tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62814884082546804132024-03-13T19:51:32.034-07:00Latin for Everyoneariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-53454716338367775462020-05-28T13:31:00.001-07:002020-05-28T13:31:29.911-07:00My Routine For Starting Class - Building CommunityI think it's really important to empower students and to give them the space to own the classroom. Equally it's important for them to view their classmates as community. They feel safest experimenting and making mistakes - which we need them to do - when the other people in the room are community and not just other people taking the class. My routine varies depending on the level.<br />
<br />
<b>Latin I</b><br />
I have jobs listed on my board. They are:<br />
-Nomenclator/Nomenclatrix (who does the attendance)<br />
-Nuntiator/tris (whose job it is to ask me every day: <i>magistra, suntne nuntianda?</i>)<br />
-Inspector/trix (whose job it is to let me know whether the class is ready according to my standards)<br />
-Distributores/distributrices (there are two, whose job it is to distribute and collect any items that day)<br />
-Horologiarius/horologiaria (who keeps time)<br />
-Aestimator/trix (whose job it is to let me know who needs a shoutout)<br />
<br />
Officially, whoever happens to be first into the classroom on a given day is the person who can assign jobs that day. Sometimes one kid Claims this as their Calling and it becomes theirs. Sometimes I have ask someone to do it. Varies by class and day.<br />
<br />
When the bell rings, my expectation is that everyone is seated, silent, and prepared (everything put away - phones, bags, makeup, etc).<br />
<br />
I say to the Inspector/Inspectrix, "O ______________, omnesne sedent?" They look around and respond either "sedent" or "non sedent." Then <i>omnesne silent? </i>Then <i>omnesne parati sunt?</i> If all three are true, I am all happy at them, and they earn three minutes for PAT. If only two are true, they earn two minutes for PAT, etc.<br />
<br />
The nomenclator gets up and does the attendance without being prompted. We applaud, they sit down.<br />
<br />
The nuntiator asks me, <i>magistra, suntne nuntianda?</i> In most Latin one classes, the students make fun me by going, "Nuntianda sunt!" and then pretending to give announcements, which I find mildly entertaining. After that I get to answer. ;) This is the time for JCL announcements, "Shay is in a play" announcements, etc.<br />
<br />
Then we do the <i>praemium dignum.</i> Hold on a sec - I'm going to explain that near the end of this section.<br />
<br />
Then class can begin.<br />
<br />
If I need a timer that day (to keep track of how long we can stay in Latin, etc), I ask the horologiarius/-a to do that for me. In general, for every two minutes we can go without an unnecessary interruption/unnecessary English, the kids get one minute toward PAT (which will be used on Friday).<br />
<br />
If I need anything distributed (white boards, papers, etc), I ask the distributores to do this. They will also be the ones to pick them up when we're finished or to collect any work done that day.<br />
<br />At the end of the period, the inspector stands up and yells <i>TRES MINUTAE RESTANT! RECONDITE OMNIA! </i>and then the class puts everything away (their seats, coloring supplies, etc) as quickly as possible and sits back down for any closing announcements.<br />
<br />
At this time, whoever the aestimator/aestimatrix is will write me a note. They've been keeping an eye on the class to find people to shout out - someone who gave a good answer, someone who was really participating, someone who asked a great question, someone who made us laugh, etc. They'll write me a note telling me who should get the <i>praemium dignum</i> the next day and why. That note goes in a mini mailbox I have. Then the next day after the nuntiatrix does her thing, I will pull that note from my mini mailbox and I will read it to the class. We do this in English. The person gets a praemium dignum (which consists of a sticker. they are the most godawful puffy stickers, and they're <i>absurd.</i> they are such terrible stickers that the kids love them, and I've got kids with collections of them on their phones). We applaud the person who gets the <i>praemium dignum.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<b>Latin II</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Instead of changing the jobs daily by writing names, we spin the wheelofnames (wheelofnames.com. I have a wheel saved for each class with their names in it, for exactly purposes like this) for each of the jobs. They keep their job for a week. The jobs are the same as they were the first year. We spin the wheel at the end of the week rather than on Monday so the <i>aestimator/trix</i> has time to pay attention so that we can award a <i>praemium dignum</i> on Monday.<br />
<br />
Differences - near the beginning of the year, I announce the praemium dignum, like I did for Latin I. About a month into the year, the <i>aestimator/aestimatrix</i> will begin to announce it themselves.<br />
<br />
When I describe the person <i>qui praemium dignum meruit</i>, I do it in simple Latin for them, even if the note is written in English. When the kids start doing it themeselves, I encourage them to use as much Latin as they can, even if it's just "homo qui praemium dignum meruit X est."<br />
<br />
<b>Latin III/IV</b><br />
<br />
They now have a slightly different set of jobs, and they keep them for three weeks at a time. We spin the wheelofnames (again, I have a wheel saved for each specific class with their names in) on the Friday going into the week where we'll change jobs so that the Aestimator will have time to pay attention and can give a <i>praemium dignum</i> on Monday.<br />
<br />
Dux Homines Parandi<br />
Nomenclator<br />
Distributores<br />
Origo Socii Sermonis<br />
Aestimator/Aestimatrix<br />
<br />
I can literally be gone for the first seven minutes of class, and the kids will run it themselves.<br />
<br />The Dux Homines Parandi stands up and stares everyone down/walks around the room to make sure they're ready. Some of them are sassy and will tell kids "telephonillum in sacco!" or "quid agis, Sam?" Some of them just...stare you down. When they are, the Dux tells me, "Parati sumus."<br />
<br />
The nomenclator calls attendance and asks me if there are any announcements.<br />
<br />
Then the origo socii sermonis makes their way to the front of the room. They are as their name suggests: they start conversation. This is a time for them to ask the class what's new, if anyone has any good stories to tell, what's going on in their lives, and how they are. For the first week or two, I do this to model how it works. I check in with kids based on things they said the day before (how was that game you mentioned? how'd the test go?) Then over the first few weeks (my two weeks and the first week or so of the kids doing it) we brainstorm some questions they can ask and phrases that are useful to us.<br />
-ecquis fabulas narrandas habet?<br />
-quid novi apud vos?<br />
-ut successit ____________?<br />
-quomodo se habet ________________?<br />
-quomodo vos habetis?<br />
-ecquis gloriari/queri vult?<br />
<br />
and similar.<br />
<br />
I keep a set of these questions on a big post-it in my room where the kids can consult them at will.<br />
<br />
They get five minutes to have whatever conversation they want as a class, as a large group, talking about their lives and what's going on, and it is mostly Latine. I learn a lot about them - one kid was submitting art to the google doodle challenge, so we followed that eagerly. One talked about her daily journey in her physics class. Some tell stories about their lives, some talked about stuff that they were struggling with, and overall, it genuinely bonded them together as a class.<br />
<br />
I had a class that did not readily participate in this. They had things to say but were fairly quiet. So for them, we alternated between giving a prompt (tell a story that involved fire, for example) or choosing four people who would come in the next day and tell us something going on in their lives. Those kids could say anything they wanted to, and often ended up pushing themselves outside of their boxes and doing very well.<br />
<br />
Again the first week or two, I did the distribution of the <i>praemium dignum</i>, although the aestimator/trix left me notes in my mailbox. At this point, the expectation is that they're doing them in Latin. When they take over, the expectation is that they do the announcement in Latin as well. We still applaud and hand out the stickers (and the seniors possibly find them funnier even than the freshmen).<br />
<br />
The goal is always to give the class opportunity for communication and opportunity to work together. They become concerned about each other's lives and wellbeing, they care about each other, and they work together more effectively when they genuinely know and relate to each other, and when they consistently find opportunities for ownership, praise and intentional kindness.<br />
<br />
At various times, I have changed the jobs and the routine to respond to a particular class, and sometimes it does need tweaking. Two years ago I had a class who, god love them, wanted to be told a story every day. So instead of the Origo Socii Sermonis, they had a story rota, and one kid every day would begin the class by telling a story about whatever they wanted. I wrote them down as they narrated them, and it's still hilarious to go back and read the ridiculous stories they told.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-27592923290078002042020-05-28T12:56:00.001-07:002020-05-28T12:56:40.788-07:00Spinners and SpeakingWheelofnames.com is one of my favorite websites. You can customize what items are on the wheel (and the colors, if that's your jam. it is my jam.), and you can save those wheels to use later. I have one for each of my classes, and then periodically, classes and I will build one together.<br />
<br />
One of the ones we recently built had numbers on it. I picked about twelve people and asked them <i>qui numerus acceptissimus tibi est?</i> and they told me. This is hilarious, because they didn't know what they were being used for, and Mark's favorite number is 18, which is Known.<br />
<br />
Everyone was mad at Mark about five minutes later.<br />
<br />
In any case, I now had 1, 4, 18, 12, etc. I had the kids stand up in pairs facing each other and gave them a topic. (you could also have a wheel of topics if you want to leave it to chance)<br />
<br />
We spun the wheel, and the wheel told them how many items in that category they had to come up with. There are virtues both to giving them the topic and then spinning the wheel, and to spinning the wheel and then giving them the topic. I encourage you to experiment and decide which you like best.<br />
<br />
Depending on the level of chaos you thrive in in your classroom, you can have the pairs:<br />
<br />
-shout their answers at each other in an attempt to get the requisite number of items before their partner (encourages both hilarity and quick thinking in the TL, but necessarily discourages listening)<br />
<br />
-work together to come up with the requisite number of answers in a set amount of time/before other pairs.<br />
<br />
Having shouted at each other for X number of seconds or until it sounds like they're winding down (my usual method of deciding when they're done), I pick a few pairs and ask them to share their best answers. You can just accept those answers as is, or it can lead to more PQA/circling/input.<br />
<br />The topics can be <i>anything. </i>In Latin two, they had (among other things) letters of the alphabet (we had a gimme to start :P), body parts, things you do in the baths, jobs, food words, and - I kid you not - things you can do to save energy in the home.<br />
<br />
We did not spend time in <i>any</i> unit discussing "ways to save energy in the home." But you bet they know things like "turn off the lights" and "close the fridge," and they've never been asked to apply it in that way. It allows them to stretch and realize just what they can talk about. It's a good warm up or brain break, and the kids get a kick out of doing it.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-54404634731646746402019-03-10T16:37:00.000-07:002019-04-15T07:33:28.809-07:00Scene Charades<b>Warning: some prep (though not a huge amount) involved.</b><br />
<br />
I love charades. It's great for discrete vocab rehearsal, it's funny, and it gets people involved.<br />
<br />
But it's really only good for <i>discrete</i> vocab rehearsal. Sometimes you get to a point, especially at the upper levels, where vocab is great, but sometimes it's odd, or you've got it in a chunk and you'd like kids to be able to use it outside that chunk. So try this:<br />
<br />
Write one or two sentence scenes that are funny, divorced from the text you're having the kids read, and involve the vocabulary you want them to practice.<br />
<br />
<i>[Here were some of mine:</i><br />
<i>Scaena: femina diem <b>nubendi </b>petit, sed vir territus est. (a woman is looking for a wedding day, but the man is terrified)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Scaena: Vir it cibum <b>petitum</b>, sed subito homine pulchro <b>obstiupit</b>. E <b>rupe </b>cadit. (a man goes looking for food, but he is suddenly stupefied by a beautiful person. he falls off a cliff.)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Scaena: Puero ire ad scholas non licet nisi <b>scutum </b>suum inveniat. (a boy is not allowed to go to school unless he finds his shield.)</i><br />
<br />
<i>Scaena: Femina rem <b>magni ponderis</b> tollere conatur, sed braccia ei <b>desunt</b>. (a woman tries to lift a heavy thing, but her arms are missing.)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>I'm rehearsing the vocab I bolded for you (which isn't bolded on the work I gave the kids), and I'm also getting in repetitions of certain grammatical structures I want them to hear more of (e.g. diem nubendi, nisi inveniat, it petitum).]</i><br />
<br />
Cut the scenes you've typed up into strips and put them in a bowl/hat/cauldron/whatever.<br />
<br />
Put your class in groups of three or four (I find more than four is just too many, and pairs isn't going to be enough for this activity). Instead of calling a single person up for this charades game, you're going to call the whole group. They'll draw one of the scenes out of the bowl/hat/cauldron/whatever. I gave them eleven seconds to figure out how they were going to act out the scene. They were allowed to make noise but not say words.<br />
<br />
While they were doing the scene (which they had to do three times), the rest of the groups were busily conversing, trying to decide what the scene was. They knew they got<br />
-1 point for describing the scene correctly<br />
-2 points for using recent vocab<br />
-3 points for hitting on the vocab I was targeting<br />
-4 points for making me happy in some way with their descriptions (I like rewarding them for things I maybe couldn't have predicted they'd do)<br />
<br />
After the third iteration of the scene, each group got to describe what they felt the scene was. Points are awarded after all descriptions have been said.<br />
<br />
Then I read the actual scene to them, and we circled and asked some questions and made sure everyone understood.<br />
<br />
Notate bene:<br />
-I called on a different speaker from each group to tell me their group's description each round. That way, it wasn't always "Oh Grace does better than all of us," and it ensured that each of them had to be invested in the discussion.<br />
<br />
Some scaffolds:<br />
-you could have them write down their descriptions and read them out instead of discussing them<br />
-you could choose not to put them in groups but have each kid write a description, and then call up 3-4 individual kids for each acting scene.<br />
-you could give every group all the scenes typed out, and their job will be to find the correct one instead of devising a descriptionsariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-60275009228976640002019-03-07T18:10:00.000-08:002019-04-15T07:33:07.693-07:00Self-Identification, Practicing Phrases, and DiscretionMy ones are learning about family. In the course of learning about family every year, I sit down and have a conversation with my kiddos. In it, I tell them that we're going to be discussing things like parents and siblings and familial relationships, and that they get to define their families however they want to. If they have people in their lives they aren't blood-related to but they think of as family, that's a-ok by me. If they have a sister but don't like her, and they don't want to disclose that they have that sister, fine by me. They can disclose or not disclose whatever they want, include or exclude whatever is meaningful to them. I think that's a really important conversation to have, since<br />
<br />
(a) it emphasizes the value of their autonomy,<br />
(b) reminds them that we see/respect them as people before anything else and<br />
(c) asks them to be respectful of everyone else in the room and their autonomy as well. Also,<br />
(d) it doesn't call anyone out. When I was in high school, my feelings about my family were <i>very </i>complicated, and there are things I wouldn't have wanted to answer. When we give them power to make that call on their own and don't put them in a position to have to say things they don't want to talk about, we emphasize that that's something we value.<br />
<br />
On which note...<br />
<br />
Here's an activity I love.<br />
<br />
I really want a lot of reps of <i>potius quam, malo, conor, soleo, debeo</i> and <i>possum</i> with my ones at the moment.<br />
<br />
So I wrote on the board ______________ potius quam _____________ malo.<br />
<br />
I indicated myself and said, <i>coquere potius quam currere malo.</i> Any kids who feel the same way were supposed to stand. You then have options: acknowledge that there are a lot/a few, call on a couple and ask some questions (what do you like to cook? have you ever tried running?), or just acknowledge it and have them sit.<br />
<br />
I made a few similar statements. <i>i prefer to eat breakfast rather than lunch</i>. Etc. Then I started calling on kids, and they'd make statements. Wearing Vans vs Jordans. Petting cats vs petting dogs.<br />
<br />
Then I changed the phrase: <i>______________ conor, sed non bene possum. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Cantare, </i>I said, <i>conor, sed non bene possum. </i>(they made me demonstrate, and then they agreed.) Some stood, some didn't, we discussed. Then they made statements about themselves (voluntarily), and those who identified with those statements stood.<br />
<br />
This is a <i>great</i> icebreaker, warm-up, bell-ringer, end of class and I have ten minutes kind of activity. You can do it to introduce something, to get reps of an idea, etc. And because kids really like to talk about themselves, it doesn't get boring. Change up your statements and keep them novel, and it gets everybody involved. This is good material for a quick quiz at the end of class if you spend time really using this to do PQA. This is also great fodder <i>for</i> PQA (either in the moment or later).<br />
<br />
And there are endless things you could ask them to talk about. Just today:<br />
<br />
<i>______________ possum, sed me non delectat.</i><br />
<i>_______________ potius quam ____________ malo.</i><br />
<i>_____________ habere volo, sed non habeo.</i><br />
<i>______________ conor, sed non bene possum.</i><br />
<i>______________ debeo, sed non soleo.</i><br />
<i>______________ mihi est.</i>ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-53241439601909416842019-03-07T17:35:00.002-08:002019-04-15T07:33:28.692-07:00The Blessing of Useless CompetitionThis is something the great Justin Slocum Bailey taught me:<br />
<br />
if kids can compete, and if it can be hilarious, that's a beautiful classroom tool.<br />
<br />
I think about that approximately every other week.<br />
<br />
How long can kids balance coins on their nose? Great question. No idea, but I can reinforce quamdiu that way.<br />
<br />
Right now, we're talking about athletes and actors and other forms of entertainment, and I'm beginning to realize how much longer it takes to smush indirect speech into their brains than approximately everything else. So I'm using it a lot.<br />
<br />
Check out my Latin II classes this week, which have been seventy minutes long (usually they're 52), and I keep looking at the clock and realizing the bell is going to ring in ten seconds, and I'm still on my warm-up (because they've dived into it, and it's beautiful).<br />
<br />
