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

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 3)

Salvete discipuli et discipulae!

We had an active class today.  We began class by working with some adjectives, nouns and verbs and using them for a short Charades and Pictionary game.  The students could try to get the other team to guess one or more words at a time.  I don't think I will soon forget the weak slaves nor the dueling Romans.  Great job students.  Magistra non misera est; discipuli scelesti  et discipulae scelestae non estis. Beati omnes nos.

The students took a Quiz today that was almost identical to the quiz from last week.  My aim is to reinforce the adjective endings for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension adjectives.  We corrected our Quizzes in class so that they would know what they knew and what they didn't know.

Following the quiz, we discussed the Syllabus (fr. LL syllabus, "list:).  I've attached the original copy of this semester's plan.  We are a week behind the original plan, but will make up that lesson by the last week.  I have "Presentations" listed for the last two weeks.  I would like the students to think about some kind of Latin class project.  It can be vocabulary or grammar related.  Or, it can deal with culture, history, geography, etc. in regards to ancient Rome.  Some ideas that I tossed out were crossword puzzles, trivia questions, a 1 - 2 page paper, a PowerPoint presentation, a game.  If we divide up the class, each student will have 10 - 15 minutes.  IF a student thinks he/she needs more time and could be ready the week before, we could do some Presentations during Week 14.  (For inspiration, students could read some the extra unassigned history, etc. sections in Ecce Romani.)

We began translating the story for Chapter 19:  Settling In.  We got as far as line 14.  The students should finish the translation from line 15 onward.  The Forms section on the following 2 pages explains the perfect tense.  Read pages 150 - 151 (p. 16 - 17 in the blue paperback.)  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Finish translating the story from Chapter 19 (lines 15 and onward)

-- Read p. 150 - 151 (p. 16 - 17 in the blue book)

-- Read and write out a translation for Exercise 19c.

-- Brainstorm your project idea.

This week's Links:

Youtube video:  1st and 2nd declension adjectives

Youtube video:  3rd declension adjectives

Youtube video:  Theory of Tenses

Youtube video:  Perfect Tense

Youtube video:  Chapter 19 -- Settling In

Class Blogs

     Class Notes

     Project Ideas

Valete,

Magistra Prichard

Project Ideas

The final week of class (Week 15, May 8) will be a day for Presentations.  We may possibly use time on Week 14/ May 1 for Presentations, too.  Below is a list project ideas and some helpful links:

Links:
Choice Activities for the Wayland Middle School
A Crash Course in Latin Culture
Write a Latin Haiku
Latin Brain Teasers
Create a Crossword
Make a Word Search
Fill in the Blank Worksheet
Write a rap
Ancient Roman Honey Cookies recipe
Super Crossword Creator
Make an Aquaduct and other Roman Architecture
Ancient Roman games
Latin Words in our Language
A Case for Latin -- Multiple pages with ideas

Learning about Ancient Roman Culture
BBC Primary History
History of Latin

Ideas:
Write a children's picture book
Write a "letter to the editor" that encourages people to study Latin.
Make a crossword, puzzle, trivia quiz, game
Make a 3-D model of something from ancient Rome
Write a paper or put together a PowerPoint
Make some Roman food

Links for Week 10

I'm reposting the links from Week 9 since we are still working adjectives and endings:


About.com's page that explains nouns and adjectives

LatinTests -- Interactive Noun Endings quiz

Noun-Adjective Agreement Exercise #1

Noun-Adjective Agreement Exercise #2

KET Distance Learning site's Latin grammar -- Adjective endings

Chapter 18 Vocabulary Practice
Spelling #1
Spelling #2
Matching #1
Matching #2

Building the Meaning activity
Chapter 18 Vocabulary
Forms for Chapter 18

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 27)

Salve!

It was good to be back to Latin following a week's break.  Hopefully, a week away from the language had no negative effects.

We began the class with a quiz on endings for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension adjectives.  I also had students fill in charts for the verb "to be" in the present tense and the imperfect tense.  As I have recently been reminding them, it's important to work on memorizing the endings so that translation will go more smoothly.  Next week's quiz will cover the same sets of endings and the forms of the verbs "to be."

We have journeyed half way through Ecce Romani I, and are on Chapter 18.  For those students using the paperback versions, this is the blue book labeled IB. 

I must apologize.  I am out of town and left my notes for the class at home, so I don't have the specifics regarding the assignments.  Because we didn't finish the story, you are to write out the translation for this story (including the portion that we did finish.)  Also, you are to read the page following the story that further explains using adjectives.  The part where I'm fuzzy is whether or not you were to do Exercise 18b.  Until someone comments otherwise, I will have you do this exercise.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read and write out the translation for the story for Chapter 18.

