![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As Latin teachers--or any teacher for that matter--there is this pull between doing the acceptable, traditional thing and doing the right thing. What I mean is that I am keenly aware that I should be quizzing and testing and whatnot at particular intervals; grading particular kinds of student work, etc. My Latin 2 and 3 classes (I no longer teach any 1s--my colleague does) are in their own way traditional. Once the year gets underway I am giving vocab quizzes and stage quizzes not to mention tests at fairly regular intervals. It becomes sadly predictable. Well, that can be good too. It helps many students plan their weeks and manage their crowded schedules.
I tossed out the book in Latin 4 this year. I'm winging it. I'm taking TIME with whatever we read. There's no march through Caesar; there's no cramming for quizzes and tests. I have a two-fold general idea of what I am doing: we are exploring limited texts (from the classical period and beyond) in more detail in multiple ways and we have extensive reading in Orberg's Lingua Latina. Oh, and I throw in topical things that I want to cover (and hope that I will make myself continue to use), which I also try to work in to the general running conversations of class.
For instance, we are currently studying a couple of tales from Phaedrus: Lupus et Agnus and Lupus et Gruis. The Friday before we began, I taught them about telling time in Latin--all in Latin. It wasn't as grand a lesson as I would have liked, but it was ok. The following Monday we did a Musical Pairs reading with this dialogue that I wrote. (If you are unfamiliar with Musical Pairs, it is a great opening activity which I often use with an embedded reading/dialogue in my other classes. The music plays while kids move/dance around. When it stops, they partner up with the nearest person and read the dialogue together. When the music begins they move around; when it stops they continue reading with a new partner.)
1: salvē, mea amīca (mī amīce)!
2: salva (salvus) sīs, mea amīca (mī amīce)!
1: tū dēfessa (dēfessus) vidēris. quā hōrā proximā nocte dormītum iistī?
2: decimā hōrā cubitum iī, sed duodecimā hōrā cum dodrante dormītum iī.
1: cūr? studēbāsne litterās? dēmum ūndecimā hōrā cum quadrante studēre coepī.
2: minimē. octāvā hōrā et sēmīs litterās studēre coepī et decimā hōrā cōnfēceram – tum cubitum iī.
1: quid erat reī? cūr dormītum nōn iistī?
2: ego ēsuriēbam et sitiēbam.
1: quā hōrā cēnāre solēs?
2: apud familiam meam sextā hōrā cēnā solēmus.
1: quō modō tandem dormītum īre poterās?
2: ego, sīcut fūr, in culīnam tacitē prōcessī ut crustula et lactem erriperem.
1: nunc intellegō! tū tot crustula cōnsūmistī et tantum lactem bibistī ut dormītum īre poterās!
2: minimē. pater meus, sīcut latrō, crustula et lactem erripuistī et iussī mē dormītum īre! pater, cum ēsurit et sitit, mē terret!
These things were glossed:
salva sīs = salvē
videō in the passive = seem
proximā nocte = last night
dormītum īre = to go to sleep (supine with “go” verb)
cubitum īre = to go to bed (supine with “go” verb)
dēmum – not until
quid erat reī – What was the matter? (What was wrong?)
ēsuriō, -īre – to be hungry
sitiō, sitīre – to be thirsty
crustulum – cookie
lac, lactis (m) – milk
latrō, latrōnis – bandit,
So it revieiwed some time terminology combining with a preview of vocab/concepts coming up in the Phaedrus. Here is the Phaedrus we began that day:
Ad rīvum eundem lupus et agnus vēnerant,
sitī compulsī. Superior stābat lupus,
longēque īnferior agnus. Tunc fauce improbā
latrō incitātus iūrgiī causam intulit;
“Cūr” inquit “turbulentam fēcistī mihi
aquam bibentī?” Lāniger contrā timēns
“Quī possum, quaesō, facere quod quereris, lupe?
Ā tē dēcurrit ad meōs haustūs liquor.”
Repulsus ille vēritātis vīribus
“Ante hōs sex mēnsēs male,” ait “dīxistī mihi.”
Respondit agnus “Equidem nātus nōn eram.”
“Pater hercle tuus” ille inquit “male dīxit mihi;”
atque ita correptum lacerat iniūstā nece.
