn about different types of comedy and its role and impact in other cultures and eras. They will choose an historic event/era and look at the ways comedy was used in society at that time and how comedy affected popular opinions and attitudes. The final product will be a comedic interpretation of an historic or current event. Download Task (Adobe PDF)	A comedy about the historical era or event A satire about a contemporary issue. The student chooses the format (e.g., comic strip, play, sitcom, standup routine, op-ed piece) A comedy piece from the historical era or event, updated to make it relevant today

Boy, can you imagine doing this with Plautus and Terence?

So it got me thinking in turn:  instead of trying to get ACL or APA or some joint group to come up with an alternative test to the AP test as some sort of bizarre protest, why don't we CREATE a set of possible "TASKS" for a GT class?  You can't tell me, for instance, that our best and brightest teachers and professors can't come up with a list of topics to explore that would require RESEARCH, a PRODUCT, and a PRESENTATION?    And surely they could do numerous possible choices for particular authors.  THEN if we, as teachers, wanted to teach Cicero as a GT course, we could and we'd have possible GT topics at hand for research.  Or say your love is Catullus, then Catullus you shall have.

The GT projects could end up having students read above and beyond what the topic of the course is.    And the best part about it is that you could have RIGOR without QUANTITY.  That is, I know that MANY people are frustrated with the pace of AP and the sheer quantity of lines covered.  Instead of recommended quantity, it would be the quality of the project(s), the creativity, the ingenuity, etc.  I can envision group projects (putting on a play, props, etc etc), individual projects on specific aspects, etc. 

My Latin 3s are finishing up Unit 3 right now and I noted the other day some info about Paris the pantomime.  I need to go back and read it, because I'm sure I didn't catch enough of it.  But I do remember that it was talking about his monument/inscription.  This could lead a student to do research on inscriptions. 

What about if you had a student really interested in mythology?  Why couldn't he/she do a project on the depiction of gods in comedies??  (A let me briefly tip my hat to "Daddy Dalights," yes, Jupiter, yes, Doug Parker.....)

Boy, does this have possibilities.... 

I guess I better toss this one out to the lists tomorrow.