1. Any super-well-known (notissimi) athletes in this room? Whom do you think is the best athlete in the room? Ask fifteen people that question, and they get fifteen repeats of <i>quem athletam optimum in hoc conclavi esse censes?</i>. They also, since I've written ___________<i>m athletam optimum in hoc conclavi esse censeo</i> on the board, get to say it without panicking about how it's said 15 times.<br />
<br />
2. Narrow it down to two or three kids. Make them do ridiculous stuff. How long do you think Ian can stand on one foot? What's the heaviest thing you think Tyler can lift? We're blessed to have a pull-up bar on the field right outside my classroom, so you'd better <i>believe</i> the question "quotiens Latrellem se tollere posse censes?" came up. You'd better believe we trooped outside to see exactly how many times Latrell could do a pullup. (the answer is twenty. class went nuts. latrell --> very proud of himself. also mildly sore.) I can ask that question about twenty-five times. I can also ask it right before the pull-up bar. Who thinks Latrell can do four pull-ups? Three? Seven? Not even one?<br />
<br />
That was yesterday.<br />
<br />
<br />
Today: We're going to talk about actors. The class <i>knows</i> who its good actors are, because those are the kids who often volunteer to do it, and whom the class wants to see do it.<br />
<br />
So we talk for a while about who we think the best actors are. (this question - the "who do you think is the best/strongest/whateverest XYZ - almost never gets old. i can ask the same style of question for days, and they don't care. my first period argued FOR AN HOUR about who the best actor in the history of the world is, and my first period cares about nothing. For what it's worth, they don't think it's Liam Hemsworth, but they have real feelings regarding Kevin Hart.)<br />
<br />
I eventually settled on three actors, told the class we were going to do five scenes. (target vocab: <i>scaenam agere; eadem</i>) All the actors would do the same five scenes (in which I can also use target vocab like <i>histrio, discedere, carcer</i>). Imitate a hungry lion (<i>personam suscipere</i>). Imitate a person trying to get out of jail. Take on the role of a person thrown down by hope.<br />
<br />
Increasingly, the kids' scenes are hysterical. The students <i>love</i> watching this, the actors get attention, and you get endless repetitions of whatever you want. I NEVER end this competition by deciding who wins, because you end up with potentially hurt feelings there. But you can ask questions like, "who do you think is the best lion," because that isn't an overall question. Or "who do you think is a dramatic actor/tragic actor/comic actor." Target vocab, target structures, repetition, no hurt feelings. We applaud everybody, the actors are heroes, and I have no idea where seventy minutes have gone, but man there's been a lot of really good input in the last seventy minutes. And that input has real emotional ties, and it's stuff the kids aren't going to forget.<br />
<br />
As an aside...I made the <i>terrible</i> mistake of giving them the instruction <i>personam mei suscipere.</i> The children...they know me well. And heck if they didn't pretend, down to verbatim the Latin things I tell them every day, to be me. Turns out repetition works?<br />
<br />
<b>A word of warning on some of these: read your room.</b> You want to make sure you set up competition that is <i>entirely friendly and completely useless.</i> If it's going to result in hurt feelings, kids being on the spot, or judginess, this is NOT the way to go. Sam can move an Oreo down his face like nobody's business. That is a good, solid, useless competition.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-50336643874479643142019-03-07T17:20:00.003-08:002019-04-15T08:21:22.706-07:00Story Mapping and ComprehensionStory- and character-mapping are techniques I use a lot with my students. We've done it to track how a Roman play works and what characters have to do with each other, and we've used it to keep track of the movements in a particularly confusing text, and we've used it to create a visual for how an epic flows.<br />
<br />
Most recently, we've mapped the entirety of Jason and the Argonauts to think about the impact each character has on the journey.<br />
<br />
Generally when I have them do this, my requirements are:<br />
<br />
1. Put a bubble on your page for each character you're including.<br />
2. Write a short summary of what that character is (for jason, for example, you might write <i>heros, filius alcimedes, lanam auream eripere voluit</i>). In lower level classes, this can be short phrases or even things lifted directly from the text. In upper level classes, it can, too! Or you can ask them to write something of their own devising.<br />
3. Connect that circle by lines to any other character to whom they relate (for jason, that's a lot of lines. in a play, for example, the leno will have many fewer lines connecting him to many fewer people).<br />
4. On the line, write how these characters interact/what their relationship is.<br />
<br />
For Jason, I also asked them to include why that relationship was important. For example, Jason and gang wouldn't have gotten through the Symplegades without Phineus. That's an important bit to include on the line.<br />
<br />
Other types of story maps:<br />
-murals<br />
-plot points<br />
-when events lead to other complicated events<br />
-detailing movement in a story that has a lot of it (think Cambridge stage 12)<br />
<br />
I have fifty of these in my classroom, on account of all of my twos have done this for Jason, and they did it in pairs. These are great tools! For creating, for reference, and eventually for what we did this week: writing. I spread all fifty-someodd of them down the hallway and gave my kids their journals. They've been reading about Jason for a Long Time (tm) now, and so they had an hour. They could look at any story map they wanted to from any class period, move around however they wanted. And they wrote the story of Jason and the Argonauts, organized in any way that made sense to their brains, for an hour.<br />
<br />
Every one of them.<br />
<br />
It's not a bad assessment, either, and not a high-output one for those of you who are working with texts and TCI and trying to figure out how to assess in a way that's not rote memorization and also isn't high-output.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-69640897653484224922018-12-03T09:04:00.001-08:002019-04-15T07:33:29.540-07:00Practicing indirect statementIndirect statements can be tough for the kids to get a hang of - it requires verb shifts and an interesting understanding of time relativity. We know, though, that comprehensible, compelling repetition is what helps us acquire language, so with that in mind, here are some ways we've practiced indirect speech:<br />
<br />
1. I put a silly sentence on the board. Students are in groups. We circle the sentence and make sure students understand what is going on. I give them a subject and a head verb (like "Paulus memoria tenuit), and their job is to turn the whole thing into an indirect statement (e.g. "Paulus Claram infantes quaerere memoria tenuit"). When the group feels they've got it, a runner goes to the center of the room, where I have put a bell, to ding the bell. The whole class stops talking and listens. The student gives us their sentence. If they're right, we applaud, I ask some questions, sometimes we act it out, and we move on to the next sentence.<br />
<br />
2. The class is divided into five groups. Each group has as many small white boards as the number of people in their group...plus one. On the extra white board...<br />
-group one makes a list of accusative nouns.<br />
-group two makes a list of infinitives.<br />
-group three makes another list of accusative nouns.<br />
-group four makes a list of ablative nouns.<br />
-group five makes a list of things you can do with your brain.<br />
<br />
I ask a student who is going to be in this sentence, and they typically offer me something entertaining (Magnus Pater, Iohannes Cena, etc). Then I consult each group in turn for a word of their variety. Eventually we end up with what's basically a constructed madlib that looks like this...<br />
<br />
<i>Magnus Pater regem devoravisse carcerem oculis censuit. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
We make sure everyone understands the sentence, and then each person on their own board draws the sentence. We show our boards, and I take individual boards and show them. One of the things I like to do with this is point at the parts of the picture and have the kids tell me what part of the sentence that is, such that we end up reconstructing the sentence together.<br />
<br />
Rinse and repeat.<br />
<br />
I've also done this with lines out of poetry and just removed certain forms, such that the line of poetry basically becomes a mad lib.<br />
<br />
3. The kids get a sentence form, like: ______________ (aliquis) ____________________ (aliquid) proposuit, sed __________________ (aliquis) ___________________ (aliquid) sprevit.<br />
<br />
This sentence form is under a <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KuBK3vzKVDQU2cvkYGrVtG7Mt3LuyC16">picture</a>. Groups work together to fill in the blanks to describe what's going on in the picture. (the link goes to a powerpoint i recently used for this.)<br />
<br />
Addition: I sometimes give a quiz that goes along with this, while we're doing this. After we've done each picture, I ask one or two questions about what has been established to have happened in that picture.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-75563104730709902132018-12-03T08:53:00.002-08:002020-05-28T12:44:44.276-07:00Three Things You Can Do With A Bell I have a small metal bell. It was given to me my first year of teaching by our then-county foreign language coordinator, and it's one of my favorite classroom tools. Here are some things you can do with a bell:<br />
<br />
1. Put students in pairs. Each student has a different job (ex: one signs and one says what the other is signing; one reads and one translates; one describes and one draws; one reads a text with errors in and the other points out the lies). Ding your bell. Students switch seats and switch jobs.<br />
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2. Speed dating. Students talk to each other on a topic, and when the bell rings, they find a new partner.<br />