-- Read carefully the page following the story. 

-- Exercise 18b

This week's blog

Class Notes

Links to online practices

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Prichard

Week 9 Links for Practice

We spent a lot of time this week on nouns and adjective endings.  Below are some helpful links to some online sources.  Some have more explanations and some are online activities for further practice.

Have fun!

About.com's page that explains nouns and adjectives

LatinTests -- Interactive Noun Endings quiz

Noun-Adjective Agreement Exercise #1

Noun-Adjective Agreement Exercise #2

KET Distance Learning site's Latin grammar -- Adjective endings

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 13)

Greetings!

I hope you're enjoying your "Spring Break."  With a winter storm in the forecast, it doesn't seem very Spring-like.  My apologies for the lateness of these Class Notes.  An educational conference this weekend messed with my schedule, and I'm a bit behind on my "to do" list.

This past week in class we worked with nouns and adjectives because it seemed that last week we had some confusion about the various endings.  We began by having half of the class compile a list of nouns from our chapters while the other half collected adjectives.  We spent most of the class period putting nouns and adjectives together.  

In English, putting an adjective in front of the noun you want it to modify isn't a big deal.  In fact, with a handful of adjectives and some commas, you can write some pretty descriptive sentences.  Latin, on the other hand, requires a lot more thought. Both nouns and adjectives are grouped in categories called "declensions" and have specific endings.  If you have a 1st declension noun and and 1st declension adjective, the process is simple -- just match the endings.  However, if you have a 1st declension noun and a 3rd declension adjective, it's not so easy.  When pairing nouns and adjectives, we determine the endings by considering number (singular or plural), gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, or vocative)

Examples:

Omnes puellae ambulant.  (All girls are walking.)

      (3rd decl. adj. with 1st decl. noun)

Defessae puellae ambulant.  (Tired girls are walking.)

      (1st decl. adj. and noun)

Cornelius audit magnas voces.  (Cornelius hears great voices.)

      (1st decl. adj with 3rd decl. noun)

Cornelius audit omnes voces.  (Cornelius hears all voices.)

      (3rd decl. adj and noun)

Although we didn't have a quiz this week, students should anticipate weekly quizzes.  Next week, we will have a quiz on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd declension noun endings.  This quiz will also have some translating and vocabulary from chapters 14, 15, and 16.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Review Vocabulary

-- Review endings for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Declension nouns

-- Review endings for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Conjugation verbs

This week's links:

Class Notes

Have a great break!  See you on the 27th.

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 8 (March 6)

Salve!

Hesterna bona schola erat!  (Follow this link to translate.)

We deviated a bit from our usual agenda and took the class to the coffee shop area on the first floor of the church.  Except for one person reading, we were the only ones there and were able to accomplish quite a bit.  (Sometimes a little change can be refreshing.)

The class took a Short Quiz on the verb endings for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th conjugation verbs and completed a matching exercise with verbs from the first 4 chapters.  We corrected the quizzes in class so that they could see more clearly what they knew and what they didn't know.

Next week's quiz:  3rd conjugation verbs and 1st declension nouns and some translating.

We read through the next story, Chapter 17:  "Do We Stay at an Inn?" rather quickly, and I'm not confident that all of the grammar associated with that story sunk in.  For that reason, I would like the students to go over that story again.  The answer key that I mailed out last week also has the translations for each story.  Here's what I'd like them to do:

1.  Set the book and the translation of the story side by side.

2.  Read one sentence from the story, and see if you can translate it without looking at the answer key or looking up the vocabulary.

3.  Check the answer key to see how close your translation was.

4.  Do the rest of the story in the same manner, going sentence by sentence.

5.  Repeat Steps 1 - 4 until you feel confident with your ability to translate the story. 

6.  If you are diligent with this exercise, you will have no need to say, "O me miseram!"

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Go over the story from this week following the steps above.

-- Exercise 17c (numbers 1 - 12)

-- Exercise 17d (numbers 1 - 5)

This week's links:

Class Notes

Latin Dictionary and Grammar Resources

The Declension Songs

The Prince of Egypt "When You Believe" in Latin

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 7 (February 27)

Greetings!

We had another good week in class.  We began the class with a game of Bananagrams.  Working in teams, they created Latin words from the letter tiles.  Wonderfully, both teams had over a dozen words.

