ginlindzey

Day 1 of the committee for developing the new certification test for Texas. We have a great crew of people on the committee--teachers and esp the group leader from ETS.

I had no idea that there were corresponding standards developed for teachers to go alone with the standards developed for students in the state. And I think this is a good thing, I think it's getting people to reconsider the importance of some items that were left out in the past as being something that would discourage people from becoming certified to teach in Latin--like ORAL LATIN.

Suddenly there's recognition that a beginning teacher would DEFINITELY need to be able to pronounce Latin well on the first day.

Amazingly, there are still some teachers who balk at the idea that they should need to be able to "listen" to Latin. And yet, we ask this of our certamen students.

Perhaps if we had to do this ourselves, we would learn how to teach this skill. Micrologues, which I've done a few times each year (but not too often), develop listening skills, I think, plus they do tie in dictation to a story line.

But here's the question that keeps coming up: WHY do we think certain things are important? I have no problem with dictation because I think it causes one to focus on sounds and syllables. But then I was brought up on phonics and dictation and diagramming. It's just ONE of MANY tools to help train the brain.

The brain is an interesting organ. My two sons are so different in their learning styles. My husband and I are different in our learning styles. And yet, you can find teachers who are very rigid in their learning and teaching styles, and feel threatened by anything they aren't sure of. HOW can we possibly expect our students get beyond language learning anxieties if we ourselves are afraid to take risks to learn something new?

SO WHAT if you choke on dictation at first? Or perhaps, not so what.... After all, we're not like our students; it's not like we are unfamiliar with Latin. No EXPERIENCED teacher should bomb something like this because THE WORDS SHOULD BE FAMILIAR. And, frankly, the macrons should NOT be an issue if the words are fixed in your head....

I guess...I guess because of the way I was taught when young (English, not Latin) I learned to HEAR what I wrote and to WRITE what I heard. But perhaps we've all gotten to that point that we're so afraid to be JUDGED and thus possibly considered STUPID, we are afraid to risk failure.

You know what I say? Take up a sport. Learn how to play and enjoy but still lose. Learn how to be a participant and take risks. Learn how to find the FUN in anything. Stop thinking about the grade, stop thinking about whether you might seem stupid and just enjoy--enjoy it like a game that challenges the brain.

But then, I don't understand people who don't strive to become better at what they do. I didn't start playing soccer until I was 26 and I'm 42 now. I'm not great, but I wouldn't be anyone's last pick either. Each year my playing improves because I want to be able to enjoy the game more. Winning would be nice, but I don't care. I want to ENJOY THE GAME MORE.

And all the things I strive for in Latin, especially pronunciation, is all about ENJOYING Latin more and helping others to ENJOY Latin. I thoroughly enjoy reading Latin outloud. It's richer, more interesting, more alive that way. We can leave Latin dead. We can leave it on the page and insult it with parsing and declining and conjugating without consideration to pronunciation. We can continue to just pick apart sentences, decoding them, torturing them, and reinforcing the erroneous idea that Latin cannot be read like any other language. Or we can use all of our senses, like we use with English, to acquire Latin.

I guarantee you, my own children would have NO INTEREST in reading if I didn't make reading fun. I still read to them, read with them, and read around them. They broaden their vocabulary because they hear me reading new words to them. But we're not willing to do such things with our Latin students?

There's so much more we could do if we would ALL get over our paranoia about seeming foolish. If we all focused on being LIFE LONG learners.... well, I just think there'd be a lot more we could do.

Enough rambling.

This is my reply to a post on Latinteach that was about whether we're dumbing down Latin, whether those who think we might (usually hard core grammarians) actually learned how to read Latin either, etc. Here's the original post (part of it) and what follows are my comments:

>One choice for a project for the PreLatin students
>(6th grade) is to interview six adults to see how many
>studied Latin, why, what they remember, and whether
>they've found Latin helpful. The results are always
>interesting. They all remember amo, amas, amat. Some
>remember that nouns changed forms. All find Latin
>helpful in understanding mottos, some find it helpful
>in understanding English derivatives, and a few, such
>as lawyers and pharmacists, find it useful in their
>work.
>
>There might be a place for a more systematic study of
>this, if it hasn't already been done.

No offense, but are we prepared for the results of such a study? Do it (ha, like the money is there for it...) but also add in German, French, and other languages (besides Spanish).

Unless you know--you *KNOW*--you are providing your students with skills to be lifelong learners in reading Latin, I wouldn't want the answer.

Perhaps we should change this around to thinking very carefully of HOW we create lifelong learners of Latin.

Do all of your students know about LOEBS before they graduate high school? My husband tells me that when he studied Spanish, and he was not the ideal student he admits, he would read novels, but they would have facing English. He would read the English, then the Spanish.

Is it such a sin?

Perhaps if it becomes a solid crutch that can never be removed. But I confess that when I'm reading through Martial, it is in a Loeb. I often scan for topics that interest me, and then look at the Latin, and then only if I struggle with the Latin do I take a serious look at the English.

Do your students know of readers or simpler authors? I know we are all caught in the business of following school policy, school curriculum, mandated standards, and mandated authors, but do we take the time to say, "here, try reading this?"

Or...and please don't take this wrong...are we only creating lifelong fans of JCL, of mythology and classical cultural influences? That's not bad, but if we're supposed to be creating lifelong learners of Latin, did we somehow misplace our goal?? Did we lose it in the struggle to read all the required lines of Vergil for the AP exam?

I just thought I'd throw this out there to cause trouble. :) Actually, not to cause trouble, but to raise awareness about what we are doing as teachers and what our goals should be, not to mention how we reach those goals while also keeping adminstrators, parents and students (and the federal government) happy.

What can I say? Spring break gives time for thought.
***
SK's on the road, so I'm doubting it will make it to the list for a day or two. But these are important questions and ones that can change the nature of the way you teach.

Are you becoming a teacher because you love JCL and you loved that JCL experience? Do you want to pass on that torch to your students? That's fine. But if your goal is to create as many lifelong learners as possible, you may need to rethink what you're doing.

I want to introduce my students to Loebs. I didn't know I wanted to until I was writing the above post.

But I'm thinking... I'm thinking... WHAT IF I had a BUNCH of Loebs in the classroom and then every other week had a silent reading day. They could read the English side or the Latin side--BUT THEY WOULD BE EXPOSED to the Latin side. Would that be bad? Would that be wrong? I didn't know about Loebs until college. And even then, I just used them for class.

I could... well, I was going to say I could have the Martial Loebs available, but some of Martial is totally questionable for a conservative school. haha. But one of the things I've done with Martial and was planning to DO with Martial over this spring break is to find an epigram I like and to rewrite it for myself. I wonder if I posted that one I rewrote last year? (Or was it year before last? It was in a spiral, that much I know...)

Speaking of spirals, I designed two new ones plus a poster. Here are the two spirals (first two on the page): https://www.cafepress.com/animaaltera/270069. The bread one says "panis corpus alit, animam scriptio" (bread nurishes the body, writing the spirit). I also designed a new poster: https://www.cafepress.com/animaaltera.116183214. There are all made from photos I took when I was last in Rome.

I use the spirals a lot. I don't think anyone else buys them or uses them. I don't care. Once they are made and I've got my copy any others that sell are just icing on the cake. If I really wanted to make money at my shop I'd have to work at it all the time. I could; but I don't.

Oh, the current coupon code for $5 off for $20 purchase is DUSKYOPTION (valid until Mar 19, 2007). Just in case anyone is interested.

Time to watch another episode of ROME and fold more laundry.