Reception Assignment: Orpheus & Eurydice

This past semester in Latin III, we read an adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The version we read was inspired by the versions found in Vergil and Ovid. Once we finished that version, we read my own adaptation of Plato's version of the ending of the myth. In the most famous version of the myth, Orpheus descends to the Underworld to retrieve his deceased wife, Eurydice. Hades/Pluto and Persephone/Proserpina allow Eurydice to leave the Underworld with Orpheus, provided that he not turn around and look at her until they have returned to the world of the living. Plato, on the other hand, briefly summarizes a different version: Since Orpheus (unlike Alcestis for Admetus) did not die to be reunited with his beloved Eurydice, Hades and Persephone deem him unworthy of her and instead send Orpheus away with, unbeknownst to him, an imitation of her. 

After we read both these endings, I wanted students to not only explain the differences between the two versions, but also examine the reception of the myth in different media, since it is such a famous myth. Hence this assignment, which requires students to watch or listen to three different reimaginations of the myth: Carlos Diegues' 1999 film Orfeu, Anaïs Mitchell's 2006 musical Hadestown, and Christoph Willibald Gluck's 2022 opera production of Orpheus and Eurydice (Orfeo ed Euridice). I chose three scenes for students to examine and compare/contrast to the myth we had read in class. Lastly, students were required to summarize the differences between the two endings of the myth, explain in their own opinions why the Vergilian/Ovidian ending has been the more popular of the two, and then explain in their own opinions why the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in general has been so popular and reimagined so many times across different time periods and places.

Here are the slides with all the videos/songs and prompts embedded:

Cultural Lesson: Islamic Burial Practices

I did this lesson on Islamic burial practices with my Latin IV class last year as we were reading my publication Nasreddin Chogia: Fabellae. One of the fables alludes to Islamic burial practices. Here is my Latin adaptation of the fable:

Chōgia ōlim hieme in silvā ligna caedēns, “Algeō!,” inquit, “Ergō, mortuus sum!”

Ergō, Chōgia cum dēcubuisset tamquam mortuus, “Efferendus sum!,” inquit.

Chōgia cum domum rediisset, tum, “Mortuus sum,” inquit uxōrī, “in silvā. Iubē amīcōs mē efferre.”

Deinde Chōgia cum in silvam rediisset, dēcubuit.

Cum uxor Chōgiae in tabernam vēnisset, “Nasreddīn Chōgia,” inquit, “in silvā mortuus est.”

Amīcī Chōgiae, “Quī scīs?,” inquiunt.

Uxor, “Quia,” inquit, “Chōgia domum rediit et haec mihi dīxit.”

(A translation for readers who do not read Latin:)

Once upon a time, Hoca, while chopping firewood in the woods in the wintertime, said, "I am cold! Therefore, I am dead!"

So Hoca, when he had lay down as if he were dead, said, "I must be carried out (i.e. for burial)!"

So Hoca, when he had returned home, then he said to his wife, "I died in the woods. Tell my friends to carry me out (i.e. for burial)."

Then Hoca, when he had returned to the woods, lay down.

When Hoca's wife had arrived at the coffeehouse, she said, "Nasreddin Hoca has died in the woods."

Hoca's friends said, "How do you know?"

The wife said, "Because Hoca came back home and told me this."

After reading this fable with my students, I wanted students to understand Islamic burial practices and why Nasreddin Hoca feels such a strong sense of urgency to be buried when he believes that he is dead. For this lesson, students located QR codes posted around our building at school. These QR codes linked to a sentence in Latin and a clue to the location of the next clue. All of the sentences described steps involved in a traditional Islamic burial. Students not only located the QR codes and copied down the Latin sentences, but also put the sentences in chronological order.

The sentences for each step. I glossed new terms in Latin or in English in parentheses:

1. Muslimus periit. (A Muslim has died.)

2. Cadaver (corpus mortui) inter 24 horas sepeliendum (in terra ponendum) est. [The corpse (the body of a deceased person) must be buried (placed in the ground) within 24 hours.

3. Cadaver necessariis (e.g. sororibus, fratribus, filiis, matri, patri, etc.) lavandum est. [The corpse must be washed by relatives (e.g. sisters, brothers, children, mother, father, etc.).]

