Beginning Latin II

Instructors:
Phil Venticinque, x4319, 310 College Hall, pventicinque@cornellcollege.edu;
John Gruber-Miller, x4326, 312 College Hall, jgruber-miller@cornellcollege.edu

Class meetings: M W F 8:30-10 a.m. and 10:30-12 noon; T Th 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m.

Office Hours: M W 1-2:30 p.m. and always by appointment.

Required Materials:

• Maurice Balme and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, Parts II-III. 2^nd Ed. Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Jo-Ann Shelton. As the Romans Did. 2^nd Ed. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Recommended Materials:

• 3-ring binder for homework, notes, and paradigms (it is best not to do homework in textbook).

The major goals of the course:

Latin 101-102 is designed to help you develop proficiency in listening, speaking, writing, and especially reading Latin. Obviously, such a goal means that you will acquire certain linguistic knowledge and skills (e.g. pronunciation, vocabulary, morphology and syntax). But it also means that you need to understand the culture that produced texts in Latin and used it on a daily basis. Third, it means that you will learn not only to observe, abstract, and analyze linguistic and cultural information, but also to synthesize it, to put it into a context, and to sympathize with people of another time and land. In short, 101-102 will improve your ability to communicate, both in Latin and in English.

Preparation for class:

The most important thing to remember about a language is that it is a cumulative process, one set of forms and concepts building upon another. It is quite normal for someone new to a language to make lots of mistakes and not to master new material in a single day. Be patient with yourself. The important thing is to use the language as much as possible. At the same time, since you will be learning nearly all of Latin morphology in two terms, it is important not to fall behind. Therefore, every day spend time reviewing vocabulary and grammar. Second, spend time reading connected prose, re-reading it, listening to the tapes. Third, practice by asking a partner questions in Latin, by composing sentences that use new vocabulary, new sentence patterns, new grammar, and by doing the on-line exercises, Scriba exercises, and other homework. If you are an active learner, using all your senses and motor skills, you will learn Latin much more easily, and best of all you will retain it! For ideas about learning Latin more efficiently, check out Tips for Learning Latin.

Steady, daily progress is the best way to assure retention and mastery of the Latin tongue, and consequently good grades. Cramming for quizzes and tests, though it may seem to work in the short term, will inevitably hurt you later in the Latin sequence.

On-line exercises:

On-line exercises are available on the Latin links page. Robert Cape's and Margaret Phillips' exercises are the two best for Latin 102.

Extensive Reading

One of the best ways to acquire a new language is to do lots of reading in the language--stories, dialogues, fairy tales, children's literature, and other fun stuff. The main point is to read easy texts fluently in order to solidify your knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. In our classroom, there will be copies of everything from The Three Pigs and Mother Goose to Olivia and Harry Potter. Four times each week, I will ask you to choose an easy story and read for twenty minutes or so. Each time you read a story, in Moodle (Extensive Reading Forum) you will write down

• what you read: author, title, (and link if relevant)
• how long you read,
• one sentence about the content,
• one sentence about whether you recommend it to someone else (and why).

Besides the many books that will be in our classroom, there are many good stories online. I particularly recommend the Tar Heel Reader, but many of the stories listed in the Easy Latin Texts section of the Latin links page would be good.

Taped reading/postcard writing:

Three times this term I will ask you to put your oral and written skills into practice: one taped reading and two postcards. The taped reading will be a reading of a passage at least one full page in length. Try to catch the phrasing and meaning of the Latin with your reading. Don't be afraid to be expressive! Record at the beