Teaching about Islam in Latin

This year my school returned to (almost) fully in-person learning. Since some students did a mix of in-person, digital, hybrid, or a combination of all three last year, I decided to begin the year with my Latin IV class with my latest publication, Nasreddin Chogia: Fabellae. Why? The fables present short, but syntactically-dense Latin. The brevity, levity, and relatively concrete subject matter of the fables facilitates quick and light reading. On the other hand, the fables are syntactically-dense (e.g. conditionals; changes in person, mood, tense, inter alia), which will (hopefully) prepare students for readings that may see on the ALIRA (ACTFL Latin Interpretive Reading Assessment), which they will take in the spring to qualify for the Seal of Biliteracy. 

To prepare my students to understand the cultural references within the fables, I began the year by teaching about the religion of Islam, mosque architecture, and important figures and traditions in Muslim communities. In my slides included below, you will find the following:

• The fundamental beliefs in Islam
• Statistics about Muslims worldwide and in the United States
• The Five Pillars of Islam
• Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha
• Mosque features and architecture
• The role of the imam and the muezzin
• Architectural features: minarets, mihrab, minbar, ablution fountains, calligraphy

See my slides below:

What my students did with the material:

• Picture Talks: I facilitated discussions in Latin by projecting images of mosques from around the world. Students and I discussed exterior and interior features and their significance.
• Timed Write: I projected photos of the Sokollu Mehmet Mosque in Istanbul. Students were expected to write as much as they could in Latin about the images by using the photos and their notes from our earlier discussions. 

Why teach about Islam in a Latin class? In my humble opinion, it is an imperative of any humanities course to foster understanding and appreciation for the traditions and communities that exist in the local community and around in the world today. The communities and traditions we examine in a language course should not necessarily belong to that specific language tradition. Although Latin language cultures like ancient Rome and medieval Western Europe continue to be stereotyped and appropriated by white supremacists, ignorance of contemporary communities comes with greater consequences (i.e. Islamophobia). I do not expect my students to become experts on Islam, but if in the future they can at least speak accurately and respectfully about the Muslim traditions and beliefs and the basics of mosque architecture, then I will consider my efforts a success.

Mercurius Omnia Furatur/Ἑρμῆς πάντα κλέπτει

Available in both Latin and Ancient Greek

When he is born, the god Mercury/Hermes is no normal baby. He can walk, talk, and even make music. But what he really wants to do is steal from the other gods. Will Mercury/Hermes get away with it? Or will the gods find out that they've been tricked by a newborn baby?

Mercurius Omnia Furatur (Latin Version)

Click to see on Amazon

• Total Words: 1,598

• Vocabulary: 79 (excluding names and unique forms), 217 unique forms

• 72% of the vocabulary (86% if excluding glossed words) appears in the Dickinson College Commentaries Latin Core Vocabulary, which consists of 1,000 high-frequency Latin words.

• 80% of the vocabulary (91% if excluding glossed words) appears in Mark A. E. Williams' Essential Latin Vocabulary, which consists of 1,425 high-frequency Latin words.

• Intended level: Novice (1st year)

First 103 Words:

Hodiē puer nātus est. Hic puer est fīlius Iovis et Māiae. Māia est māter puerī. Iūppiter est pater puerī. Iūppiter est rex deōrum.

Hic puer est mīrus. Hic puer ambulāre potest. Hic puer loquī potest. Hic puer canere potest. Nōmen puerō est Mercurius.

Hodiē Mercurius in Cyllēnē monte nātus est. Mercurius cum mātre habitat. Mercurius cum patre nōn habitat. Nam Iūppiter in Olympō monte habitat. Mercurius est puer mīrus. Mercurius domō exīre vult. Mercurius loquī vult. Mercurius canere vult. Mercurius autem vult fūrārī.

Mercurius clam domō exit.

Mercurius: “Ego volō domō exīre! Ego volō fūrārī!”

Mercurius videt testūdinem!

Mercurius: “Ego volō habēre testūdinem!

Ἑρμῆς πάντα κλέπτει (Hermes Panta Kleptei) (Ancient Greek Version)

Click to see on Lulu

• Total Words: 2,225

• Vocabulary: 87 (excluding names and unique forms), 263 unique forms

• 62% of the vocabulary (80% if excluding glossed words) appears in the Dickinson College Commentaries Greek Core Vocabulary, which consists of 500 high-frequency Ancient Greek words.