Following our short game, the students took a quiz on the 1st and 2nd conjugation verb endings and 1st and 2nd declension noun endings.  We are now at a point where we need to be memorizing vocabulary and endings.  For some, this will be harder.  That's the way it is with languages.  As I've watched my children learn Latin, I've seen that some catch on to a language intuitively, while others learn it in a more traditional manner. 

We will continue to have weekly quizzes.  Next week, the quiz will be on verbs:  1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th conjugation endings AND  verbs from the first 4 chapters.  

We learned from this week's story just why Sextus is a pest .. no mother and his father is away on business in Asia.  That still does not make Cornelia happy, nor does it keep Sextus from being annoying.

By the way, I found a "Tribute to Ecce Romani" music video on youtube.  It's amazing what two boys and a guitar can do!  And of course, we have the video that we watched in class about Sextus.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Exercises 16c & 16d; 

-- no Word Study Exercises

-- Review verbs from Chapters 1 - 4

This week's links and blogs:

Class Notes

Quizlet -- Chapter 1 Vocabulary

Quizlet -- Chapter 2 Vocabulary

Quizlet -- Chapter 3 Vocabulary

Quizlet -- Chapter 4 Vocabulary

Review of Vocabulary Chapter 1 - 7

Verb Endings Chart

Chapter 16 Translation

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Translation for Week 7

"Why is Sextus a Pest?"

Now it was the ninth hour.  The carriage was still stuck motionless in the ditch.  But it bored Sextus to do nothing, for he was an energetic boy.  Suddenly therefore he runs to the carriage and opens (his)chest.  Then he takes a ball out of the chest.

"Do you want to play ball, Marcus?" he shouts.  He immediately throws the ball to Marcus.  Marcus catches it and throws it to Sextus.  Repeatedly the boys were throwing the ball, the one to the other.  Then Sextus, who always wants to annoy Cornelia, throws the ball as a prank and hits Cornelia.

Immediately angry, Cornelia turns herself to (her) mother and shouts, "Why does Sextus always annoy me, mother? Why does he throw the ball at me?  What an annoying boy Sextus is!"

"Come to me, dearest," replies (her) mother and holds (her) daughter in an embrace.  "Sextus was not intending to hit you.  He is an energetic boy, he is a recklass boy, he is no, however, a wicked boy."

"But why is Sextus living with us?" asks Cornelia, who was still angry.  "Why does Sextus' father send him to us?"

"The father of Sextus is traveling to Asia.  Because )his" father is away, it was necessary to leave Sextus in Italy.  Therefore, because the father of Sextus is related to your father by ties of hospitality, Sextus is staying with us.?

"But what about Sextus's mother?" asks the daughter.  "Why does she not look after (her) son?"

:Alas!"  replies Aurelia.  "Sextus' mother, as you know, is now dead.  Sextus does not have a mother."  Cornelius was silent, no longer moved with anger.

At that very time, however, Sextus exclaimed, "Do you want to play with us, Cornelia?  Although, you are a girl, perhaps you are able to throw the ball."  While he was shouting, he was not laughing and running away.  Cornelia, angry again, shouts, "Go away, annoying boy!  I do not want to play ball."

Latin Adjectives Chart

Latin Noun Charts for Quiz

Study the circled columns for next week's quiz

Latin Verb Charts & Assignment

Latin

Week 6 Latin Quiz

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 6 (February 20)

Salve!

We had shortened classes at CHAT this week due to the impending blizzard.  Since I had to travel south into the "blizzard zone" after classes, I was glad to get an early start for my ride home.  Even with the shortened class, we were able to accomplish quite a a bit.  These are hard-working, conscientious students.

We began our class by playing Hang Man with Latin words and English derivatives.  Following that we took an in-class quiz.  (For those who were not in class, the quiz is attached to this e-mail.)

With only an hour, we just got started on Chapter 16, "Why is Sextus a Pest?"  We quickly read through the first few lines, but didn't have time to finish.  We will pick up with Chapter 16 next week.

Due to the weather and the time change were missing a couple of students.  With a class this small, I want us to stay together with the translation of the chapters, so I didn't assign any work from Chapter 16.  Instead, I would like students to spend their "Latin time" reviewing vocabulary words, noun endings, and verb endings.  I've given a long list of links to websites with games and reviews.

For the rest of the semester, we will have Short Weekly Quizzes.  Next week's quiz:  endings for 1st and 2nd declension nouns AND endings for 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs.  In class I handed out some copies of the charts for noun and verb endings that are in the back of the book.  I've attached those charts along with charts with specific columns circled -- these are the columns that you should study for the quiz.

