Combining Wheelock’s & LLPSI: Weeks 7-9
Overview of Content Covered:
In these past three weeks, we followed LLPSI Cap. VII-IX: dative, lots of pronouns–hic, ille, is, relative and interrogative pronouns – and third declension nouns. I added to this the perfect active. After introducing many of these topics through readings, I asked students to read grammar explanations from Wheelock’s, especially for the perfect active and third declension nouns.
Parts of Class/Activities in the Past Three Weeks:
These are in rough order of how they might appear in a class, although we did not do each of these activities every day. I will only include activities already explained in my previous posts to share updates about my observations or use of the activity in the past three weeks.
Locutiones/similar spoken activity: Since I’ve introduced the Perfect, I added in a slideshow with basic daily activities in the perfect as a way to start the class and learn a bit about each other’s lives. I’ve included the slideshow here. This is perhaps more appropriate for college aged students, but could be modified.
One-word picture: see Keith Toda’s blog post on this. I used the word “pastor” as my starting word (LLPSI Cap. IX) and asked students to add to the picture in Latin. I drew what they told me, while asking probing and clarifying questions, and re-capped the whole picture at the end. Very fun, and gave the students agency in storytelling.
Reading out loud: I’ve taken a slightly different approach to this activity based on my observations and what students have asked for. I now spend more time reading out loud to my students and narrating the story to them. I still ask them to read, but after a couple students told me they found it easier to focus on the story when I read out loud and they look along in the book, I’ve taken up the following approach for some stories:
I use a story that I have assigned them for reading already, and for which we have done a pre-reading activity.
I use this method for one lectio of an LLPSI capitulum at once. Otherwise the activity becomes too long and students lose focus.
I tell my students, in Latin, that I will read the passage, slowly at first, pausing to explain or to give them English definitions, and then reading on. I will then read it again at a normal speed.
The first time we read, I pause to define words or phrases they might have trouble with, then re-read the section I paused to explain. For example: Pastor in campo sub sole–under the sun–ambulabat. Pastor in campo sub sole ambulabat.
I pause periodically to make sure there are not additional questions on vocab. I try to do this at times in the story which are not action-packed, as students get invested in the narrative and don’t want the flow to be interrupted.
After finishing the first-read through, I read the story again with no pauses, at a normal pace.
After this, we may translate a bit, do a post-reading activity, etc.
Bingo for Vocab Practice: I used this to review Cap. I-IX vocabulary. I chose 25 words from the chapters that I thought needed review, and put them in a set on myfreebingocards.com. The website creates the bingo cards and a sheet of individual terms for you (I printed two sheets of terms: one for me to cut up and pull out of a hat, and one to mark). In class, I pick words at random out of a hat, and give them a latin definition for each word.
Midterm: I structured the Midterm like a long quiz, with three sections: A 200-ish word passage followed by 8 comprehension questions in English, a grammar section which asked students to find forms in the passage written above, and a translation section which asked them to translate 4 sentences from the passage. I included an extra credit section at the end which asked them to write at least two sentences in Latin to add onto the story (thank you to my dear friend Ilse van Rooyen for sharing this idea with me). Students had 50 minutes to complete it, and most took the whole time. All students scored well; there were no issues in the comprehension section, minimal issues in the grammar sections, and although translation posed a couple more challenges, I was pleased with their performance.
Successes:
Asking students for mid-semester feedback and addressing that feedback with students.
I sent a google form to students asking for feedback about class activities and homework assignments which have been helpful and enjoyable vs. unhelpful and unenjoyable, suggestions for future activities, and accuracy of assessments. I got some very helpful feedback from students, including:
playing more games
more simultaneous auditory and visual input, like listening while reading along
fewer Nova Exercitia Exercises, citing the fact that the instructions are confusing
Some feedback/requests, however, I decided not to include, mainly providing translations of slides and stories. I decided not to do this for two reasons: first, because although English translations can be a helpful learning tool, I’d like to create meaning in L2 (Latin) as much as possible while reading. In doing so, I can offer more opportunities to define, circumlocute, circle, and generally provide input in Latin. I don’t hesitate to give English definitions of words when necessary, though. Secondly, producing those translations would simply be too much added work, taking up time that could be used to prep more effective activities.