• Intended level: Novice (1st year)

First 100 Words:

τήμερον παιδίον τι ἐγένετο. τοῦτο δὲ τὸ παιδίον ἐστὶν ὁ υἱὸς Διὸς καὶ Μαίας. ἡ μὲν γὰρ Μαῖά ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ τοῦ παιδίου. ὁ δὲ Ζεύς ἐστιν ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ παιδίου. καὶ ὁ Ζεύς ἐστιν ὁ τῶν θεῶν βασιλεύς.

τὸ δὲ παιδίον ἐστὶ θαυμαστόν. βαδίζειν μὲν γὰρ τὸ παιδίον δύναται. διαλέγεσθαι δὲ τὸ παιδίον δύναται. ᾄδειν δὲ τὸ παιδίον δύναται. Ἑρμῆς δέ ἐστι τῷ παιδίῳ ὄνομα.

τήμερον δὲ ὁ Ἑρμῆς ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ὄρει τῇ Κυλλήνῃ. καὶ ἡ μήτηρ μὲν οἰκεῖ μετὰ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ. ὁ δὲ πατὴρ οὐκ οἰκεῖ μετὰ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ. ὁ γὰρ Ζεὺς οἰκεῖ ἐν τῷ Ὀλύμπῳ ὄρει.     

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.) 

 

2019 Year in Review

2019 has (almost) gone, so I'd like to reflect briefly on some of the highlights of my year. 

My teaching in 2019 has had its ups and downs. There were times in the spring when I felt that I might need to leave the profession for my mental health, so I spent a lot of time over the summer in reflection. I am in a much better place now, but I still have days when I feel like pulling a Ginger Spice.

Teaching:

• Writing my own novice-level Latin texts - I wrote about this for 2018 and I am still doing this for Latin II this school year. I love going back to the ancient texts and writing novice-level versions for my students. Right now I prefer it to teaching with novellas because I find that novellas get stale for both the students and me, so students are always getting new myths to read. This semester we read myths about Vulcan/Hephaestus, Mars/Ares, Venus/Aphrodite, Diana/Artemis, and Atalanta. In 2020 I plan to write novice-level stories about myths of Apollo, Mercury/Hermes, and Roman history.
• Procedures - Over the summer I read Jon Cowart's new book on classroom management in the CI classroom. My biggest takeaway this year has been to include warm-up activities for every class to prepare students for class, review previous vocabulary, and offer comfort through predictable routines.
• Google Forms - I'm slowly but surely getting better at creating open-ended activities with Google Forms. In the spring, students solved a mystery with various possible endings. In the fall, students learned what the dreams meant according to ancient Roman interpretations of various types of dreams.
• Dressing up as Banjo and Kazooie for Halloween!

20 years in the making!

Greek & Latin:

• My first ACL - I attended the annual ACL Institute in New York City in June and enjoyed meeting many, many faces I had only known online.
• I haven't read much in the way of Greek and Latin texts (beyond those I use to create my novice-level myth stories for Latin II), but I did enjoy Ken Dark and Jan Kostenec's new book Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople. It was the closest I could get to one of my lifelong dreams - getting access to all of the Hagia Sophia. 

Highly recommended!

Travel:  

• Macon and Valdosta, GA - A quick two-day trip during my spring break to explore the swamps of Georgia. Unseasonably cold, but still fun, even though I didn't see the wildlife I wanted to see in Valdosta. I did see two massive gators in Macon though!
• New York City - ACL Institute. My third time in NYC, so less pressure to go sightseeing this time. The highlight this time was visiting the Nintendo Store.
• Augusta, GA - Visiting more swamps. Great place to see alligators. I finally had my first encounter with a Georgia snake too!
• Chicago - Back home for Thanksgiving and my 4 F's of being home: friends, family, fur babies, and food. I visited the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture for the first time, despite the fact that my mother's side is 100% Lithuanian. An unexpected highlight: ancient artifacts from or found in Lithuania, such as amber found in Egypt and Roman coins found in Lithuania.
  

Annum novum faustum felicem tibi, lector!

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!

