Collective interview

I began with an idea from Martina Bex that can be found here.

A collective interview is a set of questions given to a group that is asked of the group in circuitu. The questions can all center around a topic, a grammatical structure, a set of vocabulary - or can be about completely random things. Up to you. People in the groups can answer as themselves or, as we did today, as a character.

We've been reading Tres Ursi, so we worked with that today.




We've spent the last several days characterizing each of the four characters in Tres Ursi - pater est asper animo et qui homines edat, for example. (he's savage and is the type to eat people.) They have defended each of their descriptions. Then we made a list of the actions that each character took, and the kids wrote these down.

Today, they had their lists with them. I put them in groups of four. Each kid took a role: mater, pater, parvulus ursus, and parva puella. There was a question written on the board in the TL for each character:

Parvulus ursus: Si quem in lecto tuo invenisses, quid egisses?
Pater: Si in silva non habitavisses, ubi habitavisses?
Mater: Si unum familiarem sacrificavisses, quem sacrificavisses? (it's worth noting that my students changed up the story a little - the father no longer suggests going into the forest. rather, the mother suggests sacrificing the father.)
Parva puella: Si pultem non devoravisses, quid devoravisses?

The character playing parvulus ursus asked each of the other people in his group the question, "Si quem in lecto tuo invenisses, quid egisses?" Each of the other people, in character, answered the question based on what they knew of their character. Parvulus ursus wrote down each person's answer. Then the next character asked his/her question.

In my Latin IV class, when we did this, the questions were quite complex and required some depth, so it took about a class period. It took my twos about twenty minutes to accomplish.

When they were finished, everyone came to the middle of the room. I, preparing to ask the little bear's question, had everyone BUT the little bears stand up. I asked the question, and then said, "Si clamavisses, i in illum angulum. Si eum necavisses, i in alterum angulum. Si eum devoravisses, i in tertium angulum. Si aliud respondisti, i in quartum angulum."

The kids dispersed. I asked about ten people who they were and what they would do and why. Then we circled, and I asked follow-up questions. Everyone sat back down in the center, and I asked another question.

The whole exercise took about a class period and a half, and I gave them a test grade for it at the end. They all really enjoyed it, got great repetition, and got to do some critical thinking on top of it.