Haec propter illōs scrīpta est hominēs fābula
quī fictīs causīs innocentēs opprimunt.
We discussed most of this IN Latin. I drew pictures on the board. We had discussions in English about the point of the story and the fact that Rome had the wolf as its symbol. On the day Before the second Phaedrus poem, we first explored in a Latin discussion the pictures I found online to go with the poem:
We discussed body parts of both animals (mainly in Latin), and speculated on what could be caught in the wolf's throat. We went over how to express "headache" and "stomach ache" and such in Latin. Then we read the next Phaedrus passage in Latin:
quī pretium meritī ab improbīs dēsīderat,
bis peccat: prīmum quoniam indignōs adiuvat,
impūne abīre deinde quia iam nōn potest.
os dēvorātum fauce cum haerēret lupī,
magnō dolōre victus coepit singulōs
inlicere pretiō ut illud extraherent malum.
tandem persuāsa est iūreiūrandō gruis,
gulae quae crēdēns collī longitūdinem
periculōsam fēcit medicīnam lupō.
prō quō cum pactum flāgitāret praemium,
“ingrāta es,” inquit “ōre quae nostrō caput
incolume abstuleris et mercēdem postulēs.”
On the next day, I had students write and perform simple dialogues based on one of the two stories. They were amusing; one even involved shadow hand puppets to show the putting of the crane's head into the wolf's mouth. After that, I assigned a more serious little project of writing at least three haiku about the poems in good Latin. We spend several days editing these together and the typed up haiku plus the original poems are now posted on a wall in my room along with the picture from Unit 4 of CLC that illustrates both stories. Even though these students can read some pretty advanced Latin, because we have done so little composition, writing is seriously scary to them. Having the writing project small like haiku keeps the stress level low. Some were quite good:
parvulō agnō
lupus iam appropinquat:
ōmen pessimum.--
(by TMT)
gruis avāra
accipit quod digna est—
nimis petīvit.
(by ZY)
lupus incēdit;
agnum valdē cupiēns;
fūrtīvē petit.
(by NS)
cūr ego in faucēs?
ubi est mea pecūniam?
cūr ego in faucēs?
(by LAC) (I was amused by the point of view.)
callidus lupus
praemium est prōmissum
simplex agnus
(by MD)
They finished that by this past Wednesday. There were still some vocabulary and grammar I wanted to target, so the next thing we did was a dictation, using people in the classroom. This is the second of these which I have done, and they love it. And yes, I require macrons. I have emphasized correct pronunciation since day 1 and they have absolutely no problem with this. They aren't perfect, but they understand why we do it and thus do not complain. (Glaciāta, Rāna, & Octāvia are three girls in the class--all good friends. A very congenial group.)
1. Glaciāta crūstula optima, quae omnēs amant, semper coquit.
2. hodiē Glaciāta ad scholam duo crūstula tantum tulit.
3. Rāna et Octāvia, famī compulsae, idem crūstulum valdē cupīvērunt.
4. hoc crūstulum erat longē maius quam aliud crūstulum.
5. Rāna, fauce incitāta, maius crūstulum rapuit.
6. Octāvia, iniūstō latrōciniō incitāta, causam intulit.
7. Octāvia, quae Rānam clam ōdit, “hercle!” inquit “tū es maximus porcus!”
8. quibus verbīs attonita, illa respondit, “sed ego valdē ēsuriō!”
9. “floccī nōn faciō!” inquit Octāvia. “spērō istud crūstulum in fauce tuā haerēre!”
10. Octāvia, īrā oppressa, minus crūstulum corripuit et ad Rānam ēmīsit.
11. Rāna crūstulum laetissima cēpit et clāmāvit, “tibi grātiās agō!”
12. Glaciāta, ab amīcīs frūstrāta, sēcum susurrāvit, “numquam iterum Octāviae Rānaeque crūstula coquam!”
On Monday and Tuesday of next week we will be reviewing the grammar of both in earnest and they will have a quiz next Weds that is short answer with a tiny essay that is a bit more on the traditional side. I'd like to think it is a bit more like what they could easily meet in a college Latin class.
