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The following are extracts from an email I sent earlier today. I began discussing with this correspondent the problems with dull books. Then I wander off in other directions....
***
(the correspondent referring to a grammar/traditional textbook)
>>I am finding it difficult convincing myself so I can convince someone else. :O( As a student I accepted things; as a "teacher" one questions everything!
Yes, dull books seem dull and are dull. Where's the story line? Where's the hook? With these dull drill and kill books, by the time you get to some serious prose, everyone's left from boredom. I guarantee you if you were reading Martial or Catullus, no one would leave from boredom. ha!
>>>Remember the story you made up about Metella and the will? That was fun!
Yes, it was.
I'm looking forward to teaching at a new school. I want to make time for creative weekend assignments, like taking that first Cerberus story and changing the point of view and tense. Tell the story from Cerberus's point of view as if he met Grumio in the underworld after the eruption of Vesuvius and was saying, "hey, remember when you fell asleep in the kitchen and I came in and woke you up?"
So, it would be something like this (and I'm doing this from memory):
Caecilius erat in horto. Caecilius in horto sedebat. Metella erat in atrio. Metella in atrio sedebat. servus erat in atrio. servus in atrio laborabat. Quintus erat in tablino. Quintus in tablino scribebat. ego eram in via.
tu, Grumio, eras in culina. tu in culina dormiebas. ego intravi. ego circumspectavi. cibus erat in mensa. ego salui. tu stertuisti. ego latravi. tu surrexisti. tu eras iratus. "pestis! furcifer!" tu clamavisti. ego exii.
Now, isn't that better than turning Latin to English and English to Latin?
No, I haven't done this with my students. Yeah, I guess I'm a wimp. My current students won't/don't do homework; don't have parental support and thus I find I cannot assign much without expecting a lot of F's.
But I was thinking today that what if I save assignments like this for weekends? Now, you couldn't really do this until after stage 12 in CLC because you don't learn all the perfect forms until then. I should have done this at the beginning of the 8th grade year. I know I should have.
Or, when learning numbers at the beginning of the year (because I feel that EVERYONE should know numbers!), how about sending students home with a worksheet and asking them to measure in digiti?? I had to look up info about measurments earlier this year and finally understood that things were measured by the digits (width across at the bottom of the finger, I believe), the palm (4 digiti?) and the foot. Why not have a series of questions where they have to measure things in their room with these units? That would be one way to get them to practice their numbers.... especially if they had to have the assistance of another person who recorded their measurements and testified to the student counting outloud the whole time.... They could count up pairs of shoes, heck, pairs of underwear... ooooh... might be a way to work in Roman clothing, eh?
If I assigned that now, I'd only have 1/6 of the students do the assignment. Sad, eh?
***
(the correspondent referring to a grammar/traditional textbook)
>>I am finding it difficult convincing myself so I can convince someone else. :O( As a student I accepted things; as a "teacher" one questions everything!
Yes, dull books seem dull and are dull. Where's the story line? Where's the hook? With these dull drill and kill books, by the time you get to some serious prose, everyone's left from boredom. I guarantee you if you were reading Martial or Catullus, no one would leave from boredom. ha!
>>>Remember the story you made up about Metella and the will? That was fun!
Yes, it was.
I'm looking forward to teaching at a new school. I want to make time for creative weekend assignments, like taking that first Cerberus story and changing the point of view and tense. Tell the story from Cerberus's point of view as if he met Grumio in the underworld after the eruption of Vesuvius and was saying, "hey, remember when you fell asleep in the kitchen and I came in and woke you up?"
So, it would be something like this (and I'm doing this from memory):
Caecilius erat in horto. Caecilius in horto sedebat. Metella erat in atrio. Metella in atrio sedebat. servus erat in atrio. servus in atrio laborabat. Quintus erat in tablino. Quintus in tablino scribebat. ego eram in via.
tu, Grumio, eras in culina. tu in culina dormiebas. ego intravi. ego circumspectavi. cibus erat in mensa. ego salui. tu stertuisti. ego latravi. tu surrexisti. tu eras iratus. "pestis! furcifer!" tu clamavisti. ego exii.
Now, isn't that better than turning Latin to English and English to Latin?
No, I haven't done this with my students. Yeah, I guess I'm a wimp. My current students won't/don't do homework; don't have parental support and thus I find I cannot assign much without expecting a lot of F's.
But I was thinking today that what if I save assignments like this for weekends? Now, you couldn't really do this until after stage 12 in CLC because you don't learn all the perfect forms until then. I should have done this at the beginning of the 8th grade year. I know I should have.
Or, when learning numbers at the beginning of the year (because I feel that EVERYONE should know numbers!), how about sending students home with a worksheet and asking them to measure in digiti?? I had to look up info about measurments earlier this year and finally understood that things were measured by the digits (width across at the bottom of the finger, I believe), the palm (4 digiti?) and the foot. Why not have a series of questions where they have to measure things in their room with these units? That would be one way to get them to practice their numbers.... especially if they had to have the assistance of another person who recorded their measurements and testified to the student counting outloud the whole time.... They could count up pairs of shoes, heck, pairs of underwear... ooooh... might be a way to work in Roman clothing, eh?
If I assigned that now, I'd only have 1/6 of the students do the assignment. Sad, eh?
