The Exile of Aeneas (Book Review)

The Aeneid is the epic from antiquity that most people are the least familiar with. The Exile of Aeneas is a step toward fixing that. Instead of a translation or adaption for children, Ed DeHoratius presents the story as a series of choices for the reader. Since the story is not as familiar to students and Aeneas is an all too-human hero, students will have a chance to see the story unfold for themselves as they are faced with the no-win choices Aeneas had to make. For students who are more familiar with the story, the choices available to Aeneas are made more immediate in this style of storytelling.

Bottom line: Making the Aeneid fun.

End of the year

We're grinding in on the end of the school year. From my own experience as a student, I know it is far too easy to slack off at this time of year. And from the the teaching end, everything seems to get more and more hectic. Between those two, you might be ready to let the Latin slide. Which is completely understandable.

But I've got bad news. Latin, or any foreign language for that matter, is not a skill that does well with neglect. Don't take my word for it. Check out what the Augustine Club at Columbia University has to say. They've got some other interesting web resources, but this is particularly pertinent for us.

So if the end of the year is overwhelming to you, I'm there with you. But while you are struggling, don't forget to spend some time every day with Latin (or whatever foreign language you're studying). It doesn't have to be an onerous task that makes you want to give up all hope. Just scale back your expectations for the time being. Keep at it, even if it feels like you're not making progress—your persistence will meet with success. You can master Latin. And always remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

If you need any specific help or encouragement, drop me a line at pete at pluteopleno dot com.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Slowing down to master it all

I've been busy trying to break through writer's block on another project, so I've been quiet. No more.

I was working with a student this week and noticed that in certain situations he was making errors. One of the things I like to do with students is to label sentences so the structure of the language is obvious. (I'm partial to something that looks like a modified Shurley grammar but whatever you use, stick with it.) The idea is to do this so much that it becomes second nature to the students.

However. Students left to their own devices like to hurry through work. I don't know why, but I was (and occasionally still can be) certainly guilty of this habit. As a result, students make sloppy errors that mislead. They can answer questions about the reading perfectly well. They can draw pictures about the story. Or answer questions (correctly) about the grammar. But there it is, the Accusative object of a preposition labeled as a direct object.

The problem for us is to tease out which is an error from going too fast and which is an error in understanding. This is not easy, unless we take time to go over errors with students, and time is certainly a precious commodity. What is better is to encourage students to slow down. Yes, that means their studies will take longer, but over time they will master the material and need less time.

So try to convey this message: Go slow, take time now and build good Latin skills OR whip through and need to unlearn bad habits to learn the correct skills.

My coop just cancelled its weekly meeting

And, in fact, mine did.

You know it's going to happen if it hasn't happened already. Something—snow, construction or something else—crops up and cancels the weekly meeting of your Latin group.

So what to do?

If your student is struggling, this is a good time to go back and review difficult concepts. If your student isn't struggling, this is a good time to go back and review difficult concepts. No matter how well or poorly you are doing in Latin, review is always good. Firming up paradigms (also known as noun and verb charts) is always good for students in grammar driven curricula. Spending time with the readings is great for students in reading driven curricula. In other words, you're going to gear your activity to the curriculum—which, if you've gotten lucky or chosen well, matches your student's learning style.

The key is to spend some time every day. Language is a use it or lose it sort of skill. So for learners of all stripes, daily practice is better than taking the week off. Even spending ten minutes each day is better than lumping in a one-day, hour-long catch up session before heading back to the coop. I can't emphasize enough that daily exposure is superior to anything else. Even if you go back to the beginning of the book and review there, you're ok. It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you're doing something instead of knocking off for the week.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Learning endings

There's just no good substitute for context and multiple exposure, but those pesky endings have to be learned one way or another. Memorizing short readings isn't the worst place to start, because you're memorizing more than the words: your memorizing patterns in endings and how words come together to form sentences.

But even so, a bit of rote memorization can help students. It allows them to show mastery of a set of knowledge, and I can't think of a student who doesn't enjoy the feeling of secure knowledge on test day.

What not to do. It is probably not best to learn them the way I did in high school: as bare endings. We would chant "a, ae, ae, am, a, ae, arum, is, as, is". I clearly remember that. Or "O, S, T, M-U-S, T-I-S, N-T" as if it were a high-school cheer. The teacher was a fun woman and made it pretty painless, but she forgot to tell us that endings never occur on their own.

Here's something better. You should always practice endings with their word, at the very least. So instead of the first chant above, you can recite "ala, alae, alae, alam, ala, alae, alarum, alis, alas, alis" so you can learn two things at once: first declension endings and the word for wing. While this isn't the best way at to learn Latin, it does work. A 20-minute walk to school each day gave me plenty of opportunity to recite words to myself this way. There is a reason I know my case endings cold and always have.

Better yet. This is no doubt the trickiest. You'll have to find or make up sentences that feature the word in context. "Ala est pulchra. Alae forma habet aedificium. Alae pennas dedit Deus. Alam habet aedificium. In ala sunt pennae…" See how I've given each form of ala its own context? What's useful here is that students also learn how the cases work, which is a whole 'nuther problem. What's tricky is that you've got to work much harder to come up with these sentences. (You could also arrange these so that they drill one particular case instead of the one declension shown here.)

