I began by returning the tests to the class. I congratulated them on doing well. I also explained that I had intended to be there to tell them about the words that made it into the test that shouldn’t have - littera, Latina and Graeca. I asked if there were any questions. There were one or two, but nothing that needs recording. Note: I have now UPDATED the test so that it does not include the questions referenced above. You can download class tests here.
2. We now conducted our traditional class greeting. I am finding that getting ‘administration’ out of the way before ‘starting’ the lesson is a useful signpost that we are changing gears.
3. We ‘began’ the lesson by marking the students’ translations of lines 38-48 (see Lesson 6). We put the slides up on the screen (they can be accessed here) and I asked students to translate in the following way. a) I read the sentence in Latin. b) the students repeated the sentence. c) I chose one student, who gave an English translation. d) I repeated the English translation. e) We paused for questions.
As expected, the only real complication came from the adjectives Graecus and Romanus - some students translated Romanus as ‘in Rome’ rather than “Roman”. It was fairly simple to demonstrate how that would lead to us passing on incorrect information. During this marking, we discussed the best translations of ‘multi’.
4. I now reminded them of the ‘meaning’ of “num”. I explained that “num” could be placed in front of a question, if the asker thought that the answer should be “no”. I asked if a student wished to demonstrate. We got “num elephantus est parvus?” and “num mus est magnus?” - asked in a most incredulous voice - from a previous lesson.
5. We now read through lines 49-61 together. As we have done previously, I read the parts of the teachers, Phillipus and Livia, and the students read the parts of the adolescents, Diana and Apollo.
6. Next, the students were asked to read back through lines 49-61 again, recording anything that they could not understand at the back of the book (nondum intellego). I walked around and checked on those who had written anything down. A few students had written ‘num’. At the end of the reading time I asked if there were questions, but they had all been answered. Note: Something interesting happened. I noticed a student who had written a long list of words, and went to help them. As I got close, I noticed the words were from Capitulum Secundum. I asked if they were reading ahead. It turns out that they had accidentally turned to the wrong chapter. “That explains why I couldn’t understand half the words,” they said, and turned to chapter one. It was a good indication that - for them at least - the system was working.
7. I explained that I was going to give the students a small lecture in Latin. That this was an example of something they see everyday - a teacher explaining something to them - only it would be in Latin. That they should not worry if they did not understand something, but to try and follow as best they could.
I told them in English that I would be talking about Roman numbers, and Latin and Greek letters and words. That I would then be discussing syllables. I then spoke to them in Latin for about five minutes, covering the content of Capitulum Primum lines 62-83. I drew examples and wrote notes on the board. At the end of the lecture I checked their understanding by referring back to the notes I had made and asked them - in English - to summarise what I had said.
8. As the students left the room, I collected their books. My main interest was in reading their accounts of what they had done/learnt in Latin so far. Here are a few examples, shared with the students’ permission.