4. Cadaver involvendum est. (The corpse must be wrapped up.)

5. Cadaver in arca ponitur. (The corpse is placed in a coffin.)

6. Cadaver ad meschitam effertur. (The corpse is brought to a mosque.)

7. Cadaver in sepulcretum effertur. (The corpse is brought to a cemetery.)

8. Eis qui adsunt orandum est. (Those in attendance must pray.)

9. Cadaver in sepulcro sepeliendum (in terra ponendum) est. [The corpse must be buried (placed in the ground)].

10. Cadaver in Meccam advertendum est. (The corpse must be turned towards Mecca.)

After putting the steps in order, students then wrote in Latin summarizing the fable in their own words in Latin and explaining why Hoca felt such a strong sense of urgency to be buried.

The worksheet:

Roman Toilet Humor Activity

As of tomorrow (April 16), I will be one full month into digital learning...and still over a month to go! 

As our students and we worry about COVID-19 symptoms, let's turn to a lighthearted activity on bodily functions instead! Back when we were in school, I had a "fun Friday" of learning about ancient Roman toilet humor. Why? We had read in my adapted translation into Latin from Greek of Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes the scene in which Apollo, angry at Mercury/Hermes for stealing his cattle, picks up the latter (who is barely a day old) and Mercury/Hermes sneezes and farts (which, I learned from my students, is aptly called a "snart") in his brother's face. Plus I just love working on silly and irreverent topics with students (you can shove your serious AP themes, College Board!). 💩

For this activity, students matched pictures around the classroom with various (some adapted) quotes from the ancient Romans about various bodily functions. The quotes are divided into three categories: the (in)famous Ostia bathhouse philosopher fresco quotes, ancient Roman graffiti and inscriptions, and quotes from ancient Roman literature (Martial and Petronius). 

The first category consists of quotes painted on the walls of a bathhouse in Ostia, Rome's port city. The quotes appear next to paintings of famous Greek philosophers and consist of words of wisdom for dealing with bodily functions. To put it in 2020 terms, imagine posting quotes from Einstein, Isaac Newton, or Maya Angelou that give advice on defecation and flatulence! These are three I included:

• Solon patted his belly to have a nice dump.
• Thales recommended that people should strain when they are having a hard time crapping.
• Clever Chilon taught us how to fart silently. 

The next category comes from ancient Roman graffiti and inscriptions. One interesting cultural insight to share with students is that relieving oneself on tombstones and graves was a common practice in the ancient Mediterranean world. Why? Burial was usually forbidden within settlements, so tombs were erected outside of towns alongside roads. When one travels from town to town with few or no rest stops, nature inevitably calls and graves provide a place to do one's business discretely. 

The last category consists of adapted quotes from the ancient Roman authors Martial and Petronius, both known for writing about the obscene side of ancient Roman culture. These are the quotes I included:

• I see nothing else that makes me believe that you are a friend than the fact that you usually fart in front of me.
• [This man] heads for the [toilet] seats and farts ten times and twenty times.
• Eat lettuce and soft mallows because you have the look of constipation.
• A kisser will kiss someone with a fever and someone while they're crying. And they will even give a kiss to someone while they are crapping.
• Therefore if any of you wanted to relieve themselves, it is nothing to be ashamed of. I believe that there is no greater form of torture than holding it in...nor do I forbid anyone in the dining room from doing what could make them feel better and what doctors tell us not to hold in.

Below are the materials for this activity. The first two pages are a two-sided worksheet for students (the quotes on the front and a glossary on the back). Next are the pictures I posted around the room. Enjoy! Stay safe and healthy!

Cuius sunt haec vestigia? (Whose footprints are these?) Listening Activity

Here in Gwinnett County, Georgia we are day #2 into digital learning, so I finally have some time (and sleep and energy!) to catch up on my blog. Here is an activity that I did with my Latin II classes over a month ago:

As I mentioned previously, my Latin II classes read my adapted translation of Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, in which Mercury/Hermes famously steals Apollo's cattle. While Apollo is looking for his cattle, he finds their footprints, which inspired this activity.