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:

Post-Winter Break Vocabulary Recall

The holidays have come and gone, including my winter break, which consisted mostly of...

and

and

Back to reality, I always like to do some review before moving on to new material. One no-prep activity that I have loved doing (second time, as of today) is asking students to generate a list of as many words as they can remember in Latin. This is a great activity for after winter break because it gets students back into thinking in Latin and, best of all, it reminds them that they know more Latin than they think they do. This reassurance is essential for level one learners, which is why I love to do it with my Latin I classes the most. It's also great to use at the beginning of the school year with level two for many of the same reasons (which I did last year). 

Here's how I structure the activity:

• I randomly divide the class into groups of 3. (I use this website to create the groups. If you know of an even better one - let me know!) I will adjust the groups to make them more mixed by ability and gender and to prevent behavioral issues.
• Each group gets a whiteboard, a marker, and a rag.
• Each group must come up with as many Latin words as they can remember and write their list on their whiteboard.
• To add some competition, the group that remembers the highest number of words gets a prize (candy or stickers). As the day progresses, I challenge the groups to outdo not only one another but also the record set by my previous classes.
• As for timing, I will check in on the class, but most groups will need to be stopped - so this is a great activity to fill an entire class period. 
• When there are about 15 minutes left in class, I will stop the activity. Then each group will count up the number of words they remembered. The group that remembered the highest number of words will share their list aloud while I type and project it in a Google Sheets file.
• I will then share this Google Sheets file with my students as a reference.

Here are the word counts (combined from every group's list, minus duplicates of course) for my three Latin I classes today: 169, 247, and 221. 

Here is the Google Sheets file with the vocabulary lists. I have added the English meaning and additional forms for student reference.

The goal in our Latin program is for students to acquire around 100 words per semester, so I am so proud that my students have exceeded this goal! This is language acquisition in action! 😁

2018 Year in Review

2018 has (almost) gone, so I'd like to reflect briefly on some of the highlights of my year. 

2017 was a year of life-changing highs and lows. I passed the edTPA, got and accepted my job in Georgia, completed student teaching and my Masters, moved to Georgia, and finished my first semester in my new job. All these helped me through 2017, my most painful year personally. 2018 has had its ups and downs too, but I am grateful to be in an even better place now.

2018 was my first calendar year as a Latin teacher at Parkview and as a 100% CI teacher, so it's overwhelming to narrow down a list of highlights. 

Teaching:

• TPR - I first used TPR in 2017, but I did not feel that I was as successful as I wished to be. This past August, I really felt successful doing it again. See my post about it here.
• Brain Breaks - I first used Brain Breaks in 2017, but did not implement them consistently. Starting in August, I have made them a routine. See my post about it here.
• Writing my own novice-level Latin texts - Most of these have been translated and adapted from primary sources like Hesiod's Theogony (Saturn's overthrow of Uranus, the Titanomachy) and Homer's Iliad (Jupiter, Neptune, and Hades drawing lots) for Latin I students.
• Modifications for special ed. students - Miriam Patrick and I have been working closely to create activities and supports for our special education students, especially in Latin I. More details to come in a future post!
• Acting in the faculty play - Students invited several of us faculty to star in Check, Please, a play about a series of blind dates gone horribly-yet-humorously wrong. I played the role of Tod, a little boy who fools a woman into a date. 

  

  At 29 I could still pass for a kid. Yes, I am wearing a Mickey Mouse hat. Thanks for the youthful genes, Mom and Dad!

• Dressing up as Luigi for Halloween!

  

  Luigi forgoes Italian for the day because of half-off burritos at Chipotle on Halloween!

Greek & Latin:

• Biduum Georgianum - I had so much fun! I would love to do the longer immersion programs for both Latin AND Ancient Greek! See my post about it here. 
• Batrachomyomachia - I read two Greek texts this past year. First was the Batrachomyomachia, an epic poem that parodies Homer's Iliad. Instead of Greeks vs. Trojans, it's mice vs. frogs. I loved it - especially the deus ex machina ending!
• Digenes Akrites - The second Greek text I read was Digenes Akrites, a Byzantine poem about the life and adventures of Digenes Akrites ('Biracial Frontiersman'), a half-Arab, half-Roman hero who lives on the nearly-lawless eastern frontier of the empire (eastern Turkey today) and fights wild beasts, a dragon, and guerrillas. I graciously consulted Elizabeth Jeffrey's editions and translations of the Grottaferrata and Escorial manuscripts. This experience was a fun introduction to demotic Byzantine Greek and I'd love to learn more Modern Greek!