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3. Bell races. Students are in groups around the perimeter of the room, and the bell is in the center. The groups are asked to consider something together, and when the group has an answer, a runner is sent to ding the bell, at which point everyone else in the room quiets down and listens to that person.<br />
An example of that one can be found at number 1 at the link <a href="https://latinforeveryone.blogspot.com/2018/12/practicing-indirect-statement.html">here</a>.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-65336077592917290902018-09-17T06:41:00.001-07:002019-04-15T07:33:29.357-07:00Put the story back in order - a collective effortariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-28728981487855315702018-04-12T08:49:00.004-07:002019-04-15T07:33:27.962-07:00Y'all, I don't have a name for this, but it's a vocab review thingBe warned - this is high output, but you could probably modify it down if you wanted them to be producing less unscaffolded language.<br />
<br />
I put kids in groups of three or four (I wouldn't do two, or any more than four), and gave them each:<br />
a. a die<br />
b. a short list of vocab words (5-8 words)<br />
c. a list of six questions<br />
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Every group got a different list of vocab, and there were three separate question lists, so when they finished one, they got a new set of vocab and a new set of questions.<br />
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Group 1 has a list of eight vocab words:<br />
-se contulit<br />
-stridor<br />
-effundit<br />
-in mari nata<br />
-dehiscens<br />
-quid me fiet<br />
-exonerat<br />
-cooperiunt<br />
<br />
They also have a list of six questions:<br />
-make up an excuse for not doing your homework using the word<br />
-compliment someone in your group with the word<br />
-suggest a fictional character who would like the word, and why<br />
-explain why this word is relevant to your life<br />
-explain your favorite food using the word<br />
-summarize your favorite book or movie using the word<br />
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The rules:<br />
1. roll the die. Whatever number comes up informs which question you have to answer.<br />
2. two people have to use the first vocab word before anyone can use the second. then two people have to use the second before anyone can use the third.<br />
<br />
Lucy rolls the die. She'll use the phrase <i>se contulit</i> to make up an excuse for not doing her homework.<br />
Amy will go next, and she'll also use se contulit for whichever question she rolls.<br />
Joe will go next, and he'll use stridor for whichever question he rolls.<br />
Katie will go next, and she'll use stridor for whichever question she rolls.<br />
<br />
They'll continue until they run out of words, and then they'll come get a new vocab list and a new set of questions.<br />
<br />
Alternate ways to play:<br />
a. give each group two dice. one die determines the question, and the other die determines which word they use.<br />
b. give each group a twelve-sided die and more questions.<br />
c. play large group.<br />
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Make the questions easier/harder depending on the level.<br />
<br />
Other possible questions...<br />
...explain the meaning of life using the word<br />
...describe your morning using the word<br />
...describe your favorite animal using the word<br />
...talk about your family using the word<br />
...explain [historical event/event in a story] using the word<br />
...describe your perfect day using the word<br />
...give a synonym for the word<br />
...define the word<br />
...use the word in a sentence<br />
...give an antonym for the word<br />
...ask a question using the word<br />
...describe someone in your group using the word<br />
...describe an object using the word, and require your group to guess what it is<br />
...talk about your plans for the weekend using the word<br />
...talk about what you like to do using the wordariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-76115725918220869502018-03-29T05:54:00.000-07:002019-04-15T07:33:29.853-07:00Fishbowl/Socratic discussions in an FL classSocratic seminars have become a big thing in English classes, and they go a long way towards fostering discussion in a structured way. This is a handy way to discuss issues raised in a novella you're reading, discuss cultural ideas, or simply talk about a topic or two.<br />
<br />
But it's harder in an FL class, especially when we're trying not to force production. So here's how we've been doing it.<br />
<br />
Warning - I have only tried this with threes, and I'm not sure it's suitable at other levels. If you try this with lower levels and adapt it, let me know.<br />
<br />
1. Choose the passage or passages you want kids to talk about, if it comes from a reading. If not, perhaps create something to have them look over to prime their brains. Have them spend time reading that however you wish - groups, individually, whole class, etc. That's up to you.<br />
<br />
2. Write some questions to get them thinking about the topic itself. <i>Would you like to have a pet? If your sister had a pet, and you didn't, would you be jealous?</i> Etc. I wrote four questions, and then I gave them three minutes per question to write as much as they could in answer to the question. We went over each question and established understanding before they wrote, and then they had to answer all four (twelve minutes in total) - I told them when each set of three minutes was up.<br />
<br />
3. Have them share some or all of their responses in groups, or with the whole class. We do it in groups, and then each group selects their favorite response to each question, and we share as a class and discuss a little.<br />
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4. Then each student writes four open-ended questions about the topic we're going to discuss (the last one we discussed was the Siege of Masada). We spent some time discussing what kinds of questions would be good for this (would you prefer... what do you think is... would you have...) and which ones are less good (yes/no questions, questions that require a factual answer). I typed up eleven of my favorite questions and projected them for support. Kids could ask their own questions, could make up questions as they went raised from the conversation, or the questions I was projecting.<br />
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5. We set up five chairs at the front of the room and a hot seat. Everyone else sat in a semi-circle around them. The hot seat was there in case you had a statement or response you wanted to make in the moment, but didn't want to be actually in the circle at that time. You had to make your response and get out. If the hot seat had been abused (people using it to get out of being in the circle, etc), it would have been removed, but no one abused it. The five volunteered themselves, and began. Students were told if they didn't understand something, they should ask for clarification or repetition whenever they wanted, and they didn't need to be in the circle for that.<br />
<br />
My role was to answer "how do you say" questions and then write those on the board, to clarify as needed, and to gently steer if something got out of hand or off-topic.<br />
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People not yet in the circle tapped in when there was a question they wanted to answer, or they'd begun to have thoughts on a topic. To tap in, they simply came up, tapped someone's shoulder, and switched seats. They were required to wait 'til that person wasn't speaking, and they had to tap out people who'd been there longer first.<br />
<br />
If you were ready to be tapped out, you could put your hand on your head, so that when someone was ready to tap in, they knew who wanted to be out. If you got tapped out but wanted to contribute again, you could use the hot seat, or you had two extra tap-ins left if you needed them.<br />
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Often by the end of the period, I had a few kids who hadn't been in the circle. Those students were required to choose one of the questions raised that day and make me a 1.5 minute video, to be turned in to Flipgrid (which is free!). They had a few days to do it and could practice, which for most of them alleviated the anxiety of impromptu speaking, and also allows them to produce at their own pace. I did NOT announce this as an option before fishbowl - I told them at the end.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-72811962529339479942018-03-16T14:11:00.001-07:002019-04-15T07:33:29.625-07:00I am presenting at SCOLT this weekend!Come drop by, or find my materials here!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rKDDNe_8tKgM0s08KewZbC9LXXbP0ci4/view?usp=sharing">PowerPoint</a><br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nTs178u_GmZfEdJCf2Q_WaaPlVeb7-yt/view?usp=sharing">Presentation Notes</a>ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-68506082830201351332018-02-22T05:52:00.004-08:002019-04-15T07:33:29.502-07:00Re-reading activitiesI know I often want my students to simply re-read a text to get as many reps as possible. Here are a couple ways we are doing that:<br />
<br />
1. <b>Bombus</b><br />
Bombus is the buzzing sound made by bees in Latin. It's pleasantly onomatopoetic - choose whatever onomatopoeia you like.<br />
<br />
1. Put students in pairs, and have them switch off reading sentences. If someone doesn't understand something in a sentence they've read, they should first ask their partner, and then you. (you can write the definition on the board, if you like, and refer other students to that as reading goes on.)<br />
<br />
2. You have a couple options here.<br />
a. If your text has good paragraphs, tell students that when they reach the end of the paragraph, one of them should shout <i>bombus</i> or <i>tax</i> or any other onomatopoeia you like. The one who <i>doesn't</i> shout the word has to summarize the section they've just read.<br />
OR<br />
b. If your text doesn't have good paragraphs (ours are often short, and so don't), you can ring a bell periodically. When you do, they compete to shout whatever onomatopoeia you've concocted. Again, whoever gets there second has to summarize the paragraph. Depending on the level, I may or may not ask them to do this target language. In Latin I and II, I often tell them "if you can do it in Latin, you should." This leaves the possibility for those who don't feel they can to still express their comprehension without the pressure to produce.<br />