Here's how it works:

• Students first see the footprints of a particular animal projected onto the board. They may guess the animal (in English, since they do not know/need to know the names of most animals - even I don't know some of them!).
• If students cannot guess the animal, then I read three statements in Latin. After each statement, I allowed students to guess again.
• If students could not guess after the three statements, then I revealed the answer.
• In one class, I had students form teams and write their guesses on a sheet of notebook paper. After each statement, they could write their guess and run up to me. The first team to get the correct answer "won" that round.
• Nota bene: I used a lot of gestures to convey words that students would not know, like "tail."

This activity was a fun and visual way to engage students in listening to the target language! It also offered lots of repetitions of the demonstrative hic "this," which has 16 different forms in Latin, which makes it a challenge to teach!


The slideshow:


The script I read aloud:

• Slide 2:
• Hoc animal est avis. Haec avis est maxima. Haec avis est signum dei Iovis. Haec avis quoque est signum “USA.” (This animal is a bird. This bird is very large. This bird is the symbol of the god Jupiter. This bird is also the symbol of the USA.)
  

• Slide 3:
• Hoc animal solet habitare et in aqua et in terra. Hoc animal longa crura habet. Hoc animal longam linguam habet. Kermit est tale animal. (This animal usually lives both in water and on land. This animal has long legs. This animal has a long tongue. Kermit is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 4:
• Hoc animal est avis. Haec avis solet habitare et in aqua et in terra. Haec avis solet comedi a hominibus. Donald est talis avis. (This animal is a bird. This bird usually lives both in water and on land. This bird is usually eaten by people. Donald is this kind of bird.)
  

• Slide 5:
• Hoc animal est magnum. Hoc animal solet habitare in silvis et in montibus. Hoc animal est simile cani. Hoc animal est notissimum Romae. (This animal is large. This animal usually lives in forests and on mountains. This animal is similar to a dog. This animal is very famous in Rome.)
  

• Slide 6:
• Hoc animal est maximum. Hoc animal solet habitare et in terra et in aqua. Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Hoc animal est notissimum in Florida. (This animal is very large. This animal usually lives both on land and in water. This animal lives in Georgia. This animal is very famous in Florida.)
  

• Slide 7:
• Hoc animal est parvum. Hoc animal solet habitare in domo. Hoc animal longam caudam habet. Sylvester est tale animal. (This animal is small. This animal usually lives in a house. This animal has a long tail. Sylvester is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 8:
• Hoc animal est magnum. Hoc animal solet habitare in silvis. Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Bambi est tale animal. (This animal is large. This animal usually lives in forests. This animal lives in Georgia. Bambi is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 9:
• Hoc animal solet esse magnum vel parvum. Hoc animal solet habitare in domo. Hoc animal est amicum. Scooby-Doo est tale animal. (This animal is usually large or small. This animal usually lives in a house. This animal is friendly. Scooby-Doo is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 10:
• Hoc animal est maximum. Hoc animal potest currere. Romanis placuit hoc animal. Donkey in Shrek 2 factus est tale animal. (This animal is very large. This animal is able to run. The Romans liked this animal. Donkey in Shrek 2 became this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 11:
• Hoc animal est maximum. Hoc animal solet habitare in silvis. Hoc animal est signum dei Bacchi. Hoc animal est signum Parkview. (This animal is very large. This animal usually lives in forests. This animal is the symbol of the god Bacchus. This animal is the symbol of Parkview.)
  

• Slide 12:
• Hoc animal est maximum. Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Hoc animal solet habitare in silvis et in montibus. (This animal is very large. This animal lives in Georgia. This animal usually lives in forests and in mountains.)
  

• Slide 13:
• Hoc animal est parvum. Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Hoc animal longam caudam habet. Sandy in Spongebob est tale animal. (This animal is small. This animal lives in Georgia. This animal has a long tail. Sandy in Spongebob is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 14:
• Hoc animal solet habitare et in terra et in aqua. Hoc animal solet habitare prope flumen. Hoc animal magnam caudam et magnos dentes habet. (This animal usually lives both on earth and in water. This animal usually lives near a river. This animal has a large tail and large teeth.)
  

• Slide 15:
• Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Hoc animal noctu exit. Hoc animal longam caudam habet. Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy est tale animal. (This animal lives in Georgia. This animal comes out at night. This animal has a long tail. Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy is this kind of animal.)
  

