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Good Friday has clearly been a day to sit and think about Latin. Or to sit and avoid writing tests and such. Whatever works.
I just wrote a long reply to a posting on the Best Practices list and then followed it with a reply about composition on Latinteach. Here are both:
****
ON BEST PRACTICES:
> Another good find from the TPRS list. This site lists 103 things you
> can do with students before, during and after reading a story. Check it
> out:
>
> http://www.readingrockets.org/article/82
>
> Bob
Thanks for this.
Of course, I always find the greatest things working against many of these things is that dreadful enemy, TIME.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I've done the pantomime/acting one. On my own I will write haiku--with an attempt at it being truly meaningful, not just the right number of syllables--after reading some Catullus or Martial. I think Latin lends itself nicely to this tightly compacted form of poetry.
So many of these would be great to do and in fact I intend to consider doing but I would want them to be written in Latin. I've had my students do some writing this year. It's been really amusing (see http://drippinglatin.livejournal.com) and I think worth doing. I only with that I had MORE TIME to do such things!
Some of these would make good topics for essays--#31. Fictional Friends: Who of all the characters would you want for a friend? Why? What would you look for?--You could have the student argue for a particular character and quote the Latin and provide a translation (yeah, AP style, sort of...consider it pre-AP style).
I like #34. Dear Diary: Keep a diary as if you were a character in the story. Write down events that happen during the story and reflect on how they affected the character and why. Now this could be done in Latin--but in CLC, not every story has the same characters.... Perhaps there could be something more like a fly on the wall aspect to it instead?
Or how about #45: Write into: Find a "hole" in the story where the character disappears (off camera) for a time and describe what they do when we can't see them. That has possibilities.
I'm often brainstorming on how to get students to read stories outside of class (have NOT thought of a good way to do this that doesn't require a lot of grading or pop-quizzing on my end of it). I'm wondering if #57 might help here. #57: Reader Response: Pick the most important word/line/image/object/event in the chapter and explain why you chose it. Besure to support all analysis with examples. So, perhaps you'd ask a student to pick a line or a sentence in the story, provide a good translation, and then describe why they think it is the pivotal sentence in the story. Then, maybe, the next day there could be a discussion of the sentences chosen and why.
I'm coming back to the diary idea. Bob, I know you have students keep a reading log. I'm wondering whether if students had to write Dear Diary entries in Latin based on each story AND if I counted such things for a quiz grade, if they would actually keep up with the work?
Something that's not here, but worth putting in, is the film scenario. I've written about this elsewhere and am planning to use it with my Latin 3's towards the end of the year with a bit of Vergil. The idea is that you basically give a frame by frame description of how you would film a scene, based on the Latin--word choice, phrasing, whatever. Here's an article I wrote on it, gosh, 10 years ago: http://www.txclassics.org/ginny_articles2.htm
Anyway, just thought I'd throw out my 2 denarii worth.
***
ON LATINTEACH
> Does anyone have a strategy to encourage students to use the Latin they have learned
> through their textbooks, etc. rather than what they want to say in English in composition
> activities?
>
> Lisa Auanger
Yes, I have them write stories for the characters. I am perhaps a bit liberal with what I allow, but I think the students have enjoyed it a lot. I do a fair amount of modeling, showing them that when I write new stories for their tests (something I've been doing this year, the first year I've done this I might add), that I start with phrases used in a story already, check the vocab list, and remember that I want others to be able to read and understand it.
Here are stories written by my students that I posted just last week.
http://drippinglatin.livejournal.com.
I have to have two or three days to do this, because we do lots of edits in class. But the students actually seem to WANT to know how to do it right. They care about this far more than a simple English to Latin exercise.
Try having them change the point of view of a story or have them write a letter to a character in the story, perhaps offering advice.
OH OH OH. You know what might be hysterical? (I may have to do this!) What if they had an advice column in Latin? Oh, I guess they'd need to know subjunctives (you should, you would, you could). Ok, I'll file this away for Latin 2/3 stuff.
I hope this helps.
***
I am reminded of a passage in Fahrenheit 451 which has haunted me all this year, the passagae in which Faber says that not only do we need time to read books but leisure to think about them. I feel I'm always at my best when I have time to just sit and brainstorm creatively about things. I have *lots* of good ideas, many that I never use or execute well because of time or circumstance. But those ideas are there--WHEN I HAVE TIME TO JUST SIT AND THINK.