<br />
2. <b>Fill in the Blank</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This becomes, unexpectedly, hilarious pretty quickly.<br />
<br />
Each student is going to need a copy of the text. You'll need one, too.<br />
<br />
Round one: you read the text to them. When you stop, the whole class fills in the next word. You can stop as often as you like. Every couple sentences, stop and make sure they understand, circle, answer questions, etc.<br />
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Round two (optional): do this again in English. Some texts don't lend themselves well to that, but if you want to, read the text again in English. When you stop, the whole class fills in the missing English word - which might not come physically next in the sentence.<br />
<br />
Round three: do round one again. But this time, when you stop, call a student's name. That student has to fill in the word. If the student doesn't supply it pretty readily, joyfully start over. (i like to immediately target the kids i know are a little less likely to be on, to sort of let them know i'm holding them responsible.) Once you've started over more than a couple times, it actually becomes a little hilarious. We applaud every paragraph or so that we make it through without starting over. It provides really, really good repetition of the text, especially if you're checking for comprehension as you go. (as always, repetition without comprehension is pointless.)ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-11719383150858746632018-02-19T06:08:00.000-08:002019-04-15T07:33:27.385-07:00Tag-yourself memesI don't know if you've seen tag-yourself memes on facebook. In general they're pretty hilarious.<br />
<br />
Check it out:<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image result for tag yourself meme caecilius" src="http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/228/432/039.jpg" height="246" width="320" /><br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
So we've done a LOT of story-telling this year at every level - in Latin I our own characters, in Latin III a lot of texts with some pretty special characters. To review the characters, we did tag-yourself memes.<br />
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The Latin IIIs had been reading Apuleius and Valerius Maximus, so we selected characters from there - Aristomenes, Socrates, the ianitor, the innkeeper from Valerius Maximus, Meroe, and the sponge. In Latin I, we used characters we'd created (Idon'tknow, an astrocarnifex, a pet hippopotamus, Jasmine, the tabernaria, etc).<br />
<br />
The kids, in pairs, wrote three to four descriptions of each character while I walked around and made corrections, etc.<br />
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Then they set their boards around the room, and kids walked around, read other people's board, and initialed any descriptions they felt like described them.<br />
<br />
Then I took up a few boards, read an individual description, picked someone who'd tagged themselves. We looked at that person, and voted on whether we thought each of the descriptive lines for that character described that student. For example:<br />
<br />
the ianitor is sleepy, stubborn, and likes to argue. John has tagged himself. Raise your hand if you think John is sleepy. John, are you sleepy? Are you sleeping now?<br />
<br />
And then having done that, we determined whether or not we felt "John" had tagged himself correctly.<br />
<br />
It took an entire period, which surprised me - I didn't expect it to take that long, but it was universally funny and enjoyable.<br />
<br />
Some examples!<br />
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<br />ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-18800488096662137572018-01-29T06:11:00.000-08:002019-04-15T07:33:27.558-07:00(Pre-)Reading Without WordsMany of us use gestures or hand signs of some variety to associate with vocabulary words. I've been thinking a lot recently about the process of reading, and why it can get so overwhelming. I decided to try a little twist on something old-ish to see if I could access reading to prep them for a text.<br />
<br />
We had several new vocabulary words, all of which were pretty interesting. You need some verbs in order to do this. You also need some agreed-upon, constituted hand gestures: and, but, is, because, <i>end of sentence </i>(we use a bell for this).<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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Our list was:<br />
<i>kisses in a friendly way</i><br />
<i>falls over head first</i><br />
<i>is very drunk</i><br />
<i>shakes at the knees</i><br />
<i>i am deficient in spirit</i><br />
<i>accidentally</i><br />
<i>I stumble around</i><br />
<i>Scar</i><br />
<i>With the price having been paid</i><br />
<i>For the pleasure of a morning walk</i><br />
<br />
We created, together, a hand sign for the first two words. For the verbs, we also gestured person while we gestured the word. For the nouns, we gestured the case after the word. Then I told them a small story without speaking at all. I told them they were simply going to say whatever I gestured at them. I pointed at David, and they all said <i>David</i>. I gestured <i>falls over head first</i>, and that is what they said.<br />
<br />
The story ended up going: <i>David falls over head first. David falls over head first because David is very drunk.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Then we picked two new words and gestured those, until we had the ten on the list. After each two, I gestured a small story at them, incorporating those new words and sometimes words previously established (but still on the list). For example: <i>For the pleasure of a morning walk, Charles stumbles around. Because Charles stumbles around, he accidentally falls over head first. Charles has a scar.</i><br />
<br />
Afterwards, I split them into pairs and gave them a few minutes to write their own two to three sentence story. They had to use mostly words from the list, and they had to be able to gesture everything. They had to gesture person and case for the relevant words. After each story, we went back and summarized the story together to make sure we were clear on the plot. David and Charles were in a lot of them. :)<br />
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When we looked at the text after that, they said they were able to read with what felt like increased fluency - they'd already "read" some of this. They were not only hearing the vocabulary in context, they also had to slow down and think about processing the vocabulary contextually, which is part of the struggle of reading. It also gave them a visual for that reading process, which is something students struggle with in second languages.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-71052165686757946542018-01-26T08:41:00.004-08:002019-04-15T07:33:29.569-07:00Alea iacta est - a vocab review game<div>
This is an extremely simple, pretty low-prep vocab review game that happens in pairs or groups. It can take five minutes or an hour, and it keeps pretty well. You'll need:</div>
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vocab cards (either TL or L1)</div>
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dice</div>
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<a name='more'></a>You should have several sets of vocab cards here, and there should be some but not total overlap. I like to put 12-16 cards in a set. Basically: your sets should be different enough that they can use more than one set, but there should be some repetition. They should see words more than once, but not over and over. Cut them out (or have someone cut them out), paperclip them, and you're good to go.</div>
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<div>
Give each pair or group a set of vocab cards - you can put these in your target language, you can put them in English, you can do pictures, or a mix thereof. Each pair or group should also get one die.</div>
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<div>
Player A rolls. The number they roll is the number of potential points. If pairs: the other player draws a card. If groups: the player to the left draws a card. They read this card aloud (or, if the cards are pictures, display the card). </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You can give player A several choices now depending on how you prepared the cards and what your goal is:</div>
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-identify the picture</div>
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-give the word in the target language</div>
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-give the word in English</div>
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-use the word in a sentence</div>
<div>
-find the word in a story</div>
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-draw the word</div>
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-give a target language explanation of the word</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If player A is correct, they get the number of points they rolled. If they are incorrect, they lose that number of points.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Basically:</div>
<div>
A: roll</div>
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B: draw a card and read/demonstrate card</div>
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A: define word/draw word/otherwise indicate understanding of word. earn points.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Now player B gets to roll.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Players should keep track of their points. After a few minutes (keep an eye on your students, see how they're doing; if a group has finished a deck, it's time to switch), make a 'switch' noise (I ding a bell).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Students should leave the cards and dice where they are, and go find a new partner and a new pile of cards (this is why your piles are different. Their points, however, follow them and are cumulative through the whole activity. If Daniel had -5 points in the first round, those -5 will follow him into the second round. </div>
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<div>
After the game, I like to gather the students back into a large group, run through some of the vocab words, and ask them each how many points they got.</div>
