Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Sixteen

1. I began by reminding the students of our previous class test, and how they were given the paper to look at beforehand. I also reminded them of the last question of that test, in which they were asked to write a description of an imaginary island. I told them that for this test, they would only be given two questions in advance, and handed out one of those questions to them now. Note: For the sake of reducing paper, the second question was printed on the back, but I told them to ignore that for now. Class test can be downloaded here.

2. I asked the students to suggest a few sentences that they might write in response to the above question. This led to a discussion about how to tell and man from a women, a child from from an adult, a girl from a boy. Other students offered answers about the name endings, and the layout of a family tree.

3. I wrote a heading on the board, and asked the students to copy it into their book, explaining that the title gave the English meaning of a new Latin word. I asked them to copy down and respond to a series of question, using the family to tree to find their answers. Note: I told them that any of the sentences they (correctly) write while responding to these questions would be appropriate in the upcoming class test.

4. The students worked on these, while I made myself available to answer their questions. Some students were unsure which words needed to be put into the possessive form, but for most of these the activity itself seemed to bring some clarity. For a portion of this group, there is still a level of uncertainty.

5. We finished the activity, and the lesson, by going through possible answers to the question. Along with individual words, students wanted to test the order of the words they used. There was considerable variety.

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Fifteen

1. Today a student asked if they could please do the class greeting, so they were invited out the front to say “State!” and “Salvete, discipuli” etc. Everyone seemed to enjoy the change.

2. We began the lesson by marking Pensum B, which had been homework. We marked this in the same way as Pensum A. That is, I read out a student’s name from the role, they read a single sentence, I repeated it and the entire class repeated it after me. I told the class that they learn Latin best by hearing it and speaking it.

3. I now handed back the Mea Familia sheets (see Lesson Fourteen). Again, I told the students that if everything was ticked that they had made no errors, but that all errors had been corrected for them. I’m happy to say that there were very few. I told them that they now had everything they needed to make their book, the details of which I will outline below.

a) Their book is due in one week.

b) Their book will be marked on 3 criteria: i) the accuracy of their Latin (which they will be transcribing from their sheets. ii) the clarity of their handwriting iii) the use of pictures to illustrate their stories. I told them that they could use actual photos, drawings, pictures found online, or other creative methods - such as drawing eyes on potatoes and taking photos to create illustrations of a potato family.

c) I then gave them each of a copy of a book that I had made, using the same sentences about my family used to model their sentences. This concrete example of what their finished product might look like seemed to give them a great deal of confidence that this was an achievable goal.

4. I wrote the heading “Servi et Ancillae” on the board, and asked the students to copy it into their books, explaining that they would be writing out notes from the board. I told them the meaning of the two words, "enslaved men and women” and reminded them that human enslavement was a disturbing aspect of Roman culture, and that they were free to have their own thoughts and feelings about it. Note: I drew particular attention to the plural possessive when it was first introduced, and again when it was used with “numerus”.

5. There were a few minutes left, so I introduced them to the Latin maxim “scientia est potentia”. Most guessed that it meant something like “science is power”, so when one student deduced the correct meaning, they had some interesting things to say about the links between “power” and “potential” and “science” and “knowledge”. There was still a minute left, so I showed them how to say “I love you” in Latin. Being 12 year olds they immediately worked out how to say “I don’t love you” and began saying it to each other.

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Fourteen

1. I began by giving back the Mea Familia sheets to the students (see Lesson Thirteen). I explained that if everything was ticked, then they had made no errors, but that all errors had been corrected. I urged them to use the corrected versions of any words that I had changed as we completed writing the sentences for our books today.

2. We now moved on to sentences that use the possessive forms of the names. Once again, I modelled the sentences using the family that I grew up with. They wrote similar sentences - as appropriate for their own families - on the Mea Familia handout. In the process, I introduced them to the words “uxor” and “maritus” - wife and husband. Note: Along the way I was sure to ask if anyone’s family had two husbands, or two wives, just as I did for sons and daughters. No one’s did, but it is important to be inclusive in a classroom setting.

3. When we came to the pets I told the story of Rhodie (Rhodia), stressing that she was very much MY cat. The story: My sister Jodie and her best friend Ruth found two kittens under a building at school. They each took one home, naming them Rhodie and Bhodie. We already had two cats, so I - still in primary school - was given the job of putting Rhodie in a box and taking her from house to house asking if anyone would adopt her. Nobody would, so when I got home I begged mum to let me keep her. Mum relented and so Rhodie became very much MY cat. LTDR: I wrote “Rhodia est feles Antonii.” because Rhodie was my cat, but if their pet belonged to the whole family, the students could write something like “Rhodia est feles familiae.”, Rhodie is the family’s cat. At the end I collected up their sheets to check their Latin.