Here's your Homework/Assignments for Next Week:

-- Catch up on making all of your vocabulary cards

-- Spend about 30 minutes doing practice exercises

-- Prepare for the weekly quiz

This week's blog

Class Notes

Links to the Links

Have a great weekend!  Stay safe and warm!

Mrs. Prichard

More Links for Ecce Romain

Class,

Meeting only once a week is a challenging way to teach any language.  Thankfully, the internet provides us with some extra resources.  Below are some that I've recently found that I think would be helpful.

Ecce Romani -- website by the publishers
-- Chapter by Chapter vocabulary and review
 quizzes


Latin 1 by KET Distance Learning  (This site has loads of good information.  Take some time to explore it.)
-- Roman Culture
-- Roman History
-- How to Make Vocabulary Cards

-- How to Pronounce Latin

-- Grammar Resources

-- Review of Vocabulary for Chapters 1 - 7

-- Review of Vocabulary for Chapters 8 - 12

-- Review of Vocabulary for Chapters 13 - 17

Quizlet Ecce Romani page  (This site has too many quizzes, vocabulary games, reviews, etc. to link each individual one.)

Other games

-- Case & Declensions Jeopardy style game

Just for Fun

-- Your local weather in Latin

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 13)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  We continue to make progress in our endeavors to learn this wonderful language.

We began the class using an online "quiz."  This was a matching game that we played with two players.  These types of games help us to especially review our vocabulary.

In Chapter 15, we continued to work with the imperfect tense of Latin verbs.  We translated a story that had multiple Roman vehicles.  I have on the syllabus that the assignment for next week is 15b, 15c, and 15d.  (I did not make a note about whether I had changed this.  If it is different from what I had said in class, let me know.)

I told the class that we would have a quiz next week on vocabulary.  This quiz will have on it words from Chapters 13, 14, and 15.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Exercises from Chapter 15

-- Correct your exercises

-- Review vocabulary from Chapters 13, 14, & 15.  

This week's blog.

Class Notes

Homework, Quizzes & Latin

Have a great weekend!  Make the most of our winter wonderland!

Mrs. Prichard

Homework, Quizzes, and Latin

Dear Parents & Students,

A short note with my thoughts about scores and grades:

As the students and I discussed the class at the beginning of this semester, we brainstormed a bit about ways to improve the class.  From a teacher's perspective, teaching a language to a class that meets only once a week is a bit challenging.  For example, students hand in work one week, and don't get it back until the next.  In class, even though I hand back exercises, by the time that a week passes, students don't remember the assignment.  After talking with a couple of other teachers, I decided that giving the students the answer key to the exercises would help.  Now in class, students know exactly which sentences are causing trouble because they can be sure about which ones they got right and which ones they got wrong.  These assignments from the book are meant to be learning opportunities;  some students will learn as much (if not more) from getting them wrong and correcting their mistakes.  The work that they do from the book won't necessarily be graded on their knowledge or unaided ability to remember vocabulary or to translate.

I don't have quizzes marked on the syllabus, but I will be giving them occasional in-class quizzes.  Sometimes these will be about vocabulary and sometimes they will be about grammar and translating.  For example, at the end of class this week, I told them that they would have a vocabulary quiz next week.  These are not specifically on the schedule because I am trying to gauge where the students are at and how they are doing and am planning accordingly.  When I sense that vocabulary is not at their finger tips and that it takes a while to translate because they're looking up words, then I have a quiz.  If aspects of the grammar are not sinking in, then we have a quiz.  From my point of view, the purpose of a test, quiz, or even homework is to evaluate what areas are mastered and what areas need more help.  In other words, tests are as much for the teacher and for planning as they are for the student.

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 6)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  Every week I see that more of the vocabulary and grammar are sinking in.  As we translate the stories, they are putting the sentences together more and more quickly.

We began the class with a "game" in which teams were to work through sets of vocabulary cards that were derivatives of Latin words.  Then, after reviewing last week's exercises, we progressed to the next story from Chapter 14.  This took the bulk of our time, which usually happens. 

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Chapter 14 Exercises 14b, 14d, & 14e. 

-- Correct your exercises with the key.

This week's blog & links to online games

Class Notes

Adverb Speedword #1

Adverb Matching #1

Adverb Speedword #2

Adverb Matching #2

Chapter 14 Speedword #1

Chapter 14 Matching #1

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 30)

Greetings!