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SUMMARY:</div>
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1. student A rolls</div>
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2. student B draws a card and indicates it</div>
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3. student A indicates meaning of word/word in TL. </div>
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4. student A writes down how many points they've earned/lost</div>
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5. student B rolls.</div>
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6. this proceeds until you indicate a switch</div>
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7. cards and dice stay where they are. all students find a new partner and new cards.</div>
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8. points are cumulative across the rounds.</div>
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You'll find my materials for this <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eg3lnQGjZTJdpf0cFiX2lnoySQiMHEeY/view?usp=sharing">here</a>. It's a simple form with the box size set. They are not cute - I am sorry. :( <div>
You can't edit it in the form - please copy and paste or download to edit. For a class of 24 kids, I made 4 different sets. They encountered identical piles a couple times, but not often. You could make more if you wished. For a class of 36, I would probably make at least six.</div>
ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-60969405168396083852018-01-25T06:37:00.001-08:002019-04-15T07:33:29.212-07:00An activity for new vocabularyThis is not something I would do with a class that doesn't have a good sense of humor.<br />
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I wanted to introduce several new vocabulary words that didn't have much of a common thread between them. I was pressed for time, so telling a story wasn't an option, and I wanted context and a lot of repetition.<br />
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So I chose some of the more evocative vocabulary and wrote it on the board, and we played a sort of combination of Balderdash and Apples to Apples.<br />
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Choose four or so vocab words for which you want a lot of repetition, and which have colorful definitions. I chose:<br />
cernuat (he falls headfirst)<br />
deosculabar (I was kissing affectionately, as a family member or close friend)<br />
casu (by accident)<br />
cruor (gore)<br />
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Select one, and tell your students what its part of speech is. Practice using words like it in context - I was doing x, I was doing y, etc.<br />
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Give them a minute or two to write a sentence using that word...but don't tell them what the word means.<br />
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Then have each pair read their sentence aloud, making sure students understand the sentence (minus the unknown word). With all the sentences read, tell the students what the word means. Allow for some giggling. :) Go back through all the sentences, and circle through this time. Let kids vote on which sentence is now the best.<br />
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We had people dance accidentally, the gore told someone goodbye (which ended up being quite threatening), and someone who was accidentally ugly. It was entertaining, and the next day, they had a <i>very</i> clear memory of the vocabulary that was included in the activity.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-27145254752831001802018-01-16T11:11:00.002-08:002019-04-15T07:33:27.875-07:00Some Uses for Gallery WalksI love gallery walks - they get the kids out of their seats productively, let them move around and interact with their peers' work, and the movement between various stimuli keeps it novel. Here are some uses for them!<br />
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1. http://latinforeveryone.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-variation-on-read-and-draw-with.html<br />
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2. My twos were preparing to write eulogies, so I wrote six and handed out a sheet with six sets of five questions. I hung the eulogies on the wall in the hallway. I hung two sets of them, so there would be enough that kids wouldn't be crowding around them. In pairs, they read each of the eulogies and answered the questions for each one. You could do this with any kind of reading.<br />
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3. I have hung large sheets of butcher paper on the wall with questions. Sometimes these are personal questions; sometimes they are about stories we have read. The kids go around and answer the questions, and then we use them to start class discussion.<br />
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4. One student or a group of students draws or creates something. The rest of the students write commentary or questions, and then the students get their own work back to look at the commentary. There are a number of places to go from there.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-41407281199668843182018-01-12T06:04:00.001-08:002019-04-15T07:33:28.317-07:00Easy, authentic sourcesOne of the things, of course, that we struggle with as Latin teachers is finding authentic sources for our students that also aren't terribly difficult to read. Abbi Holt started searching for such a list, and when we couldn't find one to hand, it seemed wise to start one.<br />
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So: if there's one out there, please let me know - I defer to it. Until then, please feel free to use (and contribute to!!) this very nascent one:<br />
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https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j1EDQmovXGkm-fnTujUJZ3e_xQUrNjLk0-v9-YxpSNs/edit?usp=sharingariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-86410305040507806952018-01-12T05:42:00.002-08:002019-04-15T07:33:30.111-07:00A variation on read-and-draw with a gallery walkMy kids got a new text this week. I wanted them to read and visualize it together, as well as get in a few reps, and both have the opportunity to read and draw. I wanted comprehension high and forced output to be low. So:<br />
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I put them in pairs with one copy of the text, art supplies, and butcher paper. Kid A began reading to Kid B. Kid A must read each sentence twice, slowly. Kid B is illustrating in detail while Kid A is reading. Kid B can ask Kid A to pause at any time so s/he can draw.<br />
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I will periodically ding my bell. When the bell dings, Kids A and B switch reading and drawing, making sure to read every sentence twice. This increases the repetitions as well as slowing down getting through the text so the artist has time to draw. Any time there is a switch, the new reader backs up one paragraph and starts from there. The idea is to create continuity.<br />
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They cannot write any words on their paper (except for labeling people with their names). If there are speech bubbles, they have to draw what goes in those speech bubbles.<br />
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Then, when we're done, we hang them on the wall and do a gallery walk. Kids, in pairs, walk to papers that aren't theirs, with their copy of the story, and label as many things as they can before the bell dings. Then they go to a new paper and keep labeling. This forces them to look for the little details in each, to connect the pictures with the story from a different angle (that is, not creating the pictures, but with reading and analyzing them), and to reread the story repeatedly for the phrases they want to use. Eventually, I'll have them sit down in front of those pictures and do a journal entry.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-50217155042650730292017-10-18T11:17:00.000-07:002019-04-15T07:33:28.577-07:00Encountering a text - reading variationMy IIs have been finishing up Petronius' versipellis story - we divided it into three chapters. We've done a lot of prereading activities (micrologues, dictations, vocab activities, listen and draw, etc), and now they're ready to sit down and read the text. They voted to do this in groups.<br />
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So here's how we did it:<br />
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Students choose, or are put in, groups of three - whatever works for your particular bunch. Some of my classes self-group well, and others...less so. :) You know how it goes.<br />
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They designate person A, B, and C (or if you're my kids, rock/paper/scissors, servus/miles/melissa, anas/ananas/pudor...whatever works for y'all...). I project the first sentence of the text, with some questions following, on a <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1q0667qr2BDRHA8xBGksSmtFVptgm7YfkwikpgFJfzUs/edit?usp=sharing">PowerPoint slide</a>. For example:<br />
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Melissa mea: "Lupus," inquit, "villam intravit et, petens omnia pecora tamquam lanius, sanguinem illis misit."<br />
<i>Quis fabulam narrat?</i><br />
<i>Quomodo lupus pecora petivit?</i><br />
<i>Quis sanguinem misit?</i><br />
<i>Cuius sanguis missus est?</i><br />
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Person A reads the sentence. Person B asks a question - this can be one of my questions I've projected, or they can come up with their own question. Person C answers the question.<br />
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They turn their attention to me again, and we walk through the sentence so everyone's on the same page, and we share questions and answers.<br />
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I project sentence two, also with questions. Now they switch roles: B reads the sentence, C asks, A answers. It goes like this <i>in circuitu</i> until they have finished reading the text.<br />
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This works well with short texts, or you can provide them with their own copy of the text with questions written in so that groups can go at their own pace instead of turning back to the class each time.<br />