I discussed the feedback with my students, letting them know which requests I had decided to incorporate, which I had not, and explaining my reasoning. College students possess a high level of meta-cognition about their own learning, so it’s important to clarify methods and rationales.
Gradually introducing pronouns
LLPSI Cap. VIII overwhelms the reader with about five pronoun declension tables at once. It’s simply too much material to cover in one chapter if the expectation is that students can accurately produce forms after finishing the pensa. In reaction to this, I chose to include these words–hic, ille, is, quis? and qui–in my Latin speech from the beginning of the semester. I found that it was fairly easy to use these words in activities, especially while explaining instructions, doing a picture talk, and asking questions. LLPSI also includes forms of many of these pronouns in earlier chapters. So by the time we reached Cap. VIII, students did not seem as overwhelmed as I expected by the multitude of new forms.
I also chose to emphasize and assess recognition of pronouns’ meaning rather than production. This lowered stress levels for the students, and allowed them to focus more on the input they received. From what we translated and what I saw on their midterm exam, they have no issues accurately recognizing these pronouns in context.
Challenges:
The anxiety surrounding what my students are expected to “know”
I structured this course with the knowledge that my students would be expected to finish it having learned the material in the first 20 chapters of Wheelock’s. I want to set them up to leave the course having acquired, rather than learned, as much Latin as possible (using Krashen’s definitions of learning as a conscious action and acquisition as a subconscious one which is the more important pre-requisite to fluency). But I may be their first of many Latin teachers, and it’s quite likely that in a subsequent Latin course, my students will be assessed on their memorization of grammatical forms. In addition, the primary aim of my University’s program is for students to be able to translate Latin texts accurately.
And so I feel a responsibility to: a. teach them the standard English grammatical terms for phenomena which show up in our readings, b. give them exercises in which correct production of forms is required, and c. make sure they can translate accurately. While I have no love for rote memorization or forced production activities, I do think it’s necessary to prepare students for what will be expected of them in most college Latin classes. In general, these classes expect students to memorize grammar charts and vocab, and to be able to work their way through an assigned passage of reading far above their comprehension level. If a student isn’t able to pick out the person, number, tense, mood, and voice of a verb reliably–even if they can understand a paragraph of Cicero with ease!–most college Latin educators will assume they haven’t even taken Latin I.
So, often I do assign exercises for homework which ask students to produce output, knowing that they haven’t had enough input yet. I do this because the conflicting goals of abstract grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension are both at play, and including these exercises as homework while focusing on providing meaningful, comprehensible messages during class time is the best way I’ve found so far to accomplish both goals. But the anxiety of how my students will fare if they continue to study Latin is real, and something that I think deserves more discussion in our community.
Adapting readings to the past tense (both a success and a challenge)
Since I have to cover Wheelock’s 1-20 grammar this semester, I’ve had to insert a number of grammatical topics at different times than the LLPSI curriculum does. So far, the main ones have been the imperfect and perfect tenses. The chapters which introduce these tenses would not be comprehensible to students at this point, as they use too much unfamiliar vocabulary. So I’ve chosen to adapt some of the earlier LLPSI stories and put them into the past tense. Here is a link to my past tense version of Cap. VII. (Note: you may use this in your classroom if you’d like, but I make no promises that it is error-free!)
This has taken some extra prep time, and has led me to question the feasibility of teaching material before the book introduces it. But it has also, surprisingly, created a more natural way of learning different tenses. When we covered Cap. VII, for example, we read through the original story first, followed by the past tense version a couple days later. Since students had already read the present version, they knew the plot of the story and the vocabulary. Reading the perfect version, they were able to receive additional input with little added mental load. And instead of learning feci as the 3rd principal part of facio, they automatically grasped its meaning through context. Based on this success, I will continue to put stories into the past tenses when I have the time.
Combining Wheelock’s & LLPSI: Weeks 4-6
Overview of Content Covered:
In these past three (oops, tempus fugit) weeks, we followed LLPSI Cap. IV through VI: vocative, imperative, ablative, prepositions, locative, and present passive, 3rd person. I added the other persons of the present passive and the imperfect in all persons (mostly active, with a short introduction to the passive). I gave them the option to look at the grammar in Wheelock’s for these topics. These chapters also include an introduction to Roman villas and roads, which I used along with some of my own graphics and an activity with ORBIS to show students these aspects of Roman culture.