But Friday (yesterday) we took the day off to read the next chapter aloud in Lingua Latina. It was Capitulum Quartum, which is mainly dialogue. We sat in a circle, assigned reading roles, and I just let them have FUN in the language. Yes, this is VERY VERY easy Latin for them, and part of me feels very guilty for it. BUT they were in Latin the whole time (well, except for one girl that I'm about to have words with!), even when discussing new vocabulary that I knew they didn't know, and they were having a hysterically good time. With the previous chapter, after the reading was done I had them turning simple direct statements and questions into indirect statements and indirect questions. But yesterday, I admit, after we finished the dialogue, and while I was debating what I wanted to do in the 10 minutes we had left, students started thumbing through the book and laughing at pictures. Therefore I used this as a good time to review large ordinal numbers, which I wrote on the board, and then we would turn to various pages and discuss the pictures in Latin.
Part of what I really like about what we did was that the reading was ALOUD. There has been a lot floating around online lately on the importance of Sustained Silent Reading in the target language. In fact, I am taking part in a Latin reading challenge to boost the amount of Latin read by teachers OUTSIDE of class. And, admittedly, I am mainly reading in silence but try to hear it aloud in Latin in my head. If I were to practice what I preach, I would be reading aloud to my cats. (They know I'm strange already so what do I care?) But with students, with those who have yet to really have firm left to right reading strategies embedded in their brains--yea verily, to retrain the brain to accept Latin word order--reading aloud is critical. We don't do this enough. (Hmmm... is this because what we are reading doesn't have macrons and therefore we are not sure how to pronounce the words and don't want to do it wrong? LOL... See my previous post.)
When I said in my title, "Trying to Do the Right Thing," I'm expressing that somewhat torn feeling of knowing what looks and feels like a traditionally correct teaching environment with scheduled quizzes and tests, following the textbook, etc, and doing what feels more like good language learning and language experience. What I'm doing with Latin 4 this year feels so much better than marching through Caesar and Vergil, having no time to stop to discuss, create, experiment, and anything else. And it surely seems to be along the lines of the "right" thing. But it feels so utterly different that I am constantly questioning what I am doing. But I am betting by the end of the year they will have far more positive things to say about the course to their friends than anyone who took AP Latin with me in the past. And if it means they CONTINUE to study Latin in college, as opposed to just wanting to place out, then I'm guessing I'll have proof that I'm doing the right thing.
I tossed out the book in Latin 4 this year. I'm winging it. I'm taking TIME with whatever we read. There's no march through Caesar; there's no cramming for quizzes and tests. I have a two-fold general idea of what I am doing: we are exploring limited texts (from the classical period and beyond) in more detail in multiple ways and we have extensive reading in Orberg's Lingua Latina. Oh, and I throw in topical things that I want to cover (and hope that I will make myself continue to use), which I also try to work in to the general running conversations of class.
For instance, we are currently studying a couple of tales from Phaedrus: Lupus et Agnus and Lupus et Gruis. The Friday before we began, I taught them about telling time in Latin--all in Latin. It wasn't as grand a lesson as I would have liked, but it was ok. The following Monday we did a Musical Pairs reading with this dialogue that I wrote. (If you are unfamiliar with Musical Pairs, it is a great opening activity which I often use with an embedded reading/dialogue in my other classes. The music plays while kids move/dance around. When it stops, they partner up with the nearest person and read the dialogue together. When the music begins they move around; when it stops they continue reading with a new partner.)
1: salvē, mea amīca (mī amīce)!
2: salva (salvus) sīs, mea amīca (mī amīce)!
1: tū dēfessa (dēfessus) vidēris. quā hōrā proximā nocte dormītum iistī?
2: decimā hōrā cubitum iī, sed duodecimā hōrā cum dodrante dormītum iī.
1: cūr? studēbāsne litterās? dēmum ūndecimā hōrā cum quadrante studēre coepī.
2: minimē. octāvā hōrā et sēmīs litterās studēre coepī et decimā hōrā cōnfēceram – tum cubitum iī.
1: quid erat reī? cūr dormītum nōn iistī?
2: ego ēsuriēbam et sitiēbam.
1: quā hōrā cēnāre solēs?