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It forces the kids to stop after every sentence to really process what's going on; it scaffolds the questions for them so they don't have to formulate their own, but they can if they wish; and it asks them to focus on each thing that happens so they don't get lost in the middle, which can easily happen when they're encountering a new text. Let me know if it works for you, and what changes you make!ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-72834767758542164172017-09-22T06:10:00.003-07:002019-04-15T07:33:29.682-07:00Auto-audio-dictation (a variation on a running dictation)This year I have a high-flying Latin III student in a very, very behind Latin II class. If I thought I was going to be able to ask them to level up for him, I'd be integrating him, but they can't, and I can't in good conscience ask him to sit through Latin II again. So instead, I'm making use of flipgrid and seesaw (at the suggestion of the great Ginny Lindzey) - more on those later - to essentially give him the lessons I'm teaching in class, but online.<br />
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We've been doing a running dictation. Ben gets stuck at the computer <i>all the time</i>. I want him to be able to run, too. But how to do a running dictation with only one partner?<br />
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Technology is an amazing thing, guys.<br />
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I happen to have a classroom iPad, which is something that would work beautifully if it were just Ben (which it was the first time), but if your school has a set of laptops, that would be preferable for whole-class. Notate bene: you could have students do this in pairs, as with a traditional running dictation, or you could have them do it individually, which is how I did it this time. The second way lacks the speaking element.<br />
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To prepare, I wrote the running dictation. It consisted of about nine sentences. I recorded each of the sentences I wanted them to write down individually in separate files using the free program Audacity. I put them on a flash drive, and then I loaded them each onto different laptops. (this didn't take as much time as it sounds like it did. maybe ten minutes total.) I pulled up itunes and put just the one file on each computer.<br />
I labeled the computer with the first sentence COMPUTER ONE and put it outside my room on a desk.<br />
Down the hall a bit, I labeled the computer with the second sentence on it COMPUTER TWO and put it on a desk, etc., until I had the number of computers necessary for the number of sentences I had. It's important to separate the computers some, because otherwise this causes enormous noise pollution.<br />
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I chose to put out two sets of laptops (so I had a total of 18), because I didn't want a gargantuan crowd of kids around a single computer at a given time.<br />
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If you have a computer lab near your classroom, that could work for this as well.<br />
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You could also use QRs with audio files attached, and I thought about it, but nothing would stop the kids from bringing the audio file back into the classroom with them and relistening to it, which defeats the purpose.<br />
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On the day, in class:<br />
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If you choose to do this with them individually rather than in pairs:<br />
1. Students take out a sheet of paper and a writing utensil and put it on their desk/in their seat.<br />
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2. Students run out to the hallway, where there is a set of laptops. The laptops are labeled with numbers. They should go to computer 1 and listen to the sentence as many times as they need to. Then, they run back to the classroom and write down what they heard.<br />
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3. When they feel they've got the sentence fully written, they should bring it to you, where you tell them how many errors they have, so they can go back and listen again. Notate bene: in a regular running dictation, I count spelling errors in this. For this activity, I did not.<br />
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3. Once you've okayed the sentence, they should illustrate it.<br />
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4. They run to computer 2 and listen to the file, and repeat the process.<br />
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At the end, I showed them the text, as I would with a micrologue, and they corrected any spelling errors. We went over the whole text together, circled, and made sure everyone understood.<br />
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If you choose to have them do this in pairs:<br />
1. Kids should have partner A and partner B. For the first sentence, partner A will run and listen and then dictate to partner B. For the second sentence, they should switch roles, and so on. All else remains the same.<br />
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I like this because it allows the students to run, to move around, as they would with a running dictation, but it creates a different skill - rather than reading and processing, they have to be able to listen, remember, and then transfer information.ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-5992278999840504682017-09-18T12:54:00.005-07:002019-04-15T07:33:29.069-07:00Y'all, my classroom looks different now: flexible seatingThis is my fifth year deskless! I distinctly remember myself, a colleague, and a student carrying desks out of my room to a trailer. We got our workout that day. We've had chairs for the last four years - just chairs - but this year I'd been reading a lot about flexible seating, and I got to thinking:<br />
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1. Students need choice. They get little choice and little trust from their teachers during the school day.<br />
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2. I'm a fidgety person. I HATE chairs. I like to curl up, sit on things, cross my legs, etc. I have a lot of kids who are the same way.<br />
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3. Sitting in the same position all day is really pretty hazardous on your back and your joints.<br />
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4. If we expect students to be able to consult what they need on any given day, we need to begin to extend that kind of trust and training to them at this point in their lives.<br />
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5. Desks, and even chairs, are't necessarily comfortable for all our kids - short ones, particularly large ones, kids with certain kinds of disabilities, etc.<br />
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So in that spirit, I've moved to flexible seating. I have stools (short and tall), a padded rolling desk chair (which they love), sit-upons in various thicknesses, a beanbag chair, blue chairs, rolling chairs, buckets with padded seats on top, and a couch. There's also a table (there are two in this picture because I had some papers set out) by the window with three chairs for students who really feel like they need a surface.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_kdfMbJJUi1sxsd50Ds8Cyx42yby8y33BzF4wU4-wYoMWHtgucplRIwipx3BjCh4TWE0edwuz3nKYKyqX4MGAQUT7b9YshyphenhyphenmyV4poaYHv_pFfEf7dUyZNHIOcVQqAsfU9_ERaZU-g7g/s1600/20170802_095226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_kdfMbJJUi1sxsd50Ds8Cyx42yby8y33BzF4wU4-wYoMWHtgucplRIwipx3BjCh4TWE0edwuz3nKYKyqX4MGAQUT7b9YshyphenhyphenmyV4poaYHv_pFfEf7dUyZNHIOcVQqAsfU9_ERaZU-g7g/s200/20170802_095226.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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For the first week of class, kids were not allowed to sit in the same type of seating/place in the room, so they'd have to sit with new people, assess what kinds of seats work with them, and try out a variety of perspectives. We talked about appropriate sitting positions and behavior on each of those (no lying down, for example, or turning chairs away from the part of the room), various expectations, and why each of those might be preferable. Now periodically, probably once a week, I ask the kids to find a new type of seating they haven't used recently, so that it doesn't become constituted. Part of the idea is to discourage cliques and to encourage wider community, so I also ask them not to sit near someone with whom they've recently sat.<br />
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<b>How to Handle Behavior Issues</b><br />
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Some seating is more conducive to sleeping than others (the table and the couch in particular). They know they get one warning before I ask them to reseat themselves.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzCaL_Ti0WGQyF5yxAo1EzfyVhV4BBwr6VeCbCtvYAQiKORez0fQ2ZhFQ7YUopukrTm4JGg2Icphtcj9o4C0icxODKZ7CeKQ1QcWFPgr3mmCpw8Of69zYu0A5qDN8SzmwqdlFXrFQfCDA/s1600/20170802_090337.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzCaL_Ti0WGQyF5yxAo1EzfyVhV4BBwr6VeCbCtvYAQiKORez0fQ2ZhFQ7YUopukrTm4JGg2Icphtcj9o4C0icxODKZ7CeKQ1QcWFPgr3mmCpw8Of69zYu0A5qDN8SzmwqdlFXrFQfCDA/s200/20170802_090337.jpg" width="200" /></a>The same thing with chatting - if they are sitting with people non-conducive to their focus, they get one warning before I ask them to reseat themselves. They do get choice in how to reseat themselves. They can, in fact, pick up their seat (except the table and the couch...) and move it elsewhere in the room if that seat is what's working for them.<br />
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<b>Don't the Seats Get Moved?</b><br />
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Oh, they do. Daily. We do pairs activities, group activities, large circles, and some kids just like to move their seat somewhere else. So I've got gaffer tape on the floor where each of the seats should end up at the end of the period, and that tape is labelled with what seat should end up there.<br />
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<b>How Does Your Room Stay Clean?</b><br />