Parts of Class/Activities in the Past Three Weeks:
These are in rough order of how they might appear in a class, although we did not do each of these activities every day. For activities already explained in my previous post, I will only write updates about my observations or use of the activity in the past three weeks.
Homework Review: I’ve found that some of the exercises in the Nova Exercitia book unnecessarily confuse students, so I’ve been selective about which exercises I choose. I have also started assigning short videos/podcasts to listen to, which we discuss for a few minutes at the beginning of class. I usually pick something that allows them to give a response (e.g. I asked them to listen to the LAC colloquium facile on Pokémon, and while discussing in class I asked each of them their favorite Pokémon).
Locutiones/similar spoken activity: I have continued to ask students ut vales/valetis, and they are able to answer without looking at the vocab. Often they just say bene valeo, or fessus/a sum, with the occasional esurio or iratus/a sum. I may cue them by asking a question using a different term or asking cur? in response to iratus sum or a similar phrase. This is a nice way to set the tone for the rest of the class.
OWAT (one word at a time): I have continued to use this activity about once a week and have noticed that a. students haven’t gotten bored yet, and b. they move through the activity more quickly and are able to produce more complex stories.
Reading out loud: while reading, I have noticed that pronunciation has improved, even though I have done close to zero correction unless asked.
Circling: I have found that slides are more effective for this activity, as it allows all of us to focus our attention in the same place instead of looking down at our individual books. Because of this, it is easier for me to make eye contact with students to gauge engagement, comprehension, etc.
Translation: I have added in a bit more translation into our class sessions, as it is one of the requirements for my university’s program. I have made it clear to them that I will correct them because of this requirement, but have tried to create a low-stress environment by a. doing pre-reading activities beforehand, b. always reading the Latin out loud before translating, and answering any questions, c. while translating, letting them finish their sentence before adding corrections (not interrupting immediately if they translate a word incorrectly), and d. re-inforcing understanding with a post-reading activity.
Grammar explanation: I have spent longer on this in the past few weeks as we have begun to add in more forms. I have continued, however, to introduce new forms in the context of a story before explaining grammar explicitly. I have tried grammar explanation in both Latin and English, and have noticed that some students respond a bit better to one or the other, but that in general, there is little difference in understanding. What has helped the most, in either Latin or English explanation, is putting the forms into context, i.e. creating sentences which use the forms.
Vocab practice game: I’m sure this game has a more formal name I’m not aware of (thanks to SALVI for introducing it to me). In this game, I split the class into two groups. One student from each group comes to the front of the room and faces toward the class. I show the remaining students a vocab word, which each student draws on a small whiteboard. After about 15 seconds I count down and ask them to show their boards. The two students in front then guess based on all the drawings, and the first to guess correctly gets a point. The students get really into the competitive aspect of the game and have requested the activity multiple times.
Quizzes: Quizzes have gone well so far; students usually score in the 90s-100 range. I have kept reading and comprehension questions on all quizzes, but added translation (usually two sentences from the reading I’ve given them). There has been a small dip in translation accuracy as we’ve progressed, especially with passive forms. I suspect this is due to a their limited exposure to the forms in context, and will improve as we see passives more often.
What worked:
Incorporating imperfects at this stage. I was worried about adding another tense, but the reality is that it has allowed me to include activities using the imperfect more naturally. We’ve read a few stories in the imperfect, and did one activity where I asked students about their childhood hobbies, interests, where they lived as a kid, etc. Through activities like these, we’ve all learned more about each other—while using the imperfect in a fun, un-forced way.
Continuing to use PQA (personal question & answer) during circling and PQA-based activities has increased class comraderie. They enjoy learning about each other and sharing about themselves in Latin. Students have become even more comfortable, often chatting before class begins and refering to class inside jokes during activities.
What didn’t:
I still struggle with how to include translation. When we translate, students tend to lose energy and interest. They are still willing to participate, but I can tell it is less engaging than the other parts of the class, where they are often smiling, laughing, and eager to answer questions.