• Slide 16:
• Hoc animal habitat in Georgia. Hoc animal noctu exit. Hoc animal solet ferre catulos. Hoc animal longam caudam habet. (This animal lives in Georgia. This animal comes out at night. This animal usually carries its young. This animal has a long tail.)
  

• Slide 17: 
• Hoc animal est magnum. Hoc animal solet habitare in silvis. Noli tangere hoc animal! (This animal is large. This animal usually lives in forests. Do not touch this animal!)
  

• Slide 18:
• Hoc animal est parvum. Hoc animal longam caudam habet. Hoc animal male olet. Pepe Le Pew est tale animal. (This animal is small. This animal has a long tail. This animal smells bad. Pepe Le Pew is this kind of animal.) 

 

Lucky/Unlucky QR Code Scavenger Hunt

For the past week, my Latin II classes have been reading my adapted version of Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes. In the Greek text, Hermes (as a less-than-a-day-old baby) finds a tortoise and brings it home, saying, "ἐπηλυσίης πολυπήμονος ἔσσεαι ἔχμα (you will protect against painful witchcraft)" (line 37). After reading this curious line, I looked into references to other positive uses for tortoises in the ancient Mediterranean world. All this prompted me to encourage discussion in my Latin II classes on luck and superstition in ancient Mediterranean cultures and beyond. 

As part of this, I created a QR code scavenger hunt (if you're unfamiliar with a QR code scavenger hunt or a QR running dictation, check out this post from my colleagues, Miriam Patrick and Rachel Ash) so my students could read (in Latin) about various lucky/unlucky signs from across the world. 

Each QR code contains two Latin sentences. The first, which students copy down, describes something considered lucky or unlucky and the culture/country. The second sentence contains the clue for the location of the next QR code.

Once students have found and copied down all the sentences, they choose their favorite among both the lucky signs and the unlucky signs and then draw and color both.

Here are the examples I used:

• The number eight is lucky in China.
• If the first guest of the new year is a good person, then it is good luck in Vietnam.
• The number four is unlucky in China and Japan.
• Ladybugs are lucky in Turkey.
• Coyotes are unlucky if encountered while traveling, according to the Navajo.
• A white elephant is lucky in Thailand.
• A black witch moth is unlucky in Mexico.
• If your hair is cut on the seventeenth or twenty-ninth day of the month, you will not go bald, according to the ancient Romans.
• The number nine is unlucky in Japan.
• The cat Maneki-neko is lucky in Japan.

Maneki-neko

Here are some samples of students' work:

Dream Interpretation Activity

In Latin III this year we have been reading Andrew Olimpi's novella Perseus et Rex Malus. One of the characters, Danae, has a strange dream that results in her...(spoiler alert) getting pregnant.

More on that later. 

About a year or so ago, I read J.C. McKeown's delightful A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Greatest Empire, a book, which - as the name suggests - offers amusing facts about the ancient Romans and interesting insights into Roman culture that the literary and material sources provide. I would recommend the book to teachers and anyone with an interest in ancient Rome. I enjoyed it so much that I can't wait to read the other books in McKeown's series on ancient Greece and ancient Greek and Roman medicine. Of course I would also recommend Anthony Kaldellis' A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Most Orthodox Empire so that you may get a comprehensive overview of Greek and Roman civilization. 😉


Just by coincidence, I was going through my bookmarks in McKeown's book a few weeks ago and stumbled upon his chapter titled "Religion and Superstition." There I had marked a set of amusing ancient Roman interpretations of different types of dreams from the second-century AD writer Artemidorus' Oneirocritica (or Interpretation of Dreams). Here are my "school appropriate" favorites (translated by McKeown):

• Dreaming that one is blind is favorable for runners, since a runner who takes the lead in a race is like a blind man in that he does not see his fellow runners...Such dreams are auspicious for poets also, since they need total calm when they are going to compose, and loss of sight would ensure that they are not distracted by shapes of colors (1.26).
•  Dreaming about turnips, rutabagas, and pumpkins presages disappointed hopes, since they are massive but lack nutritional value. They signify surgery and woundings with iron implements for sick people and travelers, respectively, since these vegetables are cut into slices (1.67).
• Dreaming that one is eating books foretells advantage to teachers, lecturers, and anyone who earns his livelihood from books, but everyone else it means sudden death (2.45). (I'm sure this is a favorite among Latin teachers!) 
• Dreaming that one is dead or is being crucified foretells marriage for a bachelor (2.49, 53).
• Dreaming that one is eating many onions is favorable for a sick man, for it means he will recover and mourn for someone else, whereas dreaming that one is eating just a few onions signifies death, since the dying shed just a few tears, whereas those who mourn shed many (4.55).
• A man dreamed that he had a mouth with big, beautiful teeth in his rectum, and that through it he spoke, ate, and performed all the normal functions of a mouth. He was subsequently exiled from his homeland for making incautious statements. I have not included the reasons, for the outcome was easily predictable (5.68).  