Travel: 

• The Midwest - In May and June, I enjoyed a nice roadtrip through the Midwest (Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio) with my girlfriend. It was great to see my family and best friends again in the Chicago area. Cedar Point was AMAZING! The best amusement park I've ever been to!
• Egypt - Also in June, my lifelong dream of going to Egypt came true and it was everything I had hoped for and more. Let me travel geek right now - I stayed in Cairo (just blocks from Tahrir Square!), Aswan (on Elephantine Island!), Luxor (steps from the Nile!), and Alexandria (right across from the Mediterranean!). I saw and did so much and I can't wait to go back!

  

  The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza! I went inside too!

• Istanbul - Coming back home, I had a long layover in Istanbul thanks to flying Turkish Airlines, one of my favorite airlines. Since it is Istanbul - AKA my favorite place in the world - I had to go see it even for those brief hours I was there. I got on the metro shortly after it starts at 6:00 AM and explored the city on foot. I checked out some Byzantine churches, walked along the Sea of Marmara, and visited Hagia Sophia (my eleventh visit - yes, I'm shamelessly obsessed!) - all with more than enough time to hop back on to the metro and return to the airport to fly home. 

  

  Under Hagia Sophia's legendary dome for the eleventh time, but just as excited as ever!

Annum novum faustum felicem tibi, lector!

Latin 1 First Story of the Year

Many teachers who are new to CI, especially Latin teachers, ask the question, "How do you start level one?" The traditional way of teaching Latin typically jumps right into conjugating verbs. That's at least how my first few days of Latin went (to be fair, it was also at the college level). Our modern world language colleagues at least can start the year with the old standbys of greetings and simple expressions for interpersonal communication (e.g. talking about family, interests, and likes/dislikes). 

In my Latin 1 class, we do all of these (minus conjugating verbs), but I also like to get my students moving and engaging with one another via Total Physical Response (TPR). With TPR, I deliver simple messages in Latin to my students to perform simple actions with high-frequency verbs. To make it more engaging, we use stuffed animals.

"I ad ianuam!" "Go to the door!"

"Cape animal ex sacco!" "Take an animal out of the bag!"

"Fer leonem ad Amandam!" "Bring the animal to Amanda!"

"Marcus dat felem Liviae!" "Marcus gives the cat to Livia!"

All of this involves me narrating and ordering various actions while pausing to point at the words on the board with their accompanying English meaning.

This year, inspired by my colleagues Rachel Ash, Miriam Patrick, and Keith Toda, I decided to make my own story using the vocabulary words from our TPR activities. This way, my students can see and hear (as we read aloud the story) these high-frequency words, get as much exposure to and repetition of said words, and acquire words that will serve them for as long as they study Latin.

The story I wrote, titled Ubi est telephonum Mirandae? (Where Is Miranda's Phone?), was a surprise hit with my students! The story draws not only from our TPR word base, but also from our class cell phone procedure and rejoinders. I used Latin names (Miranda and Iulius - Julius in English) that are familiar in English to help my students see that many of us have Latin names and that the Latin-speaking past is not so distant. Here is what it looks like:

Hodie puella (girl) est in Lilburn. Nomen ei est Miranda. Miranda est discipula. Miranda intrat conclave (classroom). Miranda videt in tabulā: “Ubi sunt telephona?”

Ubi est telephonum Mirandae? Scilicet est in sacculō! Miranda videt in sacculō. Telephonum non est in sacculō! Miranda non habet telephonum! Ubi est telephonum Mirandae?! Miranda vult telephonum!

Miranda it ad armarium. Telephonum non est in armariō. Miranda it ad excipulum. Telephonum non est in excipulō. Miranda it ad mensam. Telephonum non est in mensā. Ubi est telephonum Mirandae? Miranda non habet telephonum. Miranda vult telephonum!

Miranda it ad ianuam. Iulius intrat conclave. Miranda inquit (said), “Ubi est meum (my) telephonum?”