While most students are following the grammar progression well, a few are struggling to translate and/or produce forms accurately as we’ve added more. Translation and production will come with time. But since we are so short on time, I am concerned that adding more grammar in subsequent weeks will create a snowball effect and students will become overwhelmed. I’m not sure there’s an easy solution to this in a college classroom where the basics of Latin grammar must be taught in 2 semesters.
Prep Time:
Because I have added all persons and the imperfect tense (which do not appear at this point in LLPSI), I have spent more time creating materials than I did in the first three weeks. For the most part, I have adapted LLPSI stories to cut down on prep time, and to make sure I am giving students reading with familiar vocab and context, but occasionally I do create a completely new story using the forms I am trying to introduce/practice.
General Observations:
I am still quite impressed by the students’ level of comprehension and the speed at which they are learning. As stories have become more complicated and as I have added new idioms into my speech, students have kept up and comprehension levels have remained high. I can tell this by the way they respond to instructions, gasp or laugh at a joke, and answer questions I ask.
I can also tell by the way they read. They are not decoding—they are reading sentences at sight and understanding their basic meaning. Does this mean that sometimes students get the basics of a sentence, but skip over one word? Absoltutely. Does this mean that sometimes they translate a passive as an active, or mistake a singular for a plural? Yep. Am I okay with that? Also yep. My goal is for them to enjoy reading, and actually be reading, while understanding what they’re reading. And sometimes while reading, you skip over the details. That doesn’t mean I don’t value accuracy, or that my students don’t know what a genitive is. But simply that when we shift the model for performance from 100% accuracy in translation to 85-90% accuracy in translation and 10x the reading enjoyment, students have a more intuitive feel for the language, enjoy class more, and become less anxious about receiving correction. This is a trade-off I’m personally willing to make because I think it creates, in the long term, a. more proficient Latin readers, and b. happier humans.
Combining Wheelock’s & LLPSI: Weeks 2-3
N.B.:This is the second in my series of post about combining a Grammar-Translation and CI-based approach to teaching Latin in a college classroom. For the introduction to this series, see my previous post.
Overview of Content Covered:
In these two past weeks, we followed LLPSI Cap. II & III :Singular/Plurals, Gender, The genitive, 3rd person present indicative active verbs, and the accusative. I added to this a preliminary introduction to declensions (introducing the concept and examples, basic uses of cases), and 1st/2nd person verbs, which are not included in LLPSI until Cap. XV. For declensions, I assigned explanations from Wheelock’s Ch. 2 and 3. For verbs, I assigned the Grammatica Latina from Cap. XV of LLPSI, since Wheelock’s introduces verbs from different conjugations in an odd, piece-meal way. I have six students, which has been a great number for both individualized instruction and group work.
Parts of Class/Activities in the Past Two Weeks:
These are in rough order of how they might appear in a class, although we did not do each of these activities every day.
Homework Review: This happens at the beginning of class and takes no longer than 5 minutes. I have been giving about 30 minutes of homework each night, and much of that is reading or listening, so we often only have one short exercise to review. I have been using Pensa B and C in LLPSI, select exercises from the Nova Exercitia supplement, or occassionally, exercises of my own creation. These exercises are not always direct indicators of acquisition, but they do make sure that students are gaining practice producing/recognizing specific grammar forms, which they will be expected to do later in the program.
Locutiones/similar spoken activity: for 5 minutes after HW review, I will sometimes do a short spoken activity with the students, usually focused on something not related to the chapter material but about their lives, interests and how they’re doing. This could be discussing weather, asking ut valetis/ut vales, discussing where they’re from, or asking them about their favorite activities. If I have powerpoints already made, it’s very easy to pull them up, or I can simply draw on the board/write up examples of questions and answers (e.g. Rogatum: Ut vales? Responsum: bene/male valeo, vivitur, fessus/a sum, gaudeo, etc.). This kind of activity is a fun way to start class, as it easily gets students engaged at the beginning of class and adds a sense of fun to the atmosphere.
