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Some things strike me the same. That is, what was my biggest problem this year? As always, classroom management. I had a couple of years where I felt totally on charge, but not lately. Not in Dripping. For the most part, I don't need much out in Drip; the kids are for the most parat well-behaved.
But my own sheer exhaustion and inability to keep up with the work meant that I couldn't keep up with my own classroom management scheme, which only works well if I you are CONSISTENT every day. Anyway. Something to rethink, again, this summer. I swear, that is the hardest part of teaching. Or at least it is for me because I like an interactive class, but one that stays on task. I like it relaxed; I don't like it so rigid that people feel uncomfortable. You can't learn that way. Equally, students were pissed at me--as I knew they would be--that I didn't have 3rd period under better control.
Whatever.
I've looked at evaluations from Latin 1's and Latin 3/4. I haven't looked at Latin 2.
There was the inevitable "AP is tedious because all we do is read." Once again, if I can't make reading (Latin or English) interesting and exciting, no one can. OK, yes, this first time through Vergil we didn't do much but read. The Illuminated manuscript project at the end was both fun and interesting. I'm thinking that maybe, somehow, I need to work in some projects of some kind. In fact, I really liked what I was doing with Ovid and the Latin 3's, in trying to get them to analyse a work of art (Daedalus and Icarus) for the quality of the interpretation of the Latin.
If we say that Vergil is to Latin as Homer is to Ancient Greek and Shakespeare is to English, then it is important to keep the focus on Vergil as a work of literature. And my emphasis on trying to teach students HOW TO READ in word order because we are all about READING is not out of line. BUT...but this isn't college, yet. So what that our college courses were "read the next XX lines" plus "one paper" and a "final exam". Some would find that tedious too. But that's a college level Latin class. For the most part.
Yet, does that need to be what we are about? If we are to demonstrate the profound impact Vergil has had on literature AND the arts, we need to bring in the arts and discuss it. We did watch a one-hour production (?) of the opera Dido and Aeneas after the AP test. But should this stuff have come before?
After all, if the projects are designed well (and executed well?), they should provide the student an opportunity to review the text in depth and to write about it.
I know I wasn't demanding enough with my AP students; it was hard to be when I was barely keeping up. This too I can change.
And perhaps instead of just "going over lines" which I definitely slipped into with my upper division classes this year (kind of hard not to in some ways), why not have a thematic question for each assignment of lines? (Hey, not a bad idea.) That is, if they are working on their own for X days while I work with Latin 3 (because it will be split level again), why not say that on the day we go over they need to be able to answer whatever the thematic question, and be ready to support the answers with Latin from the text. Then, we'd go to the text to look again which would then lead into going over the lines.
Sounds good. But since they will be struggling with the Latin, how good is this really?
One can dream.
But my own sheer exhaustion and inability to keep up with the work meant that I couldn't keep up with my own classroom management scheme, which only works well if I you are CONSISTENT every day. Anyway. Something to rethink, again, this summer. I swear, that is the hardest part of teaching. Or at least it is for me because I like an interactive class, but one that stays on task. I like it relaxed; I don't like it so rigid that people feel uncomfortable. You can't learn that way. Equally, students were pissed at me--as I knew they would be--that I didn't have 3rd period under better control.
Whatever.
I've looked at evaluations from Latin 1's and Latin 3/4. I haven't looked at Latin 2.
There was the inevitable "AP is tedious because all we do is read." Once again, if I can't make reading (Latin or English) interesting and exciting, no one can. OK, yes, this first time through Vergil we didn't do much but read. The Illuminated manuscript project at the end was both fun and interesting. I'm thinking that maybe, somehow, I need to work in some projects of some kind. In fact, I really liked what I was doing with Ovid and the Latin 3's, in trying to get them to analyse a work of art (Daedalus and Icarus) for the quality of the interpretation of the Latin.
If we say that Vergil is to Latin as Homer is to Ancient Greek and Shakespeare is to English, then it is important to keep the focus on Vergil as a work of literature. And my emphasis on trying to teach students HOW TO READ in word order because we are all about READING is not out of line. BUT...but this isn't college, yet. So what that our college courses were "read the next XX lines" plus "one paper" and a "final exam". Some would find that tedious too. But that's a college level Latin class. For the most part.
Yet, does that need to be what we are about? If we are to demonstrate the profound impact Vergil has had on literature AND the arts, we need to bring in the arts and discuss it. We did watch a one-hour production (?) of the opera Dido and Aeneas after the AP test. But should this stuff have come before?
After all, if the projects are designed well (and executed well?), they should provide the student an opportunity to review the text in depth and to write about it.
I know I wasn't demanding enough with my AP students; it was hard to be when I was barely keeping up. This too I can change.
And perhaps instead of just "going over lines" which I definitely slipped into with my upper division classes this year (kind of hard not to in some ways), why not have a thematic question for each assignment of lines? (Hey, not a bad idea.) That is, if they are working on their own for X days while I work with Latin 3 (because it will be split level again), why not say that on the day we go over they need to be able to answer whatever the thematic question, and be ready to support the answers with Latin from the text. Then, we'd go to the text to look again which would then lead into going over the lines.
Sounds good. But since they will be struggling with the Latin, how good is this really?
One can dream.