Iulius inquit, “Visne telephonum? Da mihi (to me) stylum.” Miranda capit stylum. Miranda fert stylum. Miranda dat stylum Iuliō. Iulius habet stylum.

Iulius inquit, “Da mihi chartam.” Miranda capit chartam. Miranda fert chartam. Miranda dat chartam Iuliō. Iulius habet chartam.

Iulius scribit in chartā, “Te amo (I love you).” Iulius dat chartam Mirandae. Miranda capit chartam.

Miranda inquit, “Fufae!” Miranda ponit (puts) chartam in sacculum. Miranda videt aliquid (something) in sacculō sub (under) libellō. Miranda videt telephonum! Euge! Miranda habet telephonum!

Why was this simple story such a hit? The reference to our cell phone procedure was a nice inside joke (and a great way for me to remind my classes of my policy 😈). My students ate up the almost love story. Some felt bad for Iulius and his failed attempt to woo Miranda. Some commended him for his audacity. Some found his flirtations creepy. Some students made predictions about the location of Miranda's phone (one was correct!). One class wanted to know more about Miranda and Iulius' relationship and wondered if they had a past, which I will keep in mind in case I decide to write a continuation of this story.

Before I wrote this story, I felt overwhelmed at the thought of writing a narrative that both engaged my students and gave them sufficient exposure to and repetition of high-frequency words in Latin. I'm sure many new CI teachers share the same apprehension. After all, when I was a student - and later a teacher - in traditional Latin programs, I relied on textbook exercises (however absurd they may be - I'm looking at you, Dominus iacet in via!) and on adapted readings from classical literature for practice. I now plan to write more stories for my classes in the future. I can only hope that they will be just as fabulous.

First 3 Weeks of the School Year

The first three of weeks of the school have come and gone, so I'd like to reflect and write about my experiences so far. This year I am teaching three classes of Latin I and two of Latin II. I am also in charge of the Latin I curriculum this year. I'm not going to lie, I felt a lot of pressure to be in charge of level one. If I messed up and did not establish a solid foundation, I could jeopardize my students' Latin experience and fail to provide them with the skills to succeed in Latin. 

Thankfully, this has not been the case at all. In fact, I am having a blast with my Latin I students! I attribute part of this to my goal of having more consistent procedures in my classes this year. Just as in previous years, I open the class with "Salvete, omnes!", close with "Valete, omnes!", and expect my students to respond in Latin. To associate names with faces (and because admin insists that we take attendance within the first five minutes of class), I then do roll call and each student must say "adsum" if they are present. When a student is absent, we say, "(Insert student name) abest." 

To fight against the almighty cell phone, we then do a cell phone chant, as developed by Bob Patrick. I ask the class, "Ubi sunt telephona?!" Then we go through various locations where phones may be: "Non in manibus!" "Non in gremio!" "Non in sinibus!" "Non sub cruribus!", followed again by "Ubi sunt telephona?!" "Telephona sunt in sacculis!"

I have also implemented Calendar Talk more consistently this year, inspired by CI Liftoff (Ben Slavic and Tina Hargaden). The students and I write and say the date in Latin (day of the week, date, month, and year). Then I ask about the day's weather and we discuss it in Latin. My Latin I students in particular are having fun with this. One class debates almost every day about whether it is humid or not. In another class, a certain student is always cold, so the rest of the class disagrees and tells her to wear layers! To take advantage of this enthusiasm, I lead class polls:

"Quis ex vobis putat hodie umidam esse?"
*Some students raise their hands and I count aloud in Latin*
"Undecim discipuli putant hodie umidam esse!"
"Quis ex vobis putat hodie non esse umidam?"
*Students raise their hands and I count aloud in Latin*
"Duodecim discipuli putant hodie non esse umidam!"

Compared to my own experiences as a Latin student, I love that my students are so comfortable and eager to listen to and interact in Latin. They also understand indirect statements! Yes, they cannot describe what indirect statements are or they function in Latin, but they understand what I am saying and that is all I want at this time for their level of proficiency.