OWAT (one word at a time): A technique widely used by language teachers using CI-based methods. I write about 8 words from the chapter we’re working on (this week at the beginning of the chapter, before we read together) on post-its. I give groups of 2-3 students one word at a time, telling them to “tollite manus” if they need another word. I tell students to write a sentence per word, and that the sentences as a whole should create a story. After they finish, they read their stories aloud. Usually they are funny and compelling to the whole class. I often ask questions to clarify the details of the story, but do not correct their grammar unless they ask.
Dictations: This is where I write a series of sentences using vocab from the story and read them aloud while students write what they hear. After each sentence, I ask them if any vocab words are unclear, and at the end of the exercise we sometimes translate the sentences. The goal here is to get repetitions of new vocab, but also to get students in the practice of hearing and writing in Latin. This activity always takes longer than I think it will.
Reading out loud: we often read out loud together from the book (or a short story I wrote), in Latin, without translating. Sometimes, I read passages and ask students to listen, and sometimes, I ask them to read sentence by sentence. I encourage students to ask about vocabularly words which are unfamiliar at the end of each section.
Circling: I often then ask circling questions, either using slides which ask these questions or simply by looking at the book. E.g.: Sentence: Iulia laeta est quia cantat. Questions: Num Iulia irata est? Cur laeta est?
Translation: we do not translate everything we read, but we do occassionally stop for 10 minutes or so to translate a passage. Sometimes, this means choral translation (as a group, with me pointing to words), and other times I ask students to translate sentence by sentence. Their translations so far have been accurate, and have made it clear that they generally understand sentences at sight.
Grammar explanation: this is when I give students explicit grammar explanations. I try to do this only after the students have seen many examples of the grammar topic in the context of a story. Sometimes I ask them to look at a Wheelock’s explanation as well. I spend a maximum of 30 minutes total on grammar explanations per week.
Various Writing Exercises: these may be more grammar/topic-focused or more open ended. For one activity, I asked students to write 5 sentences in Latin using the genitive case. For another, I asked them to write (in pairs) an explanation of a certain place using the model of LLPSI Cap. I. These tend to take up a lot of time (at least 25 minutes for pair/group activities), but are very engaging for students.
Quizzes: Students take quizzes on each chapter. The quiz consists of: a) a short passage (~100 words) of unseen adapted Latin, about as difficult as material they have been reading in that chapter, b) about 5 comprehension questions about the passage, c) a few grammar questions asking them to find examples in the passage of specific forms, e.g. a genitive singular, d) an extra credit section which asks them to translate a sentence from English into Latin. These take no longer than 15 minutes.
What worked:
Anything that got them talking about their lives; i.e. PQA (Personal Question & Answer). Students at this level need a fair amount of scaffolding/examples, so writing up possibilities on the board or giving examples and pictures on slides has been an effective way of structuring the activity and boosting student confidence.
OWAT was a great activity for students. They enjoyed writing the stories and hearing their classmates’ creations. They didn’t seem to get bored with the activity easily–in fact, I think they would have happily continued for the entire class.
Incorporating 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person present active indicative verbs, with infinitives, in all conjugations, at the same time (during week 3). I know it sounds like a lot, but with the inclusion of 1st and 2nd person forms and infinitives from the first week as a part of spoken activities, students are able to recognize them at this point.
What didn’t:
I showed students a table of declensions before they saw many of the cases in context; this created more confusion and anxiety around cases and declensions than I intended.
I did not make the instructions for the dictation clear enough, so some students were writing in Latin, while others were writing English translations. Next time, I will make this clearer.
Reading and circling can get a bit tedious. One way of circling I’ve found that engages students is acknowledging that the content is very simple, and that they may feel like kindergarteners, and then making each mundane question sound like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. But even then, any more than 15 minutes will put everyone to sleep.
Prep Time:
I try not to spend more than 30 minutes on prep for each class. Sometimes this ends up being more, sometimes less. To give you a sense, these activities take me the following amounts of prep time (excluding activities like reading out loud and translating, for which I do not prep):
Locutiones: 0 mins (if I have a powerpoint already)/30-45 minutes (if I have to create a short powerpoint)
Circling questions: 0-10 mins. For some passages, I prepare or think up a few questions, for others, I do not.