2: apud familiam meam sextā hōrā cēnā solēmus.
1: quō modō tandem dormītum īre poterās?
2: ego, sīcut fūr, in culīnam tacitē prōcessī ut crustula et lactem erriperem.
1: nunc intellegō! tū tot crustula cōnsūmistī et tantum lactem bibistī ut dormītum īre poterās!
2: minimē. pater meus, sīcut latrō, crustula et lactem erripuistī et iussī mē dormītum īre! pater, cum ēsurit et sitit, mē terret!
These things were glossed:
salva sīs = salvē
videō in the passive = seem
proximā nocte = last night
dormītum īre = to go to sleep (supine with “go” verb)
cubitum īre = to go to bed (supine with “go” verb)
dēmum – not until
quid erat reī – What was the matter? (What was wrong?)
ēsuriō, -īre – to be hungry
sitiō, sitīre – to be thirsty
crustulum – cookie
lac, lactis (m) – milk
latrō, latrōnis – bandit,
So it revieiwed some time terminology combining with a preview of vocab/concepts coming up in the Phaedrus. Here is the Phaedrus we began that day:
Ad rīvum eundem lupus et agnus vēnerant,
sitī compulsī. Superior stābat lupus,
longēque īnferior agnus. Tunc fauce improbā
latrō incitātus iūrgiī causam intulit;
“Cūr” inquit “turbulentam fēcistī mihi
aquam bibentī?” Lāniger contrā timēns
“Quī possum, quaesō, facere quod quereris, lupe?
Ā tē dēcurrit ad meōs haustūs liquor.”
Repulsus ille vēritātis vīribus
“Ante hōs sex mēnsēs male,” ait “dīxistī mihi.”
Respondit agnus “Equidem nātus nōn eram.”
“Pater hercle tuus” ille inquit “male dīxit mihi;”
atque ita correptum lacerat iniūstā nece.
Haec propter illōs scrīpta est hominēs fābula
quī fictīs causīs innocentēs opprimunt.
We discussed most of this IN Latin. I drew pictures on the board. We had discussions in English about the point of the story and the fact that Rome had the wolf as its symbol. On the day Before the second Phaedrus poem, we first explored in a Latin discussion the pictures I found online to go with the poem:
We discussed body parts of both animals (mainly in Latin), and speculated on what could be caught in the wolf's throat. We went over how to express "headache" and "stomach ache" and such in Latin. Then we read the next Phaedrus passage in Latin:
quī pretium meritī ab improbīs dēsīderat,
bis peccat: prīmum quoniam indignōs adiuvat,
impūne abīre deinde quia iam nōn potest.
os dēvorātum fauce cum haerēret lupī,
magnō dolōre victus coepit singulōs
inlicere pretiō ut illud extraherent malum.
tandem persuāsa est iūreiūrandō gruis,
gulae quae crēdēns collī longitūdinem
periculōsam fēcit medicīnam lupō.
prō quō cum pactum flāgitāret praemium,
“ingrāta es,” inquit “ōre quae nostrō caput
incolume abstuleris et mercēdem postulēs.”
On the next day, I had students write and perform simple dialogues based on one of the two stories. They were amusing; one even involved shadow hand puppets to show the putting of the crane's head into the wolf's mouth. After that, I assigned a more serious little project of writing at least three haiku about the poems in good Latin. We spend several days editing these together and the typed up haiku plus the original poems are now posted on a wall in my room along with the picture from Unit 4 of CLC that illustrates both stories. Even though these students can read some pretty advanced Latin, because we have done so little composition, writing is seriously scary to them. Having the writing project small like haiku keeps the stress level low. Some were quite good:
parvulō agnō
lupus iam appropinquat:
ōmen pessimum.--
(by TMT)
gruis avāra
accipit quod digna est—
nimis petīvit.
(by ZY)
lupus incēdit;
agnum valdē cupiēns;
fūrtīvē petit.
(by NS)
cūr ego in faucēs?
ubi est mea pecūniam?
cūr ego in faucēs?
