Teaching Latin II

Annie Rose, Sept. 2007

The Latin II course has 4 components:

1. Henle including daily chanting of the grammar and drills.

2. Ecce (the Responde Latine and vocab. from each section assigned weekly). There are 27 lessons over 33 weeks You have 5 additional weeks to assign other sections on History etc. and to review the lessons they completed last year.  If you covered 5 lessons last year, then spread the rest of them over the course of the year. The idea is to finish the book.

3. Weekly quotations: two to three

4. Roman History and Family Life. They should read all of the Ecce Lessons on Roman History and Family Life before the NLE and anything in addition they will need to prepare.  Please check out the Latin I syllabus on the NLE web site for requirements.

The Latin II's at LOA review from page I of the Henle book.  You can see how this may be paced by looking at my Latin II assignemts from last year.  As I told you before, I may have spent a little too much time on review at the beginning for I had to rush through the chapters at the end of Henle I in May. 

I believe the grammar number part of the notebook to be very important both for review and as a learning tool. The students essentially build their own "grammar notebook" by copying the grammar numbers from every Henle "Assignment" in the text. They recite as they write. I did not collect grammar numbers. I just walked around the room and asked the students to show them to me, along with the exercises due that day to check to see that they had done the work. I marked an "x" next to their names on that day in my teacher's book if it got done, and left it blank if it did not get done. If it was 1/2 done, I would write 1/2. This would count as part of their homework/participation grade (about 20 percent of the total grade).  It did take about 2 minutes of class time but it worked wonders, to keep them accountable, and was a whole lot easier than collecting and grading each assignment. They need this accountability.

As we went over the exercises in class, the students were responsible for correcting their own work. 

A potential problem with having the bulk of their grade depend on homework performance is that the students often do their homework in groups and weaker students then rely on stronger students. Consequently the grade does not truly reflect how much they actually know.  Please comment on this if you believe otherwise and we can discuss it more fully this week. Tests and quizzes are more objective and easier on the teacher to grade.

I graded all quizzes and tests, though sometimes students would grade each others' quizzes immediately after they were given. Then I would collect them, spot check them for accuracy, and record the grade.  About 10 quizzes  and 4 major tests per semester were given.  This was 80 % of their grade along with the 20% for homework and participation.  Quizzes were given in class. I gave quizzes weekly, or 3 times per month.  They took about 5 minutes of class time and could be as simple as 5 or 10 vocab. words I wrote on the spot on the board, or conjugating a verb in a specific tenses, something to ascertain they were doing their homework and keeping up. (I dropped the lowest quiz.) Tests were given at home under the supervision of parent. I usually gave one test in class at the end of each semester. This provided yet another check and balance to see what they truly knew. My tests from last year are posted on line.

The quotations were given weekly.  Again they are laid out in my assignment postings from last year in my folder.  Just copy and paste them onto your posted assignments if that works for you, or use my assignments as lesson plans. The students build the quotation section as you introduce them in class and write them in their notebooks again during the week as part of their classwork at home for reinforcement.  So on Tuesday morning, the first time they see the quotations is when you present them in class.  The second time they see them are as part of their homework.

Circa the second week I began the Ecce Romani review (assuming they did 1/2 of the book last year.  If they did not, they should do the story at the beginning of each chapter beginning with Chapter I or where they left off from last year after some review of the chapters they completed. They should write and study the vocab. and write the Responde Latine for each chapter. I generally give this assignment on Mondays in conjunction with a smaller Henle assignment.

For assignment examples, see the 2006 course assignments in http://liveoakacademy.org/backup/2006/arose/Latin%20II/.

Parents of Latin II students are asked to purchase the following materials:

· 1 box of plain white Flash Cards for vocabulary words.

· 1, 3 sectioned Spiral bound notebook with pockets on either side (college ruled with perforated pages able to be torn out)

o 1 section lableled “Homework”

o 1 section labeled “Quotations and class notes”

o 1 section labeled “Grammar numbers”