getting students to reread

[ginlindzey]

First, let me say that I do not understand the teachers that do the same thing every year as if what they do is perfect. My gosh, either I'm an idiot because I *never* think what I do is perfect, or I'm incompetent because I know what I do is not ideal. Or, of course, I'm too consciencious and demanding of myself to left myself relax into a rut.

Having taught Latin 1 for so many years I didn't have enough feedback at the upper/intermediate levels to see where my weaknesses were. I'm starting to see that now and perhaps that is making me more exacting of myself.

I'm a reading approach teacher. I teach students how to read in word order. That's my thing. But of course I'm beginning to see that perhaps I am doing them a disservice by not requiring conjugating and declining exercises on a regular basis. Here's what I think I'd see, though: the good students won't need it because they get it; the bad students won't do it because they can't be bothered. So is it a good use of time? I do have conjugation drills online in quia.

Maybe I can turn them into online quizzes that can be graded by the computer? Then again, there's a lot to be said for written work.

I am beginning to require them on quizzes in Latin 1, like I do in Latin 2 & 3. Something I guess I should have done all along. It's not like it counts a lot of the quiz, but enough to make them think they need to be doing it. Previously it would have been something for extra credit because being able to conjugate or decline is a skill that doesn't guarantee a thing. HTat is, I don't believe I'm teachign Latin if I base whether a student has *learned* Latin by whether they can conjugate or not. Plenty of adults can conjugate from their high school Latin days. MOST canNOT read Latin. I am determined NOT to be one of those teachers who promote derivatives, vocab, and nothing else.

BUT...but I digress.

The title of this missive is getting students to reread. Of course, I encourage it and remind students to do it all the time. Having passages on the test to write out translations of is also helping, I think. It lends accountability.

Writing stories is a good way to get students to reread... but I've dropped the ball on that. Family issues meant that I got FAR behind on such things. I do like the composition; I think it really was something that students enjoyed and something they OWNED. Maybe I can spend Christmas break pondering exactly HOW to include some more writing. Unfortunately part of me thinks that I've gotten too far behind BECAUSE of the composition assignments.

There's no easy way, that's for sure. Is it possible to cover it all? It all seems very frustrating sometimes.

Midterms are approaching after break. I'm thinking of doing a reading circle one day... This is where you sit in a big circle and each person reads at least one sentence in Latin OR MORE and then points to the next person to continue. But I know that while some students will rise to the occasion, there will be others who will just be pronouncing syllables and not absorbing any meaning.

Maybe...maybe I should schedule one moring during tutorials a week to go over passages??

But I'm obsessing. And rambling.

Time to work on my holiday letter....

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

One thing I've been having my IIIAs do before reading out loud is to group related words together, and then read with appropriate phrasing. And if they don't, I make them go back and fix it. Mostly I want them to be doing some kind of prereading (*not* yet attempting to translate or even necessarily fully comprehend) the passage, and take into account syntax as they do so. And then if we do translate it's much simpler, because they've conveniently broken it down into small, manageable units first (we're doing Ecce III so manageable units are really key!)

As for the whole conjugating/declining thing...yeah, that *is* tough. On the one hand, they have to know the different endings and what they signify about what a word is doing in the sentence. On the other hand, most students don't even seem to *notice* the endings when they read through, and even some of the stronger ones may not grasp why they matter in the first year. And the number of students I've had who can say "-am is accusative which means it's the direct object", and then translate it as if it's the subject of the sentence? *headdesk* But if I knew how to bottle a deep understanding of grammar, I'd already have an army of grateful Latin-teacher minions.

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

I do practice pre-reading, esp with my Latin 1 students. The split level class is more problematic. But, with warm-ups I still practice metaphrasing, forcing them to think about endings. If I'm on the ball, the warm-up ties directly into the reading, targeting accusatives hanging at the beginning of the sentence, etc.

And all of this, esp with Latin 1, used to seem more than good enough in the past for me, especially because I do demand recognition of details via my in-context vocab quizzes.

But the details of the forms still sometimes slip. There's a happy medium somewhere. I just need to find it!

The whole reason why I started this blog a couple of years ago was to a) have a place to rant and not offend people who didn't want to hear my views (like on a discussion list), and b) to think outloud. I think too many new teachers do not realize that even experienced teachers still look for new, better ways to approach things. OR perhaps they've only seen the type of teacher in a rut who automatically does the same thing year after year, no matter whether the students respond to it or not. They would rather bemoan the state of education instead of finding a new way to reach students.

After all, Latin was first dropped from the general curriculum in education because it wasn't seen as meeting the needs of students. We certainly don't need to put us back in that position.

Nor do we need to blindly trust any given text! With that said, I'm not trying to undermine the Cambridge philosophy or counter when they say "trust the text." What they mean is to try to understand WHY CLC waits before teaching certain forms, etc. And I do. My use of my own "model sentences" demonstrates that. BUT what I teach is NOT dictated by the text.

I have to SEE where the weaknesses are, and decide how to remedy them. (And I'm rambling again, eh?) So, I need to find new ways or places to make sure students can conjugate. And if I need to supplement with some old AMSCO style review material, then I'll do it.

I guess the other thing I was trying to say is that I still do NOT intend to make this the heart of my course. I think such work is tedious and often only the detail oriented really tune into it. I do not want to limit my Latin program. AP Latin, yes, perhaps.

And I guess that leads to something else... WHAT will I use to determine whether students should be in AP Latin? Maybe that's really worth looking into now--do I want to have some pre-AP quia exercises?? And just what would that entail? Maybe more grammar focused details... What I want to avoid is that sudden realization when students are in AP Latin that I should have reinforced this or that better.

Right. I'm just rambling. I'll stop!

choosing AP students

[(Anonymous)]

Don't choose, let them self appoint.....You say you hate English, but the ap classes are Lit classes....much more like "English", especially senior English. It's not just more grammar and intensive reading--it's responding to literature and WRITING EXPOSITORY ESSAYS.

The real problem with your English classes is that they're not really yours...you have to teach what the other English teachers want , in the way they want it taught.

ken