ginlindzey

Tomorrow is a dictatio day for the 7th graders. I'm trying to use the last story in the chapter to do a micrologue which is presented as a dictatio. So for the story of AVARUS, I'm using the following micrologue with stick figure pictures on an overhead (but no written Latin):

1) in vIllA avArus habitAbat.
2) duo fUrEs intrAvErunt.
3) "ubi est pecUnia?" fUr avArum rogAvit.
4) ingEns serpEns in pecUniA erat.

I'm going to precede the dictatio with a warm-up reviewing long vs short vowels that will include some of the vocabulary from above. So many of my students lack any phonemic awareness for English that I know the dictatio really stretches them. I think it's important, because without developing a certain level of phonemic awareness, students will not understand nor connect to the morphological endings of Latin words.

Right. So there will be stick figures to accompany the above sentences. I will be "teaching" these sentences to one student by pointing at each picture and saying the sentence. While I'm doing this, the rest of the class takes dictation. I will go through the sentences numerous times--4-6 or more--and before the one student has to say all the sentences back to me, I will ask questions to lead the student to say the whole sentence. For instance, I will point at the first picture and ask, "UBI avArus habitAbat?" so that the student will reply, "IN VILLA avArus habitAbat." Then, "QUI intrAvErunt?" "DUO FURES intrAvErunt." "QUID fUr avArum rogAvit?" " 'UBI EST PECUNIA?' fUr avArum rogAvit." And finally, "QUIS in pecUniA erat?" "INGENS SERPENS in pecUniA erat."

I'd then repeat the sentences again a time or two, depending upon the performance of the one student. Then that student would finally tell ME the sentences while looking only at the pictures. The remaining students then pass up their dictations.

I follow the dictations with a substitution drill. This will be tomorrow's:

avArus pecUniam _habEbat_.

_habEbat_ is the word to be substituted. I will make the whole class repeat that sentence several times and then pick a row. We'll practice the sentence and then I will point randomly at a person in the row and snap and say a new word: spectAbat, numerAbat, laudAbat, pulsAbat, portAbat, gustAbat. The student then has to substitute that word for habEbat. I'll make sure each student does 2-3 substitutions and then move to a different row. The row which we decide performed the best gets Hershey Kisses.

FOR HOMEWORK the students are to read the story avArus in its entirety and to write a summary. I do not require a translation because I'm trying to remove the panic and pressure of feeling the need for accuracy. Many of my students have such low self-esteem that even though they in general make A's in class, there is a terrible fear of approaching something that is totally unknown. To reinforce my desire for them to READ on their own for homework, I give a quiz the next day:

probātiuncula – avārus

vērum aut falsum
1. Two thieves entered the house of a merchant.
2. He had very little money.
3. He had only one slave, but the thieves thought he didn’t have any.
4. The slave easily overpowered the thieves.
5. The merchant said his slave never sleeps.
6. Translate into English:
in vīllā avārus rīdēbat et serpentem laudābat.
7. Which word in #6 is in the nominative case/acting as the subject?
8. Which word is in the accusative case/acting as the direct object?
9. What is the prepositional phrase?
10. What tense are the verbs—present, imperfect, or perfect?

Students are allowed to use their summaries on the quiz and in fact receive 10 additional points of extra credit for having their summary--a double reward, because the summaries also count as a homeword assignment. But even if the student has not done the reading, he/she can at least do the 2nd half of the quiz, which constantly reinforces (and spot-checks) student understanding of basic sentence structure. Question #10 covers new grammar in the chapter.

The far-reaching goal I have in mind is simply to instill confidence in reading in my students, to demonstrate to them that they can indeed go home and read a story and write a summary. It does not need to be perfect, not in this instance. But they need to understand the story and be able to take a simple T/F quiz on it. They must stretch themselves because by the time they are in AP Latin they will need to be able to read 20+ lines a night. This should not come as a shock or as something overwhelming: it needs to seem like a logical progression.

Wish me luck tomorrow.