There is one more that I love, but you'll need to check out McKeown's book for that one!

Back to my Latin III classes...since we had just read about a strange dream in the novella, I decided to create an activity around ancient Roman interpretations of dreams, as published by Artemidorus, and have students get their own dream interpreted. 

Based on my choose your own adventure activity from this past spring, I created a similar activity in Google Forms. 

First, students access the form electronically through a link or QR code. 

Second, students select a dream that they "had." The options are food, eating books, a bodily condition, or death. I tried to include as many pictures as possible throughout the form to aid comprehension.

The first page of the form

Next, students answer various questions based on their original and subsequent responses until they get an ancient Roman interpretation for their strange dream. 

How did I use this activity in my classroom?

I used this activity as a warm-up last week, the crazy, absence-filled week before our (week-long) Thanksgiving break. 

Students completed the activity on their phones and submitted their results both electronically and on paper. 

I provided some helpful vocabulary and the QR code for activity on my daily warm-up worksheet.

My warm-up worksheet

When everyone had submitted their results, everyone in the class quickly shared their results. I also elaborated on the interpretations and why they made sense. That onion one is especially profound! 

In my second period class, most students were told that they were going to get married soon, so apparently that class said that they dreamed about death! Should I be concerned?

If you'd like to try out my form to see all the options and embedded questions, click here.

Story Character Instagram Posts

If you've gathered anything from reading my blog, it's that I'm not a teacher who takes things too seriously (did you notice the name of my blog?!). I've always had a cheeky and silly side (they don't call me Iohannes Lascivus for nothing!), which I love to bring to my classroom. 

In the past two weeks, my Latin II classes read a story version that I wrote based on the film Snack Attack, which I first presented as a Movie Talk (or whatever they're called nowadays, again my cheeky and snarky side coming out!). To practice with vocabulary and demonstrate their comprehension of the Latin story, students created Instagram posts for one of the two characters, the old woman (anus in Latin, yes, you read that correctly) or the young man (iuvenis in Latin). Students were required to create these Instagram posts as their chosen character's reactions to the events in the story/film. Students could also be creative and have fun by using Latin hashtags that I wrote or by giving their character a funny username (my favorites are Instagranny and Best_anus_ever). 

It is worth mentioning that I do not have an Instagram account, so the inspiration for this assignment came from my impressions of the most ridiculous of Instagram tropes (e.g. shameless self-promotion, oversharing, glorification of the mundane), but, again, I'm all for irreverence and camp. 

Here is the slideshow with the instructions and a sample created by yours truly (pardon the quality of the drawing and handwriting):

Here is the worksheet (one side for the students to create their posts and the other side with Latin hashtags that I wrote):
 
To see the worksheet in its original formatting, click here. 

---

Samples of student work:

That username! 😂

Best_username_ever!

Story Matching Activity

The new year is in full swing and I am almost in my sixth (!) week of the year (I already am if pre-planning counts!). What have I been up to since my last post? The last academic year came to an end and I went to the ACL Institute in New York. It was my first time at ACL, so it was fun meeting people whose work I have admired from online (where do I begin? Jenn Jarnagin, John Bracey, John Piazza, Lance Piantaggini, Chris Buczek, Justin Slocum Bailey) and catch up with former colleagues. I want to write a post about the changes I've made to my teaching for this academic year eventually.


Back to the topic of this post...