4. We had about 10 minutes left of the lesson, so I decided to show the class two lists; Disney Animated Films and Video Games. With these, I put up each list at the front of the room for about three minutes each while the students discussed and shouted about what they thought the Latin might mean. Then I ran through them quickly - some the students had deduced, and others they got with the right hints. I find it teaches them a little something about cognates, derivatives and the history of words. For example - many of them now know that “corona” means “crown”, but when told that it has another meaning in religious art they soon guess “Halo” - a game know to all. You can access all of the Legonium Lists here.

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Thirteen

1. We began the lesson by marking Capitulum Primum : Pensum A (see lesson 11). The method I chose was to read through the class roll, calling out each student’s name and having them read a single sentence. If it was correct (most of the responses were) I would repeat it, and then the whole class would chant it in unison. If it was wrong - due to the nature of the exercise, it would only be a single syllable that needed adjustment - I said “almost” and corrected it, for the students to chant. Meanwhile, the students were marking their own work, and making changes where needed.

2. I asked the students to complete Pensum B for homework tonight, in a similar fashion to Pensum A. i.e. The students were asked to copy the entire exercise into their books, filling in the spaces with the words missing.

3. I then showed the students that, as well as the Gimkit vocabulary quizzes that they played last lesson, they could practise the Pensa using Gimkit. I put the quiz for Capitulum Primum : Pensa A and B up on the board, and we did a few questions together. I told them that they might like to run through the Gimkit quiz before doing the homework tonight. You can access all the Gimkit quizzes here.

4. It was now time for us to get back to working on our Latin picture books (see Lesson 10). I handed each student one of the handouts (below) and the students used the tables they had created (and that I had corrected and returned) to fill out the table here. As an example, I used my own family (growing up); mum, dad, two sisters, myself and a cat called Rhodie (Coralina, Ianus, Iodia, Kristina, Antonius and Rhodia). All worksheets can be downloaded here.

5. I wanted the students to begin by writing a single sentence about each person from their table (with an additional sentence for plurals where required). As an example, here are the sentences about my family.

6. At the end of the lesson I collected up all of their worksheets to make any necessary corrections. There were only a few changes needed - mostly to do with the possessive form, which we will be using next lesson.

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Twelve

Note: This lesson was conducted in a computer lab rather than our usual classroom. I wanted to introduce the students to Gimkit. I had hoped in this lesson to set up a Gimkit class, but we ran out of time due to technical issues. If I was able to get regular access to reliable computers, I would use Gimkit more regularly, probably for small 10 minutes bursts every three or so lessons. As it is, I am hoping to encourage the students to use Gimkit at home, and I will occasionally be able to gain access to a computer lab.

1. I showed the class how to reach the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata Gimkit Quizzes on Legonium. I will outline the instructions below:

Step One: Go to Legonium.com.

Step Two: Hover the mouse over LLPSI to cause a menu to drop down. Click on Gimkit.

This will take you to a menu with a set of Gimkit Quizzes. There are currently three types of quizzes here:

1) Quizzes focused on (mainly) vocabulary, with a little bit of morphology, from a single chapter.

2) Quizzes that group together the above chapter Quizzes.

3) Quizzes based upon Pensa A and B from each chapter.

2. I gave the students the briefest introduction to the Gimkit game, explaining that they had 10 minutes to earn $1 million, and that it WAS possible, by answering questions correctly and strategically buying power-ups. (I have done it a few times now, so I know it can be done). They fell into it like ducks into water. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around and watching them play, especially when their mouses hovered for a little while uncertainly before selecting the correct answer.

3. I next showed them how they could all play a Gimkit game together. To do this, somebody (ie. me) needed a Gimkit account. Students are given a code that allows them to enter into the game. It is best if you have the ability to display a large central screen with the game details on it. I selected the quiz that contains vocabulary from both Chapters 1 and 2, and told them that they should try and learn a few new things as they play. (Watching them play, they almost certainly did). For the scenario I chose Humans vs Zombies. Note: The humans won.

Note: The way Gimkit works, you need an account to set up a multiplayer game, but that account is free. I have made my LLPSI quizzes easy to find, by having their names all start with “Q LLPSI”, so feel free to find them on the site and start a multi-player game of your own. Enjoy!

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Eleven

1. I started by collecting the homework from last lesson (see lesson 10). Generally speaking, the students were able to successfully follow the instructions given. There were a couple, however, that didn’t change the name to a ‘Latinised’ form, so I will give them a little more direction.

2. I reminded the students that we are in the computer labs next lesson.

3. I then asked the class if they had any questions about what they had learnt so far, or wanted to make any comments. (I’ve been packing the lessons pretty full with activities, so I thought it would be worthwhile pausing for a moment to hear what they have been thinking about.) There were some interesting observations and questions.

