It's been a while - using one activity for many things

For those of us teaching multiple levels, it can feel like a struggle to come up with distinct lesson plans for each level. That isn't always necessary, though - many activities can be adapted to whatever level you want, up to and including literature. It just has to be embedded, and then you can keep the passages you're reading consistent throughout levels, scaffolding up appropriately with each level.

For example, last week my Latin III and IV students were reviewing some subjunctive and passive structures, while my twos are working on demonstratives and relatives - very different ideas. I wanted to do an interactive activity with both levels, but I didn't want to design two separate activities.




So on Monday, we reviewed some things that might have happened to us over winter break. The twos practiced I did this and the threes practiced this happened to me and this regularly happens to me. Then in each class, students individually wrote three sentences following what we'd discussed in class that day.

Tuesday, I pulled the sentences back out and called four people to the front of the room. In Latin II, I made sure there were two boys and two girls. I read four sentences from their papers - one for each person. Then in groups, they decided this is the girl who did this or that is the boy who did that. We had a this and that girl and a this and that boy, depending on where they were in the room.

In Latin III/IV, I did the same thing, but I called up four random students, read the facts, and then individually interviewed each student. The students said, "I have no doubt that __________ is this person" (non dubito quin __________ sit), and we went through several rounds of it. The kids enjoyed trying to figure out who was who, and it was an easy day for me because I was using the same activity in all my classes, just modified for the level.