OWAT: 5 mins
Writing a simple short story (approx. 150-200 words): 30 mins
Writing a dictation exercise (approx. 10 short-ish sentences): 30 mins
Creating a powerpoint for a longer spoken activity: 1 hr
Creating a quiz: 30-40 mins
Observations:
They understand so much! It’s amazing to me that I can explain even relatively complicated instructions for tasks mostly in Latin with the right scaffolding, gesturing, pictures, etc. For example, if I say: Scribite tres sententias hoc vocabulo utentes, they understand what to do. They have not yet seen the participle, nor do they know the rule that utor takes the ablative, but the context and their prior acquisition make the sentence clear. Even if they are not producing all forms accurately yet, they are clearly understanding the distinctions between habes and habet or puer and puerum well in context.
Students are also beginning to develop intuitive senses about the language. For example, without having seen a chart of all present indicative active verb forms, and after having seen only 3rd person forms in readings, students were able to identify 1st and 2nd person forms simply from their exposure to them during other parts of class.
As we have gotten to know each other better, students have begun talking to each other (and me) more before class begins, and individual students seem more willing to participate. There is a jovial atmosphere in the room!
Combining Wheelock’s & LLPSI: An Introduction
Salve/salvete!
This year, I am teaching Latin I for the first time at a college level. I am a graduate student instructor at a university where Wheelock’s Latin is the standard text for beginning undergraduate Latin courses, and is typically covered in two semesters; chapters 1-20 are taught in the first course (Latin I), and chapters 21-40 in the second course (Latin II). Since there is not always continuity between instructors from one level to the next (a student may have different instructors for Latin I and Latin II, for example), instructors are expected to cover the grammar from the Wheelock’s chapters outlined above but are free to choose their own approaches and textbooks.
Given these preliminaries, I have decided to teach with Lingua Latina per se Illustrata (LLPSI), while supplementing with and covering grammar from Wheelock’s, among other sources. I’ve taken a hybrid grammar-translation and comprehensible-input based approach and have decided to write about my experiences teaching this semester on this blog. This post will lay out my plans for the semester, including methods, pacing, and course schedule, as well as some very preliminary Week 1 observations. I will post here once a week or once every two weeks on Saturdays to record my experience, both for myself and for other educators/learners. I’ll talk about what worked, what didn’t work, what activities I used, etc. So follow along if you’re interested. I’d imagine this content will be most useful to you if you a) teach Latin at a college level, b) are interested in different pedagogical approaches, c) have some constraints on methods, curriculum, and/or pacing, or d) are simply along for the ride!
Texts:
As stated above, I am using LLPSI as my primary text while making sure I cover (more or less) the grammar concepts in Wheelock’s Ch. 1-20. This means that we will be reading Chapters 1-17 or so of LLPSI, while supplementing with sections from Wheelock’s and other textbooks, novellas, or stories I come up with. There is a fair amount of overlap between the two books in terms of grammar covered, but I’ve had to add certain topics earlier than introduced by LLPSI. Perfect verb forms, which LLPSI does not begin introducing until chapter 21, are introduced in chapter XII of Wheelock’s; accordingly, I plan to teach the perfect about halfway through the semester, which will require me to provide materials outside of or adapted from LLPSI.
I chose LLPSI as my primary text mainly because of its focus on reading. If our goal is for students to be able to read authentic texts at some point, they should be reading as much as possible from day one. Like every textbook, however, LLPSI has its problems (see Seumas Macdonald & Gregory Stringer’s excellent series on this topic). One of these problems is that it introduces vocabulary too quickly, to the point that readings become less comprehensible unless more time is devoted to them. When we get to the point in the semester at which students become overwhelmed by the amount of new vocab (and I am sure we will), I will provide them with as much comprehensible input as possible, encourage them to re-read and re-listen to chapters, and use a number of pre- and post-reading activities to consolidate learning. But I’m also realistic about the fact that we’ll be moving through the book too quickly for them to acquire everything.
Class structure:
I meet with my students for 50 minutes, 4x/week, amounting to 3 hours 20 minutes of instruction. I’ll cover about one chapter of LLPSI per week, but some weeks will cover more or less. For example, I plan to introduce relative pronouns early and spend more than a week on them, since Cap. VIII of LLPSI (where a whole bunch of pronouns are introduced) tends to be overwhelming for students. On the other hand, I plan to combine the grammar instruction for Cap. V and VI into one week, as students will have been introduced to many of the topics earlier in the term.
