While scrolling through my Twitter feed in October 2016, I came across several retweets of a new Latin series about a fictitious Lego community, Legonium. At the time, my upper level Latin students at Medfield High School, a public school just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, were reading sections of Julius Caesar’s De Bello Gallico. After perusing the first chapter of Legonium, I thought incorporating this modern reading into our class would be a refreshing break from the ancient texts we had been translating. I presented the first chapter to our class during an extended block period and told them that if they hated it, we’d never read Legonium again. The students immediately became invested in the story, were excited to read about the adventures of Marcellus, and felt empowered that they could actually read the Latin!
As the weeks of our school year progressed and new chapters of Legonium emerged, our class began a steady routine. Upon the release of each new chapter, students could work in groups of 2 or 3 to read the chapter, create a vocab list of any unknown vocabulary, and make a prediction for the next chapter. I was so impressed by the interest and creativity in their work, that I began exploring ideas for my students to write their own chapters of the Legonium series.
For the seniors’ midterm projects in January 2017, each student was tasked with writing their own version of chapter 7. They had to write in the same style as the previous six chapters of Legonium, and maintain the storyline and characters that we had previously encountered. Students wrote about Claudia’s secret jaunt to Russia for a date with Vladimiri Putinus, the inner workings of Pico the cat, and even creative ideas of how Marcellus would pay off his debt to the bank. We truly look forward to the Kalends of each month to see if any of our predictions for the upcoming chapters have come true. We can’t wait to see what happens next!
--Anna Lall
Latin Teacher
Medfield High School
@MagistraLall
I have seen the product of these midterm projects, and they are outstanding. One of them was entirely illustrated with hand drawn pictures. You can see one of those pictures on today’s page. Thank you, Anna, for sharing your use of Legonium in the classroom. I hope your (extremely talented) students enjoy episode nine, which will release in just a few days.
Did you see the new clothes of Marcellus? Without a doubt Monas will notice his clothes. Is our Marcellus in danger? Oh no!