Another change this year is Brain Breaks (more on this in a future post). I used Brain Breaks last year, but I placed them between activities. This year, instead, I set a timer for 15 minutes and we stop class and do them, no matter what. This change has made a HUGE difference! Last year, students felt like Brain Breaks were just another tedious activity to do, but this year, my students look forward to them. I have also noticed two benefits of Brain Breaks. First, my students and I are truly refreshed and ready to do more afterward. Second, and as a result, my students and I work more efficiently for the entire duration of the class period. 


Some aspects of my year have been off to rougher start, but overall I'm very satisfied.

Navigating My Thoughts on Writing a Novella

Novellas have grown in popularity in world language classrooms within the past decade. They provide comprehensible and engaging narratives with lots of repetition of (often) high-frequency vocabulary. I have used one in my Latin I class two years ago (Lance Piantaggini's Piso Ille Poetulus) and have a library of most of the Latin novellas, which I admittedly still need to read. I too would like to jump on the novella hype train, but there are several obstacles that I am facing in the brainstorming stage. The point of this post is to discuss these issues.

First are the challenges that many prospective novella writers face. How do you limit the number of unique words used within one story? Some novellas use under 100 unique words. I'm over here like

On top of that, how do you create a story that students actually want to read and keep reading till the end? I have a quirky sense of humor, which I would like to incorporate in a novella, but that might not necessarily resonate with many younger readers.

Besides these challenges that all novella writers face, I would like to write a novella that would stand out from the crowd and reflect my own interests. One consideration I have is to write a novella in Medieval Latin and/or in a medieval setting. Why? I came to the Classics as a medievalist first and foremost and will always champion the post-classical world among classicists. Sadly, Medieval Latin and Greek are understudied and underappreciated, so I would love to introduce readers to the fascinating stories found in medieval folktales and saint's lives.

One such story is the Navigatio Sancti Brendani (The Voyage of St. Brendan). I first read this text several years ago in a summer online reading group and loved it! It tells the story of St. Brendan and his fellow monks who leave Ireland and sail across the sea in search of the Promised Land. Along the way, they encounter angry blacksmiths, talking birds, a sea monster, even Judas himself. Because of these fun episodes, some Latin teachers teach this text, making it one of the better known texts in Medieval Latin. Most Latinists, however, are not familiar with it, so why not make it accessible to them as well as to my students?

In thinking about adapting the Navigatio for the novella format, two issues come to mind. First, should I try, as best as I can, to preserve medieval vocabulary, grammar, and orthography? Many Latin teachers want texts that include vocabulary that is high-frequency in Classical Latin, so that could be an issue in adapting a medieval text. Some words found in Classical Latin take on different meanings in medieval literature (often with Christian nuances). Medieval Latin grammar and vocabulary, depending upon the text, can vary significantly from Classical Latin, but for the sake of simplicity and for the ease of the reader I would not mind adapting the text with a more classicizing style. In short, I am torn between staying true to the medieval features of the text and making the text appealing to an audience trained in and devoted to Classical Latin authors.

The other issue is related, but pertains to the Navigatio's content rather than its language. The Voyage of St. Brendan was written by a Christian author(s) for a Christian audience to promote Christian morality and inspire its audience to be more pious Christians. My novella would certainly not have the same intent, but I do not wish to separate the narrative from its cultural context. Sure, I could preserve the adventurous episodes and downplay the moralizing, but that seems disingenuous to the original text. How I see it, I can offer a glimpse into the values and customs of early medieval Ireland without endorsing them. For many public school teachers, however, that is too fine a line to walk. The novella would be either too Christian or not Christian enough. Latin teachers usually do not have to deal with the issue of religion because ancient Roman religious practices and myths are regarded as belonging to the past (although it is problematic to ignore the reality that we have pagan students in our classrooms) and are appreciated as a significant part of Western cultural heritage, as found in literature, the visual arts, and music. Christianity, on the other hand, remains potentially too controversial for many teachers to touch, even at the expense of our cultural heritage from medieval Europe.

Teachers of English literature, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and other languages: how do you sensitively expose your students to the role that religion has played in the cultures of the language you teach? 

I should add that I have other texts in mind for a novella, such as ancient texts that avoid the aforementioned issues. Eventually, however, I still would like to write a novella set in Late Antiquity or the Middle Ages. In any case, I plan over the next year to continue work on a novella. As in any voyage, there will be delights and there will be perils, but I am excited for the journey.