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Ideas for latin drill or recitation, please?


Kfamily
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Dd and I are moving slowly through Henle. In her defense, we did not do Latina Christina (we did Our Roman Roots) and so we did not go into it with the same amount of preparation.

 

We are nearing the lesson on the 3rd declension but still struggle with 2nd declension. I have Angelina's drill sheets from her blog (Thank you Angelina,we have already used these a lot) and I have the declensions written out on a white board that we keep up and we do practice saying them but haven't been as daily diligent about this as we should be. Also, we need to know it well enough to recite mixed up. I know we should be able to call out 2nd declension, masculine, plural and genitive and know the correct ending, right? And then call out something else and know the ending or call out a declined noun and be able to say this noun is in 1st declension, singular, ablative. I mean, we should know them that well, right? We are just stuggling a bit here.:lol:

 

Any tips or ideas for drill or recitation that allows us to cement this and move on? Is there a better method for this?

 

 

Also, I may move dd to First Form when it comes out because of this. I'm hoping this curriculum will help me more in this area.

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You are absolutely right that you should know the endings inside and out as you describe. It sounds as if your child has memorized the declensions "vertically," which is a great place to start. (Down the singular side and then down the plural side is what I mean by "vertically.")

 

If you're not already giving quizzes on the declensions, you might want to try that. Maybe I'm a throwback, but a quiz with a grade provides motivation to kids in a way that just daily repetition does not. They can see how well they're doing and where they need to improve. Knowing a quiz is coming can really speed up their memorization gears, too. It can actually make things more fun by keeping the process from getting long and drawn out when it doesn't need to be. If you're not already doing this I think you'll be delighted with what a difference it makes.

 

But meanwhile, if you make flash cards for each ending, with the ending on one side and the declension, case and number on the other, I think you'll find this helps a lot with "horizontal recall," or recall of the endings by case in isolation. Some children achieve horizontal recall without doing horizontal drilling, but some need the horizontal drilling. It's a good foundation for translation work where endings have to be recalled/understood outside of a paradigm.

 

Horizontal recall can be quizzed, too.

 

(Some Latin programs are even structured so that they teach the endings horizontally in the first place, but that's a whole other topic and Henle is not like that.)

 

Hope this helps!

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Thank you, Katharine! The flashcards are exactly what we need. I will add some quizzes too.

 

I really wonder why I never thought of that myself. Sometimes it seems the things I struggle with the most are so obvious and simple.:D

 

Thank you!

 

And just out of curiousity, which program teaches them horizontally? I might have to keep it in mind for my younger dd.

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Thank you, Angelina! I will enjoy reading these articles and thanks again for the drill sheets!!

 

I can't wait to see samples of First Form. I think this may be just what we need (although dh will not be thrilled since I just purchased Henle and thought this would be all I needed for a couple of years!:001_smile:).

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The programs known as "reading" programs teach forms horizontally. One example is Ecce Romani. Some users of reading programs are eclectic and slip in some vertical paradigm teaching on the side, just for context and orientation.

 

I know there are posters here who are very familiar with reading programs. So if you decide to go that route you'll definitely get help here. My background is more in grammar-translation or part-to-whole programs.

 

I'm glad you liked the flash card and quiz ideas. Happy teaching!

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