4. We now began the lesson with our customary greeting.

5. a) I put Capitulum Secundum Pars Prima up on the board, and we read it together. They had already seen all of the vocabulary while reading Simpsones (see Lesson 10). I explained to them that this was the ‘familia‘ that the book was named after, and that we would be following this family throughout the entire book. We had a short discussion about Latin names. One of the students put up their hand and asked whether this meant that Aemilia’s father was Aemilius, which I thought was very clever. You can access this story here.

b. Reading this story led to a brief but frank discussion about human enslavement. I acknowledged that they may be upset by the fact that this family enslaved other humans, owning them as property and forcing them to labour. I said that our textbook was very ‘matter-of-fact’ about this point, but that that shouldn’t stop them from having thoughts of their own. There were some interesting and thoughtful questions about human enslavement in Rome. I introduced them to the four named characters - see image below - but told them that the story tells us that this family had enslaved 100 (mostly unnamed) humans. I assume that most of them were working the family’s property.

c. We now read the remainder of Pars Prima together, with me reading the narration and Livia, and the students reading the adolescents. It was fine, but this was the first time that I got the sense that the students were maybe a little bored from reading together off the board. It may be time to try a few different methods of reading.

d. I asked the students what the endings on words like Marci, Quinti and Iuliae were doing, and the students remembered from last lesson that they were ‘like an apostrophe s’.

Note: Usually after reading together I ask the students to reread on their own. But as this was basically the same text as Simpsones, I went straight on to the next activity.

6. I now asked the students to take out their exercise books and textbooks to complete Pensum A in Capitulum Primum. This was the first time that the students had done a Pensum, so I explained that the dashes after the words were asking them to complete the word (eg. fluvi-) or add a word (eg. Creta insula _____). We did the first paragraph together, with the students writing out the full sentences into their books. The students then did as much of the remainder of the exercise as they could in the 12 minutes or so remaining. I told them that we would mark their work once we were back in the classroom, after our computer lab lesson. I said that finishing this would be homework, to be done for that lesson.

Note: As I walked around the room, I noticed two things. 1) There was a mix or correct and incorrect answers. 2) The students worked at very different paces, with some just about finishing, while others wrote around five or six lines. I will be introducing them to an electronic version of the Pensa, so perhaps this will help.

Capitulum Secundum : Lesson Ten

Note: I’ve decided to give the students an assignment to do at home. I’ve broken the assignment up into manageable tasks - the end result will be a Latin picture book about a family. I’ll detail the various parts of the assignment lesson by lesson.

1. I began by telling the students that I have booked a computer room for Lesson 12, and that they should make their way there instead of coming to our usual classroom.

2. Next I told them that they would be doing an assignment, that would end with them making a picture book about a family, written in Latin, but that we would be doing it in steps. I told them that the first step was due next lesson, and wrote up the instructions on the board.

a) The first step is to choose a family. The family needs to have two generations - a parent or parents and at least one child. It was not to include grandparents, cousins etc. It could be a real family, including their own, a family they made up, or a family from a TV series, book, movie etc. I told them that, as they would be making a picture book, they would need to find/take/create pictures of the family members, so if they were using real people not already in the public sphere, they would need to get their permission.

b) I told them that they would need to adjust the names. That if the person was male, they should change the name to end in an -us and if the person was female they should change it to end in an -a. As an example, I told them about my two cats. I explained that when I speak Latin, I call Harry “Harrius” and Minnie “Minerva”.

I told them that - as they may already know - some people don’t identify as either male or female. I explained that Latin is a very binary language, but that if there was someone in their chosen family that doesn't identify as one or the other, that they should just let me know and we would work something out. Note: Lupercal has published “A Style Guide for Gender Inclusivity in the Latin Language” which you can access here.

c) Lastly, I asked them to submit a page on a loose sheet of paper, that contained the following information. i) their own name ii) the (newly Latinised) names of each family member. iii) one word from column x describing each person. iv) one word from column y describing each person. v) a short explanation - in English - of who their family was. I drew an example page up on the board for them to copy out, along with columns x and y. I told them that they wouldn’t know what the words in the two columns meant yet, but that they would by the end of the lesson. Note: due to popular demand, we also added pets.

3. With all that out of the way, we now began the lesson with out customary greeting.

4. I told them that there were two things I wanted to do today, and that we would then read a picture book about a family, something similar to what they would - in the long run - be creating.

5. The first thing was a set of simple expressions that I wanted them to copy into their exercise books, along with a definition. The first one, “quid est….?”, they had already met.

6. The second thing was about possession. We briefly talked about how English showed possession - with an apostrophe s. I told them that as we read the story, we would see how Latin showed possession.

7. It was now time to read the story. It turned out that there were only three people in the class who hadn't seen The Simpsons. I showed them how I had changed the names so that they ending in an -a or -us, and as we read through the story - Simpsones - we discussed the meaning of the words from column x and y (see above). We also met -que (and) as well as ‘Americāna’. Meeting ‘liberi’ was particularly interesting, because the text itself actually defines what the word means - Līberī sunt fīliī fīliaeque. Note: The text of Simpsones - which you can find here - is lifted wholeheartedly from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata Capitula Primum Pars Una - only the names have been changed. And the family has two daughters and one son.

