Need latin help for small class/co-op

[Carpe Diem]

Hello,

 

We are trying to form a latin class. We have met a few times so far. We have mostly been playing flash card/vocabulary memorization games. We have a range of one student nearly done with Latina Christiana II, some starting Prima Latina and some in the middle of LfC A.

 

Any suggestions of what else we should be doing? We need to keep the more advanced children developing otherwise it is a waste of their time.

 

Thanks for any help/suggestion you can provide.

[Carpe Diem]

Well this is a group of two families. We meet once a week. The other family is using the Latina Prima and Latina Christiana II and my family is using Latin for Children book A but the students in this book are also in different chapters. Each family works on their own at home in their books/materials. LCII is different from LfC as LCII uses accusative and ablative where as LfC has the reader become familiar with N, G, D, A, A in book A.

 

We have a main teacher (not me) who has taken latin at the college level. I have trouble with learning new languages!! We have been starting our group with reciting Latin prayers.

 

Is there a way we can keep everyone still working on their own books but also come up with a new challenge when we meet? Maybe going through Lingua Angelica or some other program? Or maybe this is not the way to do this and we should all have the same books, but even still we will have one student who is way ahead.

 

Thanks for any further input you can offer.

[Verity]

What you have described is really a difficult situation - everyone in the class is using a different sequence of learning vocabulary and grammar. Barring trying to start everyone possible (it seems maybe one student is the only "advanced" one) in the same books and sequence the other option would be to learn some Roman history to go along with their at home Latin teaching? I recently found some things like sticker books of Latin words and that kind of thing that could be a jumping off point of some fun activities to go with a latin cultural/history study. In this scenario I would include geography (map) studies, a timeline of Roman history, architecture, religion, family and political studies. Study "The Famous Men of Rome". For each lesson teach 3-5 vocabulary words or terms that are separate from their latin instruction received at home.

I don't know of any curriculum off the top of my head. Maybe someone else will suggest something like this.

Good luck!

[latinteach]

You probably need some activities for some students to do while others are having in depth instruction on grammar, since it sounds like you have multiple level groups in this class.

 

Do you plan to do the National Latin Exam? (http://www.nle.org)

 

Or the National Mythology exam? http://www.etclassics.org/NMExam.html

 

Or the Classical Literacy Exam? http://abqlatin.com/classical-literacy-exam

 

You could download their syllabi and perhaps do some enrichment activities to build up content knowledge for the exam: culture, history, mottoes, famous Romans, etc.

 

You could add in some conversational Latin.

 

You could, of course, do some Latin prayers and sing some Latin songs.

 

You could do some fun projects. (See "Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Rome and Greece.")

 

You could practice learning derivatives from Latin vocabulary.

 

You could have them learn Latin mottoes and phrases. (A fun way to do this is to have them create posters or cartoons that illustrate the phrases.)

Edited November 6, 2009 by latinteach

[Carpe Diem]

I knew there would be some good ideas generated here. Thank you so much!