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I secretly teach kindergarten and have a jobs chart. Jobs are:<br />
seats<br />
boards and markers<br />
trash<br />
costumes<br />
general<br />
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Two kids do each job each week. We change on Mondays. In the last two minutes of class, I ask those ten kids to execute their jobs, so all water bottles get pitched, costumes get put back where they go, markers aren't left on the floor, fidget tools go back in their box, etc.<br />
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<b>Writing?!</b><br />
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I've got nine foldable tables. They're round tables that seat 4-6. Their legs fold up, and they also fold in half. I keep them at the back of the room. If we're doing something that really needs surfaces, we can haul those out. Otherwise, I keep a box of clipboards on top of my file drawers, and I have a lap desk, and they're welcome to get either one if they feel the need, without asking.<br />
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<b>Where Did All This Come From?</b><br />
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I made the sit-upons and the buckets. I've had the buckets for a long time - I used to use them for art supplies, but now I have pretty colorful caddies. The materials - the fabric, the foam, and the wooden stool tops (which I got from Home Depot for like five dollars each!) - came to less than 100 dollars for six sit-upons and six bucket seats. The couch I got for free (check facebook marketplace, y'all. there's so much that's cheap. this came from a kindergarten teacher), and the blue chairs came from the school. I already had the stools and the beanbag chair (which, I actually, I also made a couple years ago, and that was pretty cheap and pretty easy as well). I have a director's chair that's lying in wait until I can fix it... we'll see how long that actually takes...ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-84778884086114578012017-09-18T06:14:00.001-07:002019-04-15T07:33:30.054-07:00FVR, an updateI completely revamped my classroom this year - look out for a post on flexible seating - and that's meant revamping FVR a little, too.<br />
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In the last year, there's been a huge boom of easier readers, so of course I went on a spending spree and bought a bunch of them. I have Quot Animalia, Quid Edam, Brando Brown, Filia Regis et Monstrum Horribile, most of Lance Piantaggini's books, Iter Mirabilis Dennis et Debrae, Cattus Petasatus, Olivia, Ritchie's Fabulae Facies, Vesuvius iand other Plays, Itinera Petri, and many others.</div>
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I've retained my folder library, which is discussed <a href="http://latinforeveryone.blogspot.com/2014/05/fvr-free-voluntary-reading-and-tarheel.html">here</a>, and I have augmented it with Anthony Gibbins' Legonium, and his new Latin-teaching series he's been working on. I have sorted those in purple folders, so that anyone looking for Legonium specifically knows what color to look for.</div>
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I also got my hands on some rain gutter which has been great. You can find them at your local Home Depot quite cheaply. Some Home Depots will cut them for you; others won't. Mine did, so I have a length (6 foot and 4 foot) on either side of the couch in my classroom. They're screwed directly into the wall, something the janitors did for me. I tried about 30 other things, and they kept falling down, so if something other than hardware works for you, please let me know...<br />
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My paperbacks are mostly on one, the hardbacks mostly on the other. Now I have three spaces in my classroom with books - my folder bookshelf, which sits in front of my desk, my wooden bookshelf (which is painted and sorted by level of difficulty, and mostly contains Cambridge textbooks these days), and my rain gutters in the back of the room. Kids are welcome to select from any of these when they want to read.</div>
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We read every Wednesday for ten to twenty minutes, depending on the level and general restlessness. I generally find a comfy seat in the room and read with them as well.</div>
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When we dismiss to get books, I like to dismiss them by "type." I'll say "people who eat breakfast more than three times a week, go get books. People who have at least two pets, go get books. People whose index fingers are longer than their noses, go get books." It allows me to exercise some bizarre grammar and vocab that they hear less frequently, as well as controlling the amount of people moving at any given time, while not accidentally giving preference to one area of the room over a period of time.</div>
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I make it clear to them that they can exchange a book at any time - they read it and don't want to reread it, they didn't like it, it's too hard, they just want a new one - as long as something gets read. They're expected to be reading the whole time. We do quite a bit of book previewing for the first several weeks of class, and then we'll do it again about halfway through the semester (especially as I continue to add books, I will preview that book in front of everyone specifically). In my upper levels, I ask them to give "book reports" - sometimes they do this in small groups, sometimes they volunteer to stand up in front of class and give a quick two-sentence summary of their story. At lower levels, I'll ask them to note words they recognized, and then I'll give a quick summary of what happens in that book. Sometimes, I'll ask kids who enjoyed their books to raise their hands and say the title of the book. That way, there becomes a wider familiarity with what books are available.</div>
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On most of my book-spaces, books face outwards - and I find that the books with visible covers get read more often than the books with spines out (and studies support this!).</div>
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We haven't had to move to accountability-keeping yet, and I'm hoping we keep it that way. More kids have been reading engaged this year, and I haven't had anyone ask yet "how long we have to do this," so I'm excited for how it is going!</div>
ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6281488408254680413.post-57392658110410415252017-09-18T05:58:00.001-07:002019-04-15T07:33:28.955-07:00Running in Circles, and a new friend<b>First, a new friend</b><br />
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I'm pleased to say that I will be sharing my blog with my friend and excellent Latin teacher up in Erie, PA, Eric Mentges. Eric teaches from the Orberg Lingua Latina book. He is also deskless, and, unlike me, has an AP class. I'm excited to be sharing this space, and also to be widening the perspectives we can share. Keep an eye out - I'm hoping our next post will be from Eric. We'll be tagging our posts with our names so you can look for specific people, if you wish.<br />
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I'm not sure how I haven't shared this activity before (or maybe I have and just can't find the post!).<br />
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This is a great game for context comprehension, and we deeply enjoy playing this on Fridays.<br />
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You can easily play this game outside, but you'll need some kind of seat marker - a board, a paper, a really big rock, whatever. If you're playing indoors, use your white board or projector for this. If not, you may wish to pre-write all your sentences on large sheets of paper.<br />
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We set up all our seats in a circle, and the student without a chair stands in the middle. You can take volunteers, or you can voluntell someone. Explain to the kids that the person in the middle will read a sentence from the board, that after each sentence you're going to check for comprehension, THAT NO ONE MOVES until everyone understands and you've given permission, and that if the sentence is true of them, when you shout run, they should get up and run for a new seat. They CANNOT go to a seat within two seats of their own unless there only two people stand up. The person in the middle should run for a new seat regardless of whether the sentence is true of them.<br />
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Write your sentence in the TL on the board/display your sentence. This can be anything, but should describe at least one person in the circle:<br />
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I have at least four bedrooms in my house (Latin I right now).<br />
I'm afraid that an evil person might be hiding in my shower (Latin III right now).<br />
I wake up at 6:15 in the morning every day (Latin II right now).<br />
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They can target particular kids (I have a student who insists he got kicked out of his house for planting a tree in the bathroom, and you better believe that came up), target everyone, be general, whatever.<br />
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The kid in the middle should read the sentence loudly and clearly. When they have, ask everyone in the circle whether they understand, and if there are questions. If there are, answer them. Then have the student in the middle read the sentence again. Then shout in the target language, RUN! The kids to whom the sentence pertains should run for a new chair without diving or banging into things or knocking anyone over.<br />
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Rinse and repeat as necessary.<br />
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I find that this gets in great repetitions of new and old vocab, can target particular structures, can be totally untargeted, can be serious or ridiculous, can be variations on a specific theme (last week when the threes played, it was nothing but things we are and aren't afraid of), and gets the blood moving. Moreover, it requires that you circle and comprehension-check EVERYTHING, which can be difficult in games. Let me know what you think!ariadnekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104153165802635716noreply@blogger.com0