8. In this version of the story, the possessive endings are all marked in red. The students seemed to have no trouble whatsoever understanding the meanings of these ending. One student even asked if the possessive was shown in different ways for males and females. Snap.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Nine

1. After returning the students’ exercise books (see Lesson Eight), we began the lesson with our customary greeting.

2. I wrote the letters A, B and C on the board and said the following: A est littera prima. B est literra secunda. C est littera tertia. I asked them what they thought prima, secunda and tertia meant. The students then turned to the area in the book where they had previously written the numbers 1 to 10, and wrote primus, secondus and tertius next to unus, duo and tres.

3. The students opened their textbooks to lines 62-83. I explained that this was the same content as last lesson’s short lecture. We read the lines together off the board. As is our custom, I read the parts of the teachers, and the students read the parts of the adolescents. You can find the illustrated version of this chapter here.

4. I asked the students to reread lines 62-83 on their own, and to write down anything they didn’t understand in the back of their books. There were a few questions, mainly to do with the changing of the ends of primus etc.

5. I told the students that they were going to play “I Piscatum” - Go Fish. Most of the students had played this game before - although never in Latin. I told them that “I Piscatum” means “Go - in order to do some fishing.” Then I explained the rules for those who hadn't played before. I had a group of four students come out and I talked them through a couple of turns to show everyone how it worked, connecting the idea of Fishing with drawing a random card from the deck.

The full rules are included with the game, so I won’t expand on them here. But I made sure the students understood the meaning of ‘estne tibi….?’ (it wasn’t difficult as they already knew “estne” and “tibi”, and I wrote “Ordo te vocat - the order calls you - its your turn” on the board. I stressed the importance of speaking only Latin (Latine tantum) for the next fifteen minutes as they played. You can download and print a PDF version of the game here.

Observations: The Latine tantum really didn't work. The students were speaking A LOT of English, and I needed to remind them to read the Latin from the cards as they were handing them over. Having said that, a good deal of Latin was definitely begin spoken, so it hasn’t dented my faith in gaming as a way of encouraging Latin use. I think in future, when using a game, I will give the the students longer and allow a period of time to play in English AND Latin. Then we will switch to Latine tantum. I’ll see how that goes…

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Eight

1. 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.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Seven

Note: I was away and this lesson was conducted by a replacement teacher. I was unsure how long the class test would take, and needed to set a task that the students could continue with when finished, without a Latin teacher present (see activity 2, below). Had I been there, I may have done things differently. As it was, it seemed wise to have a second activity that was more extension than critical work.

1. Students sat a class test that they had already briefly seen (see lesson 5). A PDF of the class test can be downloaded here. The complete test can be seen below. Note: I had planned to tell the students that there were a couple of words in the test that they would have to try to deduce. Unfortunately, I forgot to include this in my instructions to the replacement teacher.

   Results

   Overall, I was very happy with the results. There are a few students I will need to check are catching up on things they didn’t understand as well as the others, but basically the first six lessons appear to have been a success. As alluded to above, the fact that I was not able to guide them through the appearance of a few new words meant that a number of students lost marks identifying “littera Latina” and “littera Graeca”. But other that this, the only area in which multiple students dropped marks was in forming the singularis and pluralis. I marked the writing task out of five, giving marks for attempting to use the language, without insisting on complete grammatical accuracy.

2. Students were given a worksheet entitled Imperium Cotanum, a description of an imaginary land using the same grammar and vocabulary as the first 48 or so lines of LLPSI Capitulum Primum. They were asked to translate as much of the description into their books as they could by the end of the lesson. You can download all worksheets from here or show the image on a screen from here.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Six

1. I began by returning the worksheets from yesterday. I explained that their were three or four students who didn’t do as well as the others. I explained that this was not a worry at all - that we would be doing basically the same thing again today, and then again it in the test of Friday. If they still didn't understand it then, it would be obvious in the test - and then we could sit down and talk about it. However, if they wanted to discuss it before then, they could come to the staffroom or ask during the lesson.

2. I reminded them that I would be collecting their books after the test on Friday, and that they should ensure that they have written their piece on what they have done/learnt in Latin so far, and ensure that all their sheets were glued into their books.

3. With “administration” out of the way, we began with our formal class greeting.

4. I projected the images of the 12 Olympians onto the screen. I asked the students what they knew about these gods, and just let them talk - one at a time - until the last hand went down. You can access these images here.

5. I explained that there were both Greek and Roman versions of each god, and that we would be referring to Greek gods and Roman gods. (The purpose of this activity was not to teach the words ‘dea’ and ‘deus’ but ‘Graecus and Romanus’). I said that Zeus was a Greek god and Iuppiter, for example, was a Roman god. We then added to our ‘singularis’ and ‘pluralis’ table from yesterday. Note: In my haste to write up the headings, I accidentally wrote ‘sigularis’. I was pleased when one of the students pointed out my error.

