Comments about Grades

Class,

I'm ready to send out grades, but first a quick comment about this class and this semester.

Grading a foreign language class is a tricky thing.  Students learn languages differently.  Some are strong visual learners who see clearly the words and charts; others who are auditory learn best when they can hear the various charts recited and repeated.  Some are more analytical and the language is like decoding a math equation; others are more global and intuitively put the words together for translations.  

As I watched by own children learn Latin, I saw that each one took to it in a different way.  The intuitive ones needed more time to memorize the charts but understood the "feel" of the language.  The analytic ones could quickly commit charts and vocabulary to mind, but were sometimes slower at translating large sections.

In this class, I attempted to give a variety of opportunities for the students to learn and gain greater grasps of Latin.  We played games, quizzed one another in vocabulary and endings, and completed exercises from the text book.  Some activities were probably more beneficial to some students than others.

We made a change in the correcting and grading of our class exercises this semester.  It seemed to be good to have students correct their own work from the Ecce Romani book so that they could get feedback more quickly about their progress.  For that reason, we had more quizzes in class.

The grades that you will be getting will include a composite score -- a straight percentage of that includes scores from in class participation, book exercises, quizzes, and tests.  I have given a suggested grade, which is what the tutors at CHAT are meant to do.

All in all, I feel that the students worked hard this semester.  I've had a great time with them this year!

Mrs. Prichard

Party Sub Arbore

Party Sub Arbore 

Verse 1:

Moved to the country recently

With a plan and a simple dream

To reunite with my dear old friend

And form a girly team

We'd laugh and cry and stay up all night

Cause everything in Rome is alright

Romans got that swagger 

No one else really matters

I'm feeling nervous cause I really want to see her

Yes, I even want to be her

That's when she walked right into our carriage path

And the driver saw her there

And the driver saw her there

And we both just stood and stared

Chorus:

So we go running into the fields

Now sitting under a tree

Reading the books like yea

Writing the scrolls like yea

We'll only run if we see a big wolf

We're probably gonna be ok

Yeaaaa, its a party with the Romani 

Yeaaaa, its a party sub arbore

Verse 2:

Hopped to the house in the cisium 

The mailman's looking at us now

He's got mail from Rome

Maybe gifts from Rome?

But no, its for my dad

Cornelius is a Roman senator 

With a wife that likes to shout a lot more

The letters from the emperor 

Recalling back the Roman senators 

Feeling worried cause I don't want to leave here

Cause I really want to see her

That's when my mom screamed out in a blazing voice

Come on and pack your bags

Won't you stop trying to lag

Just say good-bye to her again

Chorus 2:

So we go running into the fields

Now sitting under a tree

Reading the books like yea

Writing the scrolls like yea

Hey! Boom Boom! What is that sound?

Its Sextus falling from the tree

Yeaaaa, its a party with the Romani 

Yeaaaa, its a party sub arbore:)

Latin I Class Notes -- OUR FINAL WEEK!! (May 8)

Salvete!

We have finished a good, productive, and fun year of learning Latin.  Our last class of the year was much more on the fun side. Each of the students brought their presentations to share with the class.  Everyone contributed something different.  We had some great edibles -- honey-seed cakes, round bread (donuts), and Laetus Natalus (Happy Birthday) cupcakes. We had 2 history presentations (one on Caesar Augustus and the history of the Latin language), a PowerPoint on the Roman gods, a story with hand-drawn characters and scenes, a Jeopardy game, and an original song about our Ecce Romani characters.

I've posted pictures from our last period on the blog.

I will be posting grades for the class later in the week, along with my thoughts about grading and this class.

Have a great summer!

See you next year ...

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 14 (May 1)

Salvete!

A brief and belated set of Class Notes:

We are almost done with the year, and for me this is always a bittersweet time.  Most of us could use a break and some easing up of our schedules, but have enjoyed this group of students so much that I'm sad to see the end of the year.