I am conducting the class in both English and Latin. I use Latin for warm-ups (like basic locutiones or days of the week), games, targeted reading/listening/writing/speaking activities, and sometimes, grammar instruction. I use English for the remaining grammar instruction, to assist with comprehension when students need help with a word or definition (e.g. “amicitia significat ‘friendship’”), and for practicing translation. My primary goal is for them to get as much exposure to the language as possible, through practicing the four basic language skills listed above. But as they will be expected in their future classes to know English grammar terms and to be able to translate into English, I’d like to make sure they leave the class with those skills as well.
Methods:
I am using a combination of Comprehensible Input-based methods (CI) and Grammar-Translation methods (GT). This means that I try to give students as much input they can understand at sight as possible, and that we will do lots of reading and re-reading. My main goal is that students understand and acquire as much of the language as possible, which I believe is best done through comprehensible input-based methodology.
Another goal is for the students to develop translation skills, with the knowledge that translation is a skill that develops apart from language acquisition itself. I have been careful here to explain this distinction to students, making it clear to them that reading and translation are separate skills, and that we will read without translating sometimes.
A final goal is for students to develop meta-cognitive skills about how the language works. These are what we would commonly call “grammar skills.” This is where Wheelock’s and more traditional GT methods come in. For the most part, I will try to introduce grammar after reading so that students already have a mental representation of it. If they’ve seen sentences like Iulius est pater Marci 10+ times, they’ll understand how genitives work more intuitively.
Homework & Assessments:
I give homework each night, which could be one or a combination of the following: some of the pensa at the end of each chapter, some of the exercises from Nova Exercitia (a supplemental workbook), reading, listening, YouTube videos, Gimkit practice sets, or short writing activities. I aim to give students about 30-45 minutes of homework per night.
I plan to give short, weekly quizzes geared toward accomplishing the goals set out above. The main section of the quiz will focus on a passage of Latin and reading comprehension questions about the passage. I will also ask them to translate a sentence or two and recognize grammatical forms within the passage. I will not quiz them on vocabulary; demonstration of passage comprehension should give me a good idea of their vocabulary knowledge. Midterm and final exams will be structured in roughly the same way.
Week 1 Observations:
During the first week of classes, we discussed the course’s overview and methodology and completed Cap. I of LLPSI. I began each class with a short spoken activity using basic conversational phrases. For each activity, I wrote words and phrases like iterum, non intellego, lentius, quid significat…?, quomodo dicitur…? on the board so that students could ask for help if needed. Most of the activities consisted of me speaking, gesturing, and clarifying, but students were quick to respond to my questions and showed their comprehension through nods and body language. I was a bit worried that students would find these types of activities silly, and while sometimes they did, there was lots of laughter and joking too. I think sometimes as college instructors, we forget how much an element of playfulness can add to the classroom!
Another big takeaway has been that students respond well to clear explanation of methods. This may seem obvious, but so often, especially in university teaching, we simply ask students to follow along without telling them why we’ve decided to do something in a particular way. In my case, methodological explanation meant telling my students how language acquisition works on a basic level and why I’ve taken this approach to teaching Latin. I was concerned that my students would be opposed to spoken Latin in the classroom but have found the exact opposite after explaining the meta-reasons behind my pedagogical decisions.
In other parts of class, we read through the chapter together and did circling questions (Ubi est Roma? Roma est in Italia, etc.), and discussed number and gender in both English and Latin. I’m impressed by how much they can already understand and am excited for the rest of the term.
περὶ τῆς παρακοῆς: Ancient Greek by Women Glossed Reading #6
(Note: this will be the final reading in this series for the time being.)
After a long hiatus, here is a new glossed reading containing a section from Eudocia’s Homerocentones on Eve’s deception of Adam. This is a fascinating 5th c. CE work in which the author weaves together lines from Homer to re-tell biblical stories. Eudocia was raised as a pagan in Athens, but converted to Christianity at the time of her marriage to Theodosius II, Augustus of the eastern Empire.