6. I asked for a volunteer to help me explain what we would now be doing. I would go down the role and every single student was going to speak one sentence of Latin about the gods. For example, if I said ‘Ζεύς’ the student would respond ‘Ζεύς est deus Graecus’. If I said ‘Iuppiter et Volcanus’ the student would respond ‘Iuppiter et Volcanus sunt dei Romani’. If the student made an error, I was able to correct it in real time. Once the sentence was correctly formed, the entire class repeated it. After each five students, I changed to the next slide.

As i said, I went down the roll and asked each student for one sentence. I used this as an opportunity to reinforce ‘ubi est…?’. Instead of just calling out a name, I looked around the room and asked ‘ubi est Claudia?’. They began to respond ‘adsum’, which is the response we use when taking the roll.

7. I asked the students if they had had any experience translating something from one language to another. About a third of the class said that they had. I told them that we would be doing our first piece of translation today, and I wanted them to work in three steps.

i) read the sentence in Latin

ii) ensure that they knew what the sentence meant

iii) Write the sentence in English, keeping the meaning as close as possible to the original, but making sure that what they wrote was a good English sentence

The students now translated lines 38 to 48 of LLPSI Capitulum Primum. Note: I noticed that some were having trouble differentiating “Sparta est oppidum Graecum” with “Sparta est oppidum in Gracia”. I found that the easiest way around this was to say that only the word “in” should be translated as “in”, otherwise the words meant Greek and Roman, like our 12 Olympians. This seemed to clear thing up. (We have the test next lesson, but during the following lessons we will go through their translations).

8. While the students were translating, I wrote ‘num elephantus est parvus?’ on the board, with ‘num’ underlined. One of the students asked what ‘num’ meant. I said that this was a word we could add to the beginning of a sentence, if we thought the answer should by ‘minime’. I then asked them all ‘num elephantus est parvus?’ sounding as incredulous as possible. They all responded ‘minime!!!’, to which I added “Ridiculum est!”.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Five

1. I began today’s lesson by telling the students that I would be introducing them to two new words, and that they would most probably be able to deduce their meanings due to their similarity to two English words. This led to a short discussion on the connections between some Latin and English words, including ‘arena’. The two words, which I wrote on the board, were singularis and pluralis. As anticipated, the students had no trouble in deducing their meanings.

2. The students copied singularis and pluralis into their books as the heading of two columns. I now asked them about our lesson greetings, salve and salvete, and which was singular and which was plural. We wrote these words under their correct headings. We then did the same with est and sunt. Now we added the phrases ‘una insula parva’ and ‘duae insulae parvae’ etc. (see below for the full list). As we went down the list, I encouraged them to deduce what they thought the next form might be. There were a mix of correct and incorrect responses.

3. Next the students were given a “worksheet” to complete, “imperium Romanum - a map study”. I asked the students to turn to page six of their textbook and examine the map carefully. They should use the map to write one word - from the supplied list - in each space. They should pay careful attention to whether they needed to use the singularis or pluralis. As they worked, there were a few questions about the meanings of Romanum and Graecum, which were easily explained. There are seventeen spaces on the sheet, and all but two students filled in 15 or more of the spaces correctly. At this point, I feel it will be a relatively simple thing to bring the other two up to speed. You can download the worksheet here.

4. Of course, some students finished earlier than others. One of my favourite things to do in this situation, is to invite the students to draw on the back of their worksheets. I told them that they could draw anything that they knew the word for in Latin - and that they should then label it. Here is one example of their work. After the students had finished, I collected the sheets for marking.

5. I put the illustrated version of Lingua Latin Per Se Illustrata : Capitulum Primum up on the screen, and explained that we would be reading from lines 22-37. The students were invited to either read along on the screen, or to follow along in their books. I made a point of reading everything slowly and clearly, and pointing out places on the maps. You can access the illustrated version here.

6. The students now read the same lines (22-37) on their own, writing down anything that they did not understand in a section at the back of their exercise books called “nondum intellego - I don’t yet understand ”. We then talked about what they had written down. There was very little.

7. Finally, I handed each student a copy of a class test, and said that they would be sitting this test on Friday (today was Tuesday). I went through each section of the test with them, and while I did not reveal any answers, I did tell them what was expected of them in each section. I told them that the words “littera” and “Latina” would be new to them, but that we would explore these tomorrow. I also mentioned that they wouldn’t always see a test before they sat it, but seeing this was the first one…. etc etc. You can download the full test (six pages) here.

Homework: I asked the students to write for five to ten minutes about what they had done or learnt so far in Latin class. I asked them to write in English, but to include individual Latin words and phrases if they wished to.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Four

1. The students each took out the map that they had drawn, and the game sheet for Provincia, which I reminded them we would be playing this lesson. I asked them to look at the word parvus in the left hand column of the scoring table, and pointed out that the word parvus changes - parva silva, parvus fluvius, parvum oppidum, and asked why they thought that it might do this.