No matter how you do it, take time for it every day. Latin is a lot like math in that it needs a bit of daily attention rather than a heap of infrequent attention.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Flash Cards: How to use them

After last week's foray into making flash cards, the time has come to learn how to use them.

First a confession, I really believe in learning vocabulary in context. Nothing can compete with reading in Latin for learning vocabulary and endings. However, as a supplement, flash cards are a very flexible tool.

The problem is this: students need to learn vocabulary and endings. Here's your opportunity: Dead time.

All the time you spend doing nothing: Waiting in line. Those minutes between class. When you're in bed but can't sleep—this works whether sleep or vocabulary learning is the goal. Riding in the car on a long trip—probably best that the driver not use flash cards, unless you tape 'em to the steering wheel like I do. No, I'm joking about that last part, but I'm serious about adding in time here and there with flash cards. This is part of the reason you should make them small. If they're big, they're hard to carry for use on a moment's notice.

You don't want to carry a huge pile of them, so bring a few with you everywhere. My wallet has its fair share of vocabulary cards in it. Remember to change them up on occasion, and you're set to go.

You can also make flash cards part of your learning routine by adding on a few minutes of work before or after class/homework time. The when and where isn't half so important as the repetition and frequent use.

Be sure to say hello to me if you see me working with my flash cards.

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Flash Cards: How to make them

I've been tackling a new language, and the bugaboo of all language students has reared its head: learning vocabulary. Latin is no exception. Even a Latin teacher like myself runs across unknown words.

Flash cards are an excellent solution for learning vocabulary and endings. Their biggest problem to my mind is that they rob the learning process of context. This is why I struggled throughout college to remember the difference between pairs like tamen/tandem and nempe/nuper. All flash card, no context.

So. How to make flash cards? And I do mean make by hand. I don't see the educational value of buying vocabulary cards, though they are awfully convenient. Some things, by which I mean nouns, will readily lend themselves to a card with a picture on one side and the Latin word on the other. Other things, that would be adjectives and verbs, may not be so easy to draw. Some things are impossible to draw. How do you draw an "and"?

Why do I mention drawings on flash cards? So that students can bypass English when learning vocabulary. It will help solidify the concept of the word in the target language—in our case, Latin.

But you don't have to limit yourself to vocabulary! You can also make cards to help you learn the fleet of endings that Latin throws at students.

Here is a sample set of cards.



Keep in mind, this is one possibility. You could mark noun on the card with the mouse to mean "mūs, mūris" and verb on another card to mean "rodere" (to gnaw). You could put the whole declension of a noun on back to help drill a whole set of endings at once. The limit is the space between your imagination and your learning goals, and you can't buy flash cards that are tailored exactly to your goals.

Next up: how to use flash cards.

A Sallust Reader (Book Review)

Have you ever had a book show up two weeks after you needed it? Last semester I taught Cicero's First Catilinarian (and had a fabulous backup teacher too). But I wish I had more about Catiline. Enter A Sallust Reader two weeks too late.

The introduction helps get students acquainted with an author who isn't as read as he could be. Background on Sallust's life, his works and his style of writing are well worth the read for Latin and history students alike.

For Latin students, Sallust's Bellum Catalinae represents an interesting bit of reading. Sallust lived through the events he described and was quite possibly in Rome at the time. This is as close to a third-party primary source as it gets in antiquity. And what a ride! Pagán's selections for the Catilinarian section of the book are wonderful. They get right to the heart of why Catiline was an awful guy and tell the story briskly. Her notes are full enough for less advanced students, but include enough information to make them interesting for even those students who read fluently. My only gripe is that they are segregated in the back of the book.

What's more, is that this book isn't just for advanced Latin students. Motivated history students who are dealing with this bit of Roman history or the Jugurthine war will find plenty of red meat in this book, above and beyond their trusty Penguin translation.

I'd rate this book as a must add for anyone teaching Cicero's First Catilinarian.

Sneak Preview

I'm working on a grammar reference for Latin students. Be certain it will have many standard features like noun and verb endings. What I really want to show you is a sneak preview of a feature that most grammar references don't have: an explanation of dictionary entries. I've added this because a Latin dictionary can be intimidating to beginning students, and a quick review never hurt any of us veterans. Without further ado, a sneak preview.

Nouns:



Adjectives:



Verbs:



Click images to englarge.

This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Telling apart Dative and Ablative plural, part 4

Here it is: the quiz. Can you tell them apart in context? Let's see. Review here, here and here if you need it.

Viris togatis, negotia aguntur.

1. Viris togatis: dative or ablative?

Quibus hi viri tempus suum dant?

2 Quibus: dative or ablative? (extra point: answer the question)

Pretium negotiis est carum.

3. Negotiis: dative or ablative?

Hi viri vias et theatra negotiis suis faciunt.

4. Negotiis suis: dative or ablative?

Cur theatra ab viris fient?

5. Viris: dative or ablative?

Ut alii cives spectaculis frui possint.

6. Spectaculis: dative or ablative?

Highlight from here to 1. Ablative 2. Dative (extra point: negotiis) 2. Dative 4. Ablative 5. Ablative 6. Ablative See how much more common ablative uses are? here for the answers.

If you found this helpful, stop by the Facebook page or the store to see what other items I've got to help make Latin more fun and more doable.



This work by Peter Sipes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.