In the selection I’ve chosen, Eudocia uses lines from Homer (often referring to Helen, Clytemnestra, Penelope, or other Homeric women) to tell Eve’s story. Expanding on the account from Genesis, Eudocia explores Eve’s actions using epic language, assigning Christian meaning to Homeric verses and merging the genres of Scripture and epic.
The version with Latin and Greek glosses can be found here; the version with just Greek glosses here.
Sappho 31:Ancient Greek by Women Embedded/Glossed Reading #4
This week’s poem is the famous Sappho 31. While many of us have read this poem before, the dialect makes it quite challenging, so I’ve tried to gloss Aeolic forms with Attic equivalents and explain unfamiliar words.
The version with Latin/Greek glosses is here, the version with Greek glosses is here.
εἰς βέμβον:Ancient Greek by Women Embedded/Glossed Reading #3
This week’s reading is another Olympia Morata poem, written in praise of Italian scholar Pietro Bembo (d. 1547). Here is the version with Latin/Greek glosses, which can also be found on my "Embedded Readings” page. I particularly enjoy the Homeric description of Hades and the mention of Cicero in this one.
εὐχαὶ γαμικαί: Ancient Greek by Women Embedded/Glossed Reading #2
Next embedded reading is up! This is another poem by Olympia Morata entitled εὐχαὶ γαμικαί (Wedding Prayers), and was written around the time of her wedding in 1550. Here is the link to the reading with Latin/Greek glosses; the Greek only glosses will be up soon.
Embedded/Glossed Readings: Women who Wrote in Ancient Greek
One of the projects I’m committing to this summer is creating some resources for those who would like to read and/or introduce to students Ancient Greek written by women. In general, resources that make authentic Greek texts accessible are few and far between, even fewer when it comes to texts written by women.
So, every week until the end of August, I plan to post a short embedded reading with Oerberg-style glosses introducing a poem, letter, or section of a longer work written in Greek by a woman. Many of these works will be from the Renaissance/Early Modern period (as this is the period my research focuses on), but some will be from Medieval/Classical writers. Each time I post a reading, I’ll make a blog post here and post the resource on my Embedded Readings page. If I end up continuing past August, I may charge a bit for additional resources/packets of what I’ve created, but for now, they are free.
For this first week, I’ve chosen a poem by Olympia Fulvia Morata, a 16th century Italian scholar and writer of Latin and Ancient Greek. The poem centers themes about the expectations of womanhood and diverging from those expectations. I’d like to thank Andrew Morehouse for giving me some guidance on how to create an embedded reading, and AnnMarie Patterson for editing.
I have created two versions, one with Ancient Greek glosses only, and one that combines Latin and Ancient Greek glosses. There are brief instructions on how to use the resource at the bottom of each document.
You can download the Greek one here, and the Latin/Greek one here.
ἡ Βατραχομυομαχία (The Battle of Frogs and Mice in Adapted Ancient Greek)
χαίρετε! I have finally completed my Battle of Frogs and Mice Video, in which I have adapted the Homeric mock-epic into somewhat easier prose with the aid of visuals, vocabulary help, and voice-overs. The YouTube link is above. Enjoy!
New Poetry, 5.21.21
De Maerore Alieno
Quid mihi maerores subeunt nostris alieni,
Frustra quos patior, nec meritos doleo?
Maerenti nato affini infestoque sodali*
Adgemit ipsa parens aegraque terra ferens.
Sic ingrata aliena fero, sic pectora pellunt;
Talia trita mihi tritane terra capit?
*Thank you to Armand D’Angour for helpful metrical corrections.
Pro nivibus vernalibus
Canos iam quereris summissos caespite flores
Bubalum et olim deposito tunc vellere laetum.
Ast vero vere aspicias brumalia cana
Laetus, nam nivibus vernis quid pulchrius esset?
Introduction to the Site
Welcome! While I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting typical blog posts, I am planning to use this blog as a way to let people know when I post updates/new material. If you would like to subscribe to weekly email updates about recent work, please use the form on my homepage. I plan to post new content here initially before adding it to the appropriate page on my website. And hopefully I’ll get around to posting a few random musings here. In proximum/εἰς αὖθις!