a moment to kill....on meter

[ginlindzey]

I was dropping my son off at soccer practice near the high where my students end up. I saw two of my stars who are now taking Vergil (although they were forceably skipped from Latin 2 into Vergil... but let's not talk about why there's no Latin 3....).

So I pulled over to chat with them. "How's Vergil?" I ask. And they went on to say there was something about dactyls and spondees.

Now, I know for a fact from a student a year ahead of them (who I recently gave a wheelock and whose mom just sent me a gushing note of thanks for all I've done for her kids) that pronunciation is not something this teacher teaches. I like this teacher, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to badmouth him.

But this blog is about teaching issues both day to day stuff and the larger stuff.

HOW IN THE HECK CAN YOU TEACH METER WITHOUT TEACHING PRONUNCIATION, SYLLABIFICATION, and ACCENT?

H*O*W?

And I *love* meter. I did dramatic interps for JCL all through high school. I stayed in Latin because of Ovid and Vergil (no watered down dramatic interps for us!).

You don't want to waste too much time during your AP year teaching pronunciation? Well then you better damn well make sure that you're doing it sooner.

I'm doing my part.

I've vowed to go over pronunciation and syllabification EVERY YEAR I teach so that with each additional year of Latin more sinks in so that WHEN THEY GET TO AP (something ALWAYS in the back of this middle teacher's mind) they can darn well love meter for what it is!

SHEESH.

Oh, for those of you who don't know, meter is the extension of pronunciation; it is the poet's means of manipulating the words to produce an amazing variety of cadence and rhythm that can make a serpent soar or waves crash.

Here's what it isn't: it is NOT a means for determining what case a word is. That's a side benefit, not the main one, and I HATE HATE HATE hearing that this is why we do not have macrons on AP texts. You are learning new words--how can you get the full taste and feel of the words if the macrons aren't there? Who cares about the endings--those you should be able to figure out. But the roots of new words... I WANT MY MACRONS THERE.

And so if I read the words accurately with the right accent and syllabification, the meter glides along naturally.

And while it might be fun to go Bum diddy BUM BUM, that's not what meter is about.

grrr!

Comments

Middle School Latin teaching

[jkees.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to thank you for your insightful postings. I found your discussion of how to teach middle schoolers Latin immensely useful. As a career switcher, I found your discussion of classroom management entirely appropriate as well as compassionate. My friends who are education professionals were also impressed. Keep up the marketing. It helps all of us.
P.S. I hear what you say about meter and pronunciation. My M.A. thesis was on meter and diction in Italian poetry. It is impossible to discuss meter without a very comfortable appreciation of pronunciation.

Re: Middle School Latin teaching

[ginlindzey.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much.

I started this blog because I feel I sometimes got too preachy on Latinteach. Or, if I made a comment which didn't get a reply, I felt no one was listening.

The blog is really a place for me to vent, in a way, and to be instructional too, but I usually tell myself that I'm talking to myself. (It's a gemini thing, I suppose.)

It's lovely to find out that this is truly being read by more than DM. ;)

gratias maximas!