May you all have time to sit and be creative!
I just wrote a long reply to a posting on the Best Practices list and then followed it with a reply about composition on Latinteach. Here are both:
****
ON BEST PRACTICES:
> Another good find from the TPRS list. This site lists 103 things you
> can do with students before, during and after reading a story. Check it
> out:
>
> http://www.readingrockets.org/article/82
>
> Bob
Thanks for this.
Of course, I always find the greatest things working against many of these things is that dreadful enemy, TIME.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I've done the pantomime/acting one. On my own I will write haiku--with an attempt at it being truly meaningful, not just the right number of syllables--after reading some Catullus or Martial. I think Latin lends itself nicely to this tightly compacted form of poetry.
So many of these would be great to do and in fact I intend to consider doing but I would want them to be written in Latin. I've had my students do some writing this year. It's been really amusing (see http://drippinglatin.livejournal.com) and I think worth doing. I only with that I had MORE TIME to do such things!
Some of these would make good topics for essays--#31. Fictional Friends: Who of all the characters would you want for a friend? Why? What would you look for?--You could have the student argue for a particular character and quote the Latin and provide a translation (yeah, AP style, sort of...consider it pre-AP style).
I like #34. Dear Diary: Keep a diary as if you were a character in the story. Write down events that happen during the story and reflect on how they affected the character and why. Now this could be done in Latin--but in CLC, not every story has the same characters.... Perhaps there could be something more like a fly on the wall aspect to it instead?
Or how about #45: Write into: Find a "hole" in the story where the character disappears (off camera) for a time and describe what they do when we can't see them. That has possibilities.
I'm often brainstorming on how to get students to read stories outside of class (have NOT thought of a good way to do this that doesn't require a lot of grading or pop-quizzing on my end of it). I'm wondering if #57 might help here. #57: Reader Response: Pick the most important word/line/image/object/event in the chapter and explain why you chose it. Besure to support all analysis with examples. So, perhaps you'd ask a student to pick a line or a sentence in the story, provide a good translation, and then describe why they think it is the pivotal sentence in the story. Then, maybe, the next day there could be a discussion of the sentences chosen and why.
I'm coming back to the diary idea. Bob, I know you have students keep a reading log. I'm wondering whether if students had to write Dear Diary entries in Latin based on each story AND if I counted such things for a quiz grade, if they would actually keep up with the work?
Something that's not here, but worth putting in, is the film scenario. I've written about this elsewhere and am planning to use it with my Latin 3's towards the end of the year with a bit of Vergil. The idea is that you basically give a frame by frame description of how you would film a scene, based on the Latin--word choice, phrasing, whatever. Here's an article I wrote on it, gosh, 10 years ago: http://www.txclassics.org/ginny_articles2.htm
Anyway, just thought I'd throw out my 2 denarii worth.
***
ON LATINTEACH
> Does anyone have a strategy to encourage students to use the Latin they have learned
> through their textbooks, etc. rather than what they want to say in English in composition
> activities?
>
> Lisa Auanger
Yes, I have them write stories for the characters. I am perhaps a bit liberal with what I allow, but I think the students have enjoyed it a lot. I do a fair amount of modeling, showing them that when I write new stories for their tests (something I've been doing this year, the first year I've done this I might add), that I start with phrases used in a story already, check the vocab list, and remember that I want others to be able to read and understand it.
Here are stories written by my students that I posted just last week.
http://drippinglatin.livejournal.com.
I have to have two or three days to do this, because we do lots of edits in class. But the students actually seem to WANT to know how to do it right. They care about this far more than a simple English to Latin exercise.
Try having them change the point of view of a story or have them write a letter to a character in the story, perhaps offering advice.
OH OH OH. You know what might be hysterical? (I may have to do this!) What if they had an advice column in Latin? Oh, I guess they'd need to know subjunctives (you should, you would, you could). Ok, I'll file this away for Latin 2/3 stuff.
I hope this helps.
***
I am reminded of a passage in Fahrenheit 451 which has haunted me all this year, the passagae in which Faber says that not only do we need time to read books but leisure to think about them. I feel I'm always at my best when I have time to just sit and brainstorm creatively about things. I have *lots* of good ideas, many that I never use or execute well because of time or circumstance. But those ideas are there--WHEN I HAVE TIME TO JUST SIT AND THINK.
May you all have time to sit and be creative!
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