Here is an activity that I did with my Latin II students this past week. Based on the survey I gave to my Latin I students last year, they said that they wanted to continue reading Greco-Roman myths, which made up the majority of the texts we read in Latin I. This year, so far we have read two stories based on the myths of the god Vulcan/Hephaestus, inspired by stories originally written by Keith Toda and Rachel Ash and modified and extended by me. The first story covers Juno/Hera throwing Vulcan/Hephaestus off Mount Olympus. The second part covers Vulcan/Hephaestus' scheme to trap Juno/Hera in a chair that he made, the gods' attempts to bring him back to free Juno/Hera, and Bacchus/Dionysus getting Vulcan/Hephaestus drunk to convince him to return to Mount Olympus. We have been covering the second part for the past two weeks, so I created this tactile and interactive activity as we begin to wrap up our time with this story.

The activity is simple: I created a storyboard for the story using StoryboardThat (see this post from last year about my experiences with it). I printed out the storyboard (with the text cropped out) and the matching sets of sentences from the story and cut them into individual strips. 

Colours of the world! Spice up your Latin!

What did students do? In groups (in chairs, on whiteboards, on the floor), they

• Match each set of sentences with the appropriate picture.
• Put the matches of sentences/pictures in the correct order in which they appear in the story.

Different colors=no problems!

A few considerations:

• I printed each set in a different color for aesthetics and to prevent the sets from getting mixed. 
• Students completed this activity entirely from memory. As I mentioned above, they have been reading this for over a week now, so I would only use this activity after students are already very familiar with the story.
• Cutting out the pictures and sentence sets for nine groups of students took me about 4 hours. I love these types of activities, but this drawback makes me only do this a few times a year. Maybe I need student aides? 

Spend 4 hours cutting things out because I'm a control freak vs. Save time by having students cut things out 

The activity took about 15-20 minutes and not a single group struggled with recalling the story, so I was very satisfied with the outcome!

Graffiti from the Romans to Today

For the past few years of teaching the first level of Latin (Latin 101 and Latin I), I have included a fun end-of-the-year day of looking at funny, obscene, and salacious graffiti left by Latin speakers. I decided to continue this tradition, but I was inspired to put a new spin on it this year. Instead of simply translating and commenting on samples of graffiti, I have expanded the lesson to include an exploration into the contemporary points of view on graffiti.

Here's the lesson plan:

1) I introduced the topic of graffiti via the first few slides in the slideshow. We created a class definition of graffiti before looking at the dictionary entry for the word. We also explored the issue: are graffiti art, a crime, or both? 

2) I introduced the Latin vocabulary for agreeing and disagreeing. Then each student received 8 stickers with which to express their opinion on 8 statements posted around the classroom. After students responded to the statements and returned to their seats, I summarized the results.

3) Returning to the slideshow, we examined several misconceptions about graffiti: Only gangs and criminals make graffiti. (We watched a video from last month on graffiti as a form of political expression in Sudan), We can learn a lot from graffiti. (I presented the importance of graffiti to the study of Latin and its speakers, especially as a means for the non-elites to have a voice), and Most people feel the same way about graffiti (We examined perspectives on graffiti that differ from the negativity that we have in the US). 

4) We then read examples of Roman and medieval graffiti, inscriptions, and proverbs. A couple were talking epitaphs and a few were toilet humor graffiti - all of which got strong reactions from the class.


The slideshow:



The consensus statements posted around the classroom:
Click here to view the document in its original formatting.

Samples from one of my classes:

The worksheet with Latin graffiti, inscriptions, and proverbs:

Click here to view the document in its original formatting.

Scisne? Survey

This past week, I created a survey for my Latin I classes to complete to reinforce the verbs scio (I know) and nescio (I don't know). Within the past year, I have also been invested in creating activities for additional opportunities for input other than the usual (e.g. reading stories, listening exercises, TPR, et al.), especially activities that draw upon my students' lives and experiences, encourage convivial interaction between students, and allow for students for learn more about one another. 

So what does the survey look like?

Day 1: I created a Google Form with each question asking "Scisne...?" (Do you know how...?) with different skills. All students had to do was pull out their phones or use the student computer in my room and answer scio or nescio for each question. The skills ranged from building a fire to driving to cooking to dancing to playing an instrument to using different forms of technology to using different forms of social media. 

Day 2: I created a Google Slideshow with the results of the survey from all three of my Latin I classes. We then discussed the results.

