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So, in my quest to consider what I should do to differentiate my pre-APs from regular Latin next year, I've been thinking about what my weaknesses are in what I do.
I truly do focus on reading skills with CLC, but with express directions on how best to read from left to right in Latin as opposed to decoding. We read out loud and have phone in oral recitations. We constantly review endings, compare and contrast, talk about different disambiguation strategies, and so many other things that no one taught me but I wish they truly had.
I wish I had time for circling back. Distler recommends this in his _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_. That is, students should be rereading old stories at the same time they are learning new ones.
I wish I had time for more written/composition work. At one time, when my classes were small, I had students writing their own stories and it was great fun but IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with the grading.
And I'm also thinking about aspects of prose we are liable to meet in Caesar that I'm not familiar enough with--like the discussion on cum clauses we had on the CLC list the other day. So last night I pulled out an old composition text I got from who knows where (inherited, no doubt, from former teachers or something) and found myself reading through it. Of course, part of me had a kneejerk reaction to its prescriptiveness--here are the rules, follow the rules. I suppose what I've liked about how I've done research with CLC over the last few years is I will reread the stories looking for some particular structure, like qui correlatives or ille indicating a change in subject, and find as many examples as possible. Then I would examine each and formulate what seemed to be the rules. There are certainly structures that I understand NOW that I *never* understood in college.
Anyway, I'm now wondering if I could make some supplemental worksheets (except this would mean more grading) that would work forms, then patterns, and thus build up to the student being able to write their own stories, already aware of possible pitfalls in grammar and such. These could be kept in a portfolio of sorts and revised from time to time. An additional 9 weeks grade could be one of these polished up, and perhaps these stories could then be used as extra credit reading material for the other students in the class.
It's a thought.
I truly do focus on reading skills with CLC, but with express directions on how best to read from left to right in Latin as opposed to decoding. We read out loud and have phone in oral recitations. We constantly review endings, compare and contrast, talk about different disambiguation strategies, and so many other things that no one taught me but I wish they truly had.
I wish I had time for circling back. Distler recommends this in his _Teach the Latin, I Pray You_. That is, students should be rereading old stories at the same time they are learning new ones.
I wish I had time for more written/composition work. At one time, when my classes were small, I had students writing their own stories and it was great fun but IMPOSSIBLE to keep up with the grading.
And I'm also thinking about aspects of prose we are liable to meet in Caesar that I'm not familiar enough with--like the discussion on cum clauses we had on the CLC list the other day. So last night I pulled out an old composition text I got from who knows where (inherited, no doubt, from former teachers or something) and found myself reading through it. Of course, part of me had a kneejerk reaction to its prescriptiveness--here are the rules, follow the rules. I suppose what I've liked about how I've done research with CLC over the last few years is I will reread the stories looking for some particular structure, like qui correlatives or ille indicating a change in subject, and find as many examples as possible. Then I would examine each and formulate what seemed to be the rules. There are certainly structures that I understand NOW that I *never* understood in college.
Anyway, I'm now wondering if I could make some supplemental worksheets (except this would mean more grading) that would work forms, then patterns, and thus build up to the student being able to write their own stories, already aware of possible pitfalls in grammar and such. These could be kept in a portfolio of sorts and revised from time to time. An additional 9 weeks grade could be one of these polished up, and perhaps these stories could then be used as extra credit reading material for the other students in the class.
It's a thought.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-10 03:57 pm (UTC)