(by LAC) (I was amused by the point of view.)
callidus lupus
praemium est prōmissum
simplex agnus
(by MD)
They finished that by this past Wednesday. There were still some vocabulary and grammar I wanted to target, so the next thing we did was a dictation, using people in the classroom. This is the second of these which I have done, and they love it. And yes, I require macrons. I have emphasized correct pronunciation since day 1 and they have absolutely no problem with this. They aren't perfect, but they understand why we do it and thus do not complain. (Glaciāta, Rāna, & Octāvia are three girls in the class--all good friends. A very congenial group.)
1. Glaciāta crūstula optima, quae omnēs amant, semper coquit.
2. hodiē Glaciāta ad scholam duo crūstula tantum tulit.
3. Rāna et Octāvia, famī compulsae, idem crūstulum valdē cupīvērunt.
4. hoc crūstulum erat longē maius quam aliud crūstulum.
5. Rāna, fauce incitāta, maius crūstulum rapuit.
6. Octāvia, iniūstō latrōciniō incitāta, causam intulit.
7. Octāvia, quae Rānam clam ōdit, “hercle!” inquit “tū es maximus porcus!”
8. quibus verbīs attonita, illa respondit, “sed ego valdē ēsuriō!”
9. “floccī nōn faciō!” inquit Octāvia. “spērō istud crūstulum in fauce tuā haerēre!”
10. Octāvia, īrā oppressa, minus crūstulum corripuit et ad Rānam ēmīsit.
11. Rāna crūstulum laetissima cēpit et clāmāvit, “tibi grātiās agō!”
12. Glaciāta, ab amīcīs frūstrāta, sēcum susurrāvit, “numquam iterum Octāviae Rānaeque crūstula coquam!”
On Monday and Tuesday of next week we will be reviewing the grammar of both in earnest and they will have a quiz next Weds that is short answer with a tiny essay that is a bit more on the traditional side. I'd like to think it is a bit more like what they could easily meet in a college Latin class.
But Friday (yesterday) we took the day off to read the next chapter aloud in Lingua Latina. It was Capitulum Quartum, which is mainly dialogue. We sat in a circle, assigned reading roles, and I just let them have FUN in the language. Yes, this is VERY VERY easy Latin for them, and part of me feels very guilty for it. BUT they were in Latin the whole time (well, except for one girl that I'm about to have words with!), even when discussing new vocabulary that I knew they didn't know, and they were having a hysterically good time. With the previous chapter, after the reading was done I had them turning simple direct statements and questions into indirect statements and indirect questions. But yesterday, I admit, after we finished the dialogue, and while I was debating what I wanted to do in the 10 minutes we had left, students started thumbing through the book and laughing at pictures. Therefore I used this as a good time to review large ordinal numbers, which I wrote on the board, and then we would turn to various pages and discuss the pictures in Latin.
Part of what I really like about what we did was that the reading was ALOUD. There has been a lot floating around online lately on the importance of Sustained Silent Reading in the target language. In fact, I am taking part in a Latin reading challenge to boost the amount of Latin read by teachers OUTSIDE of class. And, admittedly, I am mainly reading in silence but try to hear it aloud in Latin in my head. If I were to practice what I preach, I would be reading aloud to my cats. (They know I'm strange already so what do I care?) But with students, with those who have yet to really have firm left to right reading strategies embedded in their brains--yea verily, to retrain the brain to accept Latin word order--reading aloud is critical. We don't do this enough. (Hmmm... is this because what we are reading doesn't have macrons and therefore we are not sure how to pronounce the words and don't want to do it wrong? LOL... See my previous post.)
When I said in my title, "Trying to Do the Right Thing," I'm expressing that somewhat torn feeling of knowing what looks and feels like a traditionally correct teaching environment with scheduled quizzes and tests, following the textbook, etc, and doing what feels more like good language learning and language experience. What I'm doing with Latin 4 this year feels so much better than marching through Caesar and Vergil, having no time to stop to discuss, create, experiment, and anything else. And it surely seems to be along the lines of the "right" thing. But it feels so utterly different that I am constantly questioning what I am doing. But I am betting by the end of the year they will have far more positive things to say about the course to their friends than anyone who took AP Latin with me in the past. And if it means they CONTINUE to study Latin in college, as opposed to just wanting to place out, then I'm guessing I'll have proof that I'm doing the right thing.