One bonus form of input from this: exposure to and repetition of large numbers! When I was studying Latin, I barely learned numbers 1-10, let alone anything above 10, so I'm so proud that my students were able to understand the numbers! Latin numbers also behave a little differently compared English numbers. For example, for 18, 19, 28, 29, 38, 39, etc., Latin prefers to count down, so eighteen is duodeviginti (two-down-from-twenty), nineteen is undeviginti (two-down-from-twenty), and so on. This is challenging for most students (I still struggle with this because I've had to teach myself the numbers - I even keep a print-out of the pages on numbers from Allen & Greenough on my desk at all times!), but most of my students were able to follow along and understand with my guidance.

The data from the survey contained some surprising and not-so-surprising results. For example, most of my students know how to use Snapchat and Instagram, but not Facebook (that's for us old people 👴). Half of my students know how to play an instrument.

This activity also provided ample opportunities for circling and community building. For example, I asked if students knew how to speak another language (they had to decide if that included Latin or not 😉), so I asked around to find out which languages my students can speak. The results were exciting - Amharic, Gujarati, Arabic, Spanish, French! I also circled for other questions, like "What instrument do you know how to play?" and "What do you know how to cook?" 

If you'd like to see the slideshow, I have embedded it below:

Quis nuntium misit ad me? Choose Your Own Adventure

This past week, I created an activity for my Latin I classes with the following scenario: someone has sent you a strange text message, so how will you react?! What unfolds next depends on how students choose to respond (from a set of possible responses) to the mysterious message, for they will receive different follow-up questions. In the end, the students find out who sent the message - with a surprise twist!

The mysterious message: "I found a body." 😱

The format: a text message (question) & the possible responses

Here are some examples of the question and the answers to choose from:

"ego invēni corpus." (I found a body)

• You should send, "Who are you?"
• You should send, "Who are you?" 😡
• You should send, "Who are you?" 😘
• You should ignore the message.

The 'sender' will respond based on the answer.


"vide sub mensa. quid invēnisti?" (See under the table. What did you find?)

• You should send, "I found money."
• You should send, "I found dust."
• You should send, "I found a stylus."
• You should send, "I found a key."

"sume rem! quid est?" (Pick up the object. What is it? [The adventure at this point had led to finding an object in a cabinet.])

• You should send, "The object is a stylus."
• You should send, "The object is money."
• You should send, "The object is blood."
• You should send, "The object is a book."

The response to the question above will determine the final sequence of events. 

Why?

• I love active use of the target language, especially for fun and quirky purposes!
• To expose students to target vocabulary, such as debere "should," mittere "to send," and invenire "to find."
• To expose students to "real-life" applications of the language with questions like "Ubi es?" ("Where are you?"), "Quid invenisti?" ("What did you find?").
• To offer choice to students as they practice reading Latin.

What students do:

• Access the Google Form with the questions.
• Write each question that they encounter and the answer that they choose for every question.

The packet for students to fill in the questions and answers:



How did students react? They loved it and they shared their choices with their friends! It was a fun change of pace.

What would I change for next time?

• Use this activity after students have already acquired the vocabulary, rather than to introduce and reinforce vocabulary. Students said that it would have even more fun if they did not have to refer to the lexical guide I made.
• Use this activity with Latin II to review Latin I vocabulary.

Betting Word Chunk Game

After having played the Word Chunk game (in case you're not familiar with it, check out what Keith Toda and Bob Patrick have written about it) for almost 2 years with students, I recently decided to change things up a bit. The premise is still the same: students are in small teams and must translate a sentence from a recent story that we have read in class. 

Here's how I changed it, inspired by trivia games: 
Each group starts with 10 points. 
Before each question (or when we played, each sentence to be translated from Latin into English), each group decides if they want to bet 1, 2, or 3 point(s). They cannot change their bet after they start working on translating the sentence.
I give the groups 2 minutes to translate. After 2 minutes, I check their submissions. If the sentence is 100% correct, they get the amount of points that they bet added to their score. If they did not, they lose the number of points that they bet. 
For the final question, each group could bet as many points as they had.

Since this is a translation activity, it requires that the students' translations be precise, so it is important that they already be familiar with the story. If students are not familiar with what they are translating, that will just breed frustration when they lose points for an imperfect translation.

My students enjoyed the change and the competitive uncertainty of placing bets. My only concern was what to do if a group ran out of points. In that case, I still let them bet, but I'll need to figure out a way to get around that.