To my surprise, the first response was that perhaps the words meant different things - like small, smaller and smallest. I wasn’t expecting this, but rather than get caught up on comparatives and superlatives I simply said- twice! I think - that parva, pavus and parvum all mean EXACTLY the same thing. Why then might they be written differently? Soon afterwards, someone saw the similarity between the ends of parva and parvus and the ends of insula, fluvius etc. This - I said - was the observation I was looking for. I did not mention grammatical gender - I figure that can wait - but I did say that words like parvus and magnus DO change their endings to match the words they are describing. We saw that the same thing occurred with magnus.

2. I now asked the students to label the insulae, fluvii and oppida on the maps that they had drawn, eg: silva parva, oppidum magnum. They used the Provincia game sheet to ensure that they were labelling each correctly. I moved around the room and watched them writing. I am nowhere near convinced that they all understand WHY parvus changes to match silva, oppidum etc. But they all labeled their features correctly - so they do know - when describing these four words at least - that there are different endings for the adjectives describing them. I figure we can build from here.

3. It was now time to play Provincia (which you can download here), and this took up the bulk of the lesson (25-30 mins). That included a quick revision of the rules, which can be broadcast onto a screen from here. As with last time, I was peppering in Latin as much as I could - exempla grati - if you draw a ‘silva magna’ you will get ‘septem puncta.’

I gave each student a handout with the card types numbered (i got these back at the end of the lesson) and explained that I would be calling out a landscape feature and a number - for example, silva : septem. I read each card I pulled in the following fashion : silva : septem, silva : seven, silva : septem. So, I was always translating the number, but never the landscape words that we have been drilling.

Yes, there was some confusion with the rules, but it went fairly smoothly. I made it clear that it was fine if a few mistakes were made, but the students were trying very hard not to make any. We fitted the game in, but I felt rushed at times, and was anxious about the timing. I left about 5 minutes at the end for scoring - which was enough, but only just. We all added up our scores and declared a winner. I told them that we would return to learning Latin next lesson.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Three

1. We began with our formal greeting (see Lesson 1). From now on I won’t mention this again, unless I am using it to explain a new point of grammar. But we will continue to do this greeting at the beginning of each lesson, as a way of showing the students the power of the imperative.

2. The students took out the maps that they had drawn for homework (see Lesson 2) and showed them to their friends. They were instructed to ask each other about individual features on the map by pointing at each and asking “Quid est?”. The possible responses were written on the board; “insula est.”, “silva est.” etc. I encouraged them to write “HIC SUNT DRACONES” (Here be dragons) in the corners of their maps. I asked them to keep the maps safe for our next lesson.

3. I reminded the students of the two questions, estne? and suntne? and the responses sic and minime. I then asked them to open their texts to page 6 (the map) and respond to a series of quickly asked questions. They were along the lines of ‘estne Germania in Europa?’, ‘suntne Corsica et Sardinia fluvii?’. I asked probably twenty questions, with the class responding ‘sic’ or ‘minime’ to each in unison.

4. I now wrote the following sentences on the board. Nilus est fluvius magnus. Rhenus et Danuvius sunt fluvii magni. Tiberis fluvius parvus in Italia est. I asked them to locate these rivers on the map (they are each mentioned in the first 21 lines of Capitulum Primum.).

5. I held up the LLPSI book and showed the students our plan for the year, that we intend to read though 5 chapters in the first half of the year, and another 5 in the second half. I explained that if they continued with Latin, this would be their book for at least another two years.

I explained that the book is written in such a way, that often the meaning of a word can be guessed from the book itself. As an example, I wrote up “sunt multi fluvii magni in Europa.” I asked the students to write down what they thought might be an English equivalent for multi. Answers included multiple, many, several, more-than-one and lots. Nearly all of the students correctly deduced the meaning of the word.

6. I explained that we would now be reading the first 21 lines of our textbook. I said that there was one word that they would be meeting for the first time - ubi - and that as we read they should attempt to deduce an English equivalent of this word, writing it down in their books. 19/21 students correctly deduced ‘where’.

I displayed the first 21 lines as set of illustrated slides - you can find them here - on the board, and read the text aloud, pointing out features on the maps as I went. When we read the slides with the teacher and two adolescents, I had the students read out together the adolescents’ responses. (By the way, the teachers names a Phillipus and Livia, and the adolescents are Diana and Apollo - not the gods, by names after them. They are Phillip’s children.)

7. I next asked the students to reread through the same 21 lines from their text on their own. We set up a section at the back our books entitled - nondum intellego - I don’t yet understand - to write any words, phrases or sentences that they were unsure of. I gave them about ten minutes, and most read through it more than once. At the end, those who had recorded something shared them. The only words that caused any trouble were ‘quoque’ and ‘sunt’, and even these rarely caused an issue.