I had planned on reviewing again last week and starting into the stories in the chapters of our book, Ecce Romani.  Even though we missed class last week, I felt that we were ready to start again into our stories about Cornelia, Flavia, Marcus, Sextus, Cornelius, and Aurelia. 

We began class with some online exercises that I had posted last week.  Some students mentioned that these quick word games were a little addicting.  I know that I found myself doing them over and over again trying to beat a previous score.  (And who said Latin was dusty and boring?)

I handed out a fresh syllabus for the class. 

As a class, we worked through the story, Disaster, from Chapter 13.  We have now progressed to using the imperfect (past) tense of our verbs.  Though we are a bit rusty and had some new vocabulary, the class did a great job translating.

For our homework, I'm sending out copies of the answer key.  It seems to make sense for the students to correct their own assignments and then come back to class with any questions. 

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Vocabulary Cards for all of the new vocabulary in Chapter 13

-- Exercises 13b & 13c.

-- Read Word Study (p. 101 - 103)

-- Exercise 3

--  Chapter 13 Speed Word #1

-- Chapter 13 Matching #1

-- Chapter 13 Speed Word #2

-- Chapter 13 Matching #2

This week's blog:  Class Notes

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Mrs. Prichard

Latin I -- "Cold Day" Homework

Greetings!

My apologies for not sending out an e-mail before this with the homework for next week.  Our family is hosting a fundraiser at our house for our son Ryan who is in Thailand with Youth with a Mission.  The past two days have been full of cleaning, baking, and jewelry making.

Firstly, a reminder of the homework that was due for this Thursday which you should bring to class next week:

Assignments due January 23:

-- 25 Vocabulary cards (bring them to class)

Since I had planned to do some more reviewing in class, the students can review some vocabulary and word endings using some online resources.  One of the best sites that I've found for quick (sometimes less than a minute) activities is the Classics page sponsored by the "Abney Website of Cosmic Proportions."  This website has multiple quizzes, exercises, activities, etc. listed for every chapter of Ecce Romani.  Before class next week, I would like the students to visit the 2 required pages, and then go to at least 3 other ones for vocabulary practice.

Assignments due January 30:

-- 25 more Vocabulary Cards (bring them to class)

-- Required online vocabulary practice (bring your scores to class)

          Word Web Spelling --- Bring your score to class
          Speed Word -- Play 3 times
-- Choose at least 3 from the list below.  Beware -- they can be a little addicting.
          Small Words Practice

          Practice Nominative, Accusative, and Ablative 

          More Practice of Nominative, Accusative, and Ablative

          Nominative and Accusative Quiz 1

          The Adventures of Sextus

          Chapter 5 Speed Word #1

          Chapter 5 Speed Word #2

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Stay warm!

Mrs. Prichard

This week's blog

Latin I Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 16)

Greetings!

Well, we're back at --- translating this ancient, dead language -- one noun and verb at a time.  We started the class with a "Scavenger Hunt," collecting nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases from one another.  Learning languages is a challenging and puzzling activity.  Sometimes it seems that you lose all that you learned, and at other times it all comes back with amazing clarity.

This week we focused primarily on review.  As with many academic pursuits, students sometimes don't know what they don't know until they make mistakes or realize that they are completely clueless.  With that in mind, we went back to the first chapter to review and recall everything we could remember about endings, cases, conjugations, gender, declensions, etc.  Next week, we will continue with the chapters and stories about the family of Cornelius.

We discussed a few helpful ideas for going forward with Latin.  A few ideas that seemed to be good were to 1) give students the answer keys for the Ecce Romani book exercises and 2) have some online opportunities to practice with vocabulary, etc.  and 3) continue the beginning of class fun activities because they help some of the Latin to "sink in."  One problem that we had, since we only meet once a week, is that the turnaround for correcting assignments made it difficult to know when certain areas were causing problems.  With the answer key, students can correct their weekly work before bringing it to class and be ready to ask question for work they didn't understand.

I will have a syllabus for next week.  I was waiting for some input from the students before putting it together.  I now have a better idea about what will work.

Assignment for Next Week:

-- 25 flash cards (begin with chapter 12 and work forward to chapter 1)

This week's blogs

Class Notes

Week 1 Vocab Review

I'm glad to be back with this great group of students!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Prichard

Week 1 (January 16) Vocabulary Review

Class,
Below are some links for reviewing vocabulary.  Your Latin words are the building blocks for translating.  The better you know them, the easier the translating will be!

Tricky Little Words from Ch. 1 - 6
Spelling One
Spelling Two
Matching One
Matching Two

Have fun!