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So there was a discussion on the CLC list earlier today. I'm trying to get myself more involved in these sorts of discussions instead of always telling myself I don't have time. Well, I don't have time (who does?) but I'm making time.
There are some good things in what I said below but much that is missing. The truth be told in an ideal world I would be REQUIRING my Latin 3's to read in an easier text every night. That was something suggested in _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_ by Distler. There are numerous reasons why I don't do this, among which would be HOW to assess their extra reading? There's only so much time in each day for what I do.
The thing is, at some point with a language you have to WANT to improve on your own. With music, it's a matter of practicing your scales and while your scales don't get tested, the quality of the rest of your playing is. And with a modern language the reward is actual communication with another person. But with Latin the ultimate reward is reading the real stuff written by the dead guys 2000 years ago. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE THAT. I don't know why but I do, I truly do.
I could ramble on, but perhaps it's better to stop here and to read what this post is really about: Unit 4, CLC.
***
> I am looking for resources for the Unit 4 book. I find it very
difficult to get anything. It seems to me like not many people are
teaching this book and prefer to start a different text. If you have
any resources or sites, please share them. I will continue to upload
any files I have for those stages. Quizzes and tests would be greatly
appreciated as well, even just to generate ideas and possibilities for
assessments.
I'll be honest with you. When I get to Unit 4 (in Latin 3 -- my Latin 3 is stages 31-40 plus 44), I tell students that I'm now going to get them more prepared for a college classroom. Up until this point I have been working with them on the importance of phrasing, of using metaphrasing to see clearly certain sentences, discussing at length sentence patterns and other things that make it possible to truly READ Latin.
At this point, I have typed up all the stories, double space, so students can write on the stories. I highly discourage writing out translations and am constantly telling them they can read more and understand it better if they do NOT just write out translations. We mark phrasing, read out loud, see the big picture, focus back on the details, etc. And, yes, they balk--at first. But a college classroom will typically be "read the next 40 lines for homework" and then spot translating the next day without access to written translations. Yesterday, first hard day of Latin since our Martial projects, students were balking at my saying they needed to *read* (not translate onto paper) the first 25 lines of Consilium Domitiani I in stage 37. But after the whining and my explaining that they needed to stop slowing themselves down with translations but to just reread until it was FIXED in their brains (which takes less time), most did finish the first 25 lines. They will finish the rest today.
My Latin 3's have 3 assigned groups containing 3 people each: Romae, Domi, & Ruri. Each week they are working with a different set of people, but with those same people all week. Thus they learn from each other AND motivate each other.
While this approach won't appeal to some, it's better than just saying "go home and write out a translation." What I want is to get them to a point where they can trust themselves with READING Latin, reading in word order, letting the sentence unfold, developing natural expectations that readers of any language develop which will then help them to read MORE Latin at a higher level of comfort. I want to convince them that the length of a sentence is irrelevant if you just let the sentence unfold, if you read and reread and reread it to see the phrasing (see Dexter Hoyos's _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_ from CANE publications), and if you don't stop to look up every single word--let the context do the work, not the dictionary. Half the time expectations will tell you exactly what the word means. Too many students are afraid that even though they've been studying Latin for 3 years that they really aren't good at it, long sentences scare them, long stories scare them. What I try to do is to break down these phobias that prevent students from truly increasing their skills.
Anyway.
We did do a couple of projects with Stage 36 (Martial) translating epigrams into limericks (some are really funny) as well as memorizing epigrams for recitations (we sat in a big circle, stood, & performed--self-included). In the past in Stage 44 I have had students analyze some art (both included in the chapter and elsewhere) for accuracy compared to Ovid's telling of the fall of Icarus.
I don't know whether any of this helps, but it's what I do once I hit Unit 4.
There are some good things in what I said below but much that is missing. The truth be told in an ideal world I would be REQUIRING my Latin 3's to read in an easier text every night. That was something suggested in _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_ by Distler. There are numerous reasons why I don't do this, among which would be HOW to assess their extra reading? There's only so much time in each day for what I do.
The thing is, at some point with a language you have to WANT to improve on your own. With music, it's a matter of practicing your scales and while your scales don't get tested, the quality of the rest of your playing is. And with a modern language the reward is actual communication with another person. But with Latin the ultimate reward is reading the real stuff written by the dead guys 2000 years ago. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE THAT. I don't know why but I do, I truly do.
I could ramble on, but perhaps it's better to stop here and to read what this post is really about: Unit 4, CLC.
***
> I am looking for resources for the Unit 4 book. I find it very
difficult to get anything. It seems to me like not many people are
teaching this book and prefer to start a different text. If you have
any resources or sites, please share them. I will continue to upload
any files I have for those stages. Quizzes and tests would be greatly
appreciated as well, even just to generate ideas and possibilities for
assessments.
I'll be honest with you. When I get to Unit 4 (in Latin 3 -- my Latin 3 is stages 31-40 plus 44), I tell students that I'm now going to get them more prepared for a college classroom. Up until this point I have been working with them on the importance of phrasing, of using metaphrasing to see clearly certain sentences, discussing at length sentence patterns and other things that make it possible to truly READ Latin.
At this point, I have typed up all the stories, double space, so students can write on the stories. I highly discourage writing out translations and am constantly telling them they can read more and understand it better if they do NOT just write out translations. We mark phrasing, read out loud, see the big picture, focus back on the details, etc. And, yes, they balk--at first. But a college classroom will typically be "read the next 40 lines for homework" and then spot translating the next day without access to written translations. Yesterday, first hard day of Latin since our Martial projects, students were balking at my saying they needed to *read* (not translate onto paper) the first 25 lines of Consilium Domitiani I in stage 37. But after the whining and my explaining that they needed to stop slowing themselves down with translations but to just reread until it was FIXED in their brains (which takes less time), most did finish the first 25 lines. They will finish the rest today.
My Latin 3's have 3 assigned groups containing 3 people each: Romae, Domi, & Ruri. Each week they are working with a different set of people, but with those same people all week. Thus they learn from each other AND motivate each other.
While this approach won't appeal to some, it's better than just saying "go home and write out a translation." What I want is to get them to a point where they can trust themselves with READING Latin, reading in word order, letting the sentence unfold, developing natural expectations that readers of any language develop which will then help them to read MORE Latin at a higher level of comfort. I want to convince them that the length of a sentence is irrelevant if you just let the sentence unfold, if you read and reread and reread it to see the phrasing (see Dexter Hoyos's _Latin: How to Read it Fluently_ from CANE publications), and if you don't stop to look up every single word--let the context do the work, not the dictionary. Half the time expectations will tell you exactly what the word means. Too many students are afraid that even though they've been studying Latin for 3 years that they really aren't good at it, long sentences scare them, long stories scare them. What I try to do is to break down these phobias that prevent students from truly increasing their skills.
Anyway.
We did do a couple of projects with Stage 36 (Martial) translating epigrams into limericks (some are really funny) as well as memorizing epigrams for recitations (we sat in a big circle, stood, & performed--self-included). In the past in Stage 44 I have had students analyze some art (both included in the chapter and elsewhere) for accuracy compared to Ovid's telling of the fall of Icarus.
I don't know whether any of this helps, but it's what I do once I hit Unit 4.