Last week students handed in their Take Home Finals, and we went over some of the sections that they had questions about.  We had a brief review of vocabulary and watched a few videos that other classes have put together for their Latin classes.

This week, our final week, will be Presentations from the class members. The parameters of the presentations are pretty wide.  If they chose to write a paper, they can hand that it and do not have to give it as an oral presentation unless they would like to.  If they created something, they can take time to tell the class about it, or they can just bring it to show us.   The only firm guidelines about these presentations is that they have to be about Latin or Ancient Rome in some way AND they can't take more than 10 minutes.

This week's Class Notes

I'm looking forward to hearing from each of these remarkable students!

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 24)

Greetings!

My apologies for the lateness of these class notes.  We attended our daughter's scholar's weekend at her college, and came home to water in our basement.  Needless to say, the last few days have been quite full.

Because I wanted to get all the way through our chapter story this week and discuss the perfect tense of the verb along with its stem and endings, I chose to skip the quiz and the fun activity that I usually do at the beginning of class. 

We are nearing the end of our school year, and the students have been assigned the review following our most recent chapter, Review IV:  Chapters 18 - 21.  They are to do this as a Take Home Final.  Exercises a, b, c, and e may be done "open book." In other words, they may use any part of their books to help them answer their questions.  Section d is to be done without the use of other portions of their books. 

Once they have finished their Review, they must also correct their own work (or have a family member help them to do it.)  I would like them to correct it with a different color writing utensil and make corrections.  This will tell me how much of the test they got right.  We will go over the test next week.

With only two weeks of class left, we will not be covering any more new material.  Next week will be primarily for reviewing and summing up our Latin knowledge.  The final week will be for presentations.  These presentations do not have to be long.  With 8 students, we'll have about 10 minutes per student.  If any of the students know that he/she has a longer presentation, we could do it next week.  Let me know.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Review IV:  Chapters 18 - 21

     -- Exercises a, b, c, e -- "open book"

     -- Exercise d -- "closed book"

-- Review vocabulary and endings.

Links this week:

Class Notes

Project Ideas

Chart of Verbs (Four Principle Parts)

Helpful Links for Week 13

See you on Thursday!

Mrs. Prichard

Week 13 Helpful Links for Review

Below is a list of links that will help you review for your Take Home Test and for the in-class review session for Week 14.

Four Principle Parts of all Ecce Romani verbs
Spelling 1 for Review IV
Spelling 2 for Review IV
Spelling 3 for Review IV

Matching 1 for Review IV
Matching 2 for Review IV

Picture Flashcard Review 1
Picture Flashcard Review 2


All Vocabulary Review
WordWeb Review
SpeedWord Spelling
Latin-English Matching

Looking for more?  Follow this link for exercises, etc. for all of the Ecce Romani Chapters

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 10)

Greetings!

Our Latin I Class went well this week, and I'm sure that most of the students are looking forward to having another break from CHAT classes for our Easter break.  We'll resume classes again the week following Easter/Resurrection Sunday.

Our vocabulary quiz this week was in the form of a crossword puzzle.  Following the quiz, we played a couple rounds of Pictionary using nouns, adjectives and verbs from our most recent chapters.

We read Chapter 20, "Chance Encounter," this week.  For  homework, students should read and translate the rest of the story that we didn't finish, read the section on Forms and Building the Meaning (p. 160 - 162), and complete the exercises 20d and 20e.

Assignments for the Next Class (April 24)

-- Read and translate the rest of the Ch. 20 story on p. 160.

-- Read the Forms section (p. 160 - `61)

-- Read the Building the Meaning section (p. 161 - 162)

-- Do Exercises 20d and 20e

-- Using the answer key, check the exercises and correct any incorrect answers

-- Review vocabulary, verb endings, noun endings, and adjective endings.

-- Work on your project!!

Next Class's Quiz:

-- 1st and 2nd declension endings for nouns

This week's links:

Class Notes

Have a great week and a very blessed Easter!

Mrs. Prichard