8. I had thought that the reading of the text would take longer than it did, so we had a spare ten minutes. I used this time to explain the remaining rules for Provincia, and announced that we would play next lesson. The full rules can be downloaded with the game, here, but I used a set of scoring rules that can be projected onto the screen, which you can access here. In describing the rules I was sure to use Latin terms among my English, for example: If you make a “silva parva” you get “unum punctum”, but if you make a “silva magna” you get “septem puncta”. If you build an average sized silva you get nihil, nothing at all.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson Two

1. We began with the greeting from previous lesson. I asked the students to open their books and follow the script. There was a little confusion with some repeating ‘salvete, magister’ to my ‘salvete, discipuli', so I asked them to reread the script. It was almost perfect on the second delivery.

2. Last lesson we went around the room, with each student asking “quid est nomen tibi?” to the next, in a chain, with the next student responding. I told them that it would be timed, and they got around the entire class in 1 minute and 20 seconds. Today I said that we were going to try to do it in under one minute. They got 58 seconds on their first go.

3. We now played a game of Pictionaria, with the following cards (insula, silva, fluvius, oppidum, mus parvus and elephantus magnus). Those words were also written up on the board. A volunteer came to the front of the room and drew a card, showing me but not the other students. They then drew a picture of the drawn card. The first student to yell out the correct LATIN answer, went next. We had about five turns. You can download the Pictionaria cards here.

4. I reminded them of Provincia, and that we had learnt all the necessary words except for the numbers 1-10 and punctum. The students wrote these numbers into their books along with the accompanying Roman numerals. We then counted around the room, along the same route we had taken, each student saying one number. I told them that a puctum is a dot (also used to mean a full-stop) but asked what it might mean in a game. Someone correctly guessed “a point”. I also told them that the plural was puncta (points). They wrote both in their books.

5. I now explained the basic scoring rules of Provincia, trying to use Latin vocabulary as much as possible. The game requires you to draw a map, that includes silvae, insulae, fluvii and oppida. The points you get for each one as decided by its size - it might be parvus, magnus or just average size. For example, a “silva parva” is worth “unum punctum”, while a “silva magna” is worth “septem puncta”. I asked them to look at the score sheet and write in the numbers, in Roman numerals if they knew them well, or Arabic numerals if they didn’t. I told them that we would come back to Provincia in another lesson, and that I would explain the rest of the rules then. Provincia can be downloaded here.

6. I now put up the map that the students had been asked to look over for homework, and they shared their thoughtful observations about the names of places, comparing our modern English names with the ancient Latin. This map can be found on page six of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata.

7. a) I brought along a pair of Playmobil figures, Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius, with a chunk of Blutack on their backs, so that they could be moved around the map. I wrote up two words on the board along with an “English equivalent”, est (is) and sunt (are), which I asked them to copy into their books. I then wrote four more words that I asked them to copy in, but without a meaning; et, sed, non and quoque. i explained that I was going to speak to them about the location of Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius entirely in Latin, and that as I did so I wanted them to try to determine an “English equivalent” for each of these words.

b) I moved the figures around the map, speaking to the class in Latin. The following are the kinds of sentences I used: Cleopatra est in Africa. Marcus Antonius quoque est in Africa. Cleopatra et Marcus Antonius sunt in Africa. Cleopatra non est in Europa. Cleopatra est in Africa sed Marcus Antonius est in Asia. Marcus Antonius non est in Africa sed in Asia. As the students deduced the meanings of the four words, they wrote them down. I asked if anyone was unsure of any word, and repeated a few lines to try to help them. It worked. At the end of the activity, we counted up how many of the 22 students had correctly deduced the words - et (19/22) - non (22/22) - sed (18/22) - quoque (19/22).

8. Lastly, I told them that estne? was basically est as a question, and gave them sic and minime as two possible responses. The first questions I asked were along the lines of “estne mus parvus?” and “estne mus magnus?”. We then moved on to questions like “estne Germania in Europa?” and “estne Italia in Africa?”. The students answered simply with sic or non, but I expanded on each answer - “ita, Germania est in Europa.” “minime. Italia non est in Africa sed in Europa.”

Homework: I asked the students to draw a map of an imaginary location. The map needed to include two of each of the following, one “parvus” and one “magnus” : silva, insula, fluvius and oppidum.

Capitulum Primum : Lesson One

1. I started the year by making sure that everyone had a basic understanding of what Latin is. I asked questions until we had established the following: a) it is a language, b) it is ancient, c) it was spoken by the Romans and some members of a vast Roman empire. I made it clear that you didn’t really need to know anything at all about Rome to learn Latin, but that they would learn a bit about Rome as they went.

2. I asked the class to put their hand up if they were a) super-dooper excited about learning Latin b) wish they didn’t have to learn Latin or c) were neither excited nor distraught at the thought of learning Latin, and happy to wait and see how it all panned out. I summarised the findings back to the class without judgement.

3. a) I told the class that they would begin by learning a Roman greeting, and that the Romans greeted their friends etc by ordering them to ‘Be well!’. I demonstrated this in English, pointing at individual students and saying ‘Be well!’ in an authoritarian tone. I then told them to practise in English, to tell three people sitting near them to ‘Be well.” This took about ten seconds.

   b) I then told them that the Latin for this is Salve, and instructed them to greet three people again, this time in Latin. (At this point I mentioned that in Latin, v’s are pronounced as w’s and the word is spelt s-a-l-v-e).

   c) I told them that salve worked for greeting one person, but to greet more than one, the Romans used Salvete. I demonstrated by saying hello to all of them, then asked them to pick a group and tell them all to be well. They did.

   d) While I didn't do this, I could have shown them Disco 1, which covers this content.

4. I explained that we will begin each lesson with a short greeting, which they would copy into their book to use as a reference until they could do it from memory. As they copied it down, I asked them what they thought discipuli, magister and sodales might mean. We then ran through the greeting for the first time, with me first asking them to stand (state) and then sit (considete, quaeso).

   Teacher : Salvete, discipuli.

   Students : Salve, magister. Salvete, sodales.

   5. a) The students then copied quid est nomen tibi? and mihi nomen est…. into their books, in large letters so that they could write the English beneath as shown in the images below. These come from Disco 2, which we didn’t look at, but could have.
   

b) Each student asked somebody their name, who replied. Then they swapped roles. Then we created a chain around the whole class, where one student asked another, who replied and asked another, who replied and asked another, and so on until we had made it right around. I told them that I would time it - it took 1 minute and 20 seconds.

6. I gave each student a copy of the Provincia play sheet and said that this was from a game that we would be playing soon, but that first they would need to learn some vocabulary in order to understand it. I asked them to hold onto the sheet, because it would be needed in the next few lessons. Provincia can be downloaded here. NEXT TIME: Next year I will link the meaning of provincia with the map in the LLSPI textbook - explain that places like Gallia and Hispania are ‘provinciae’.

7. I wrote up on the board the words we would need to learn, in order to play Provincia, with the plan being to tick them off as we learnt them. I encouraged them to read the words out as I wrote them up. The list went:

parvus magnus

insula silva fluvius oppidum

unus duo tres quattuor quinque

sex septem octo novem decem.

I asked them if they could identify the last ten words. Nearly every student rightly deduced that they were the numbers I to 10.

8. I asked if there were any students who enjoyed drawing cartoons and picked two volunteers. The first one was asked to draw a mouse. Next to the mouse I wrote “mus est parvus” and asked the students to copy the picture and caption into their books. The next volunteer was asked to draw an elephant, to which I added the caption “elephantus est magnus” and again asked the students to copy it down. Thirdly I wrote “parvus” and “magnus” with a double ended arrow between them, and said that this means that they are opposites. I then asked the students what the two words might mean. Every hand went up. I told them that if they thought they would forget the meanings of “parvus” and “magnus” that they could write it in English to remind them, but that the less English they had in their books the better. We ticked the two words off our list.

9. It was now my turn to draw. I put four boxes on the board and drew a forrest, island, river and town, inviting them to shout out what they thought they were as I went. I explained that each was one of the four words written on the board, and that if they thought they might know one, they should suggest a match and explain their reasoning. We heard that someone was “insulated” on an island, and a little about Sylvanian Families. The students drew each image, along with the word, into their own books. We ticked them off the list.

10. We finished the lesson with a quick game of Quid est? The students had seen that Quid est? meant “What is?” in “Quid est nomen tibi?” so they understood that when I pointed to my drawing of an island and said “Quid est?” why I wanted them to respond “Insula est.” I did this with the four images. We began with the entire class, before asking a student to volunteer to go it alone. After a while, the first volunteer asked for a second, and now they began asking the questions. The second student was enjoying answering with great speed, so we removed the captions and they did it purely from memory. After a while the students sat down, and the whole class did it once more, this time without the captions.

Homework: The class were asked to look over the map at the beginning of LLPSI, and to make some observations comparing the place names the Ancient Romans used, to the names used today. I told them that we would share our observations next lesson.

Introduction

This is my first time teaching Latin using the book Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. I have long wanted to use this book, as I feel that of all the textbooks available, this one best suits my preferred ways of teaching.

I have decided to keep a record here of my lessons, both for my own reference and reflection, and to share ideas with others who way wish to read them.

I will label the entries with the chapter number and lesson number, within that chapter. And I will include links to material that I use, both my own and others’.

As a department, we have decided to spend around 10 lessons on each chapter. Our lessons are about 40 minutes long. The students are first year Latin students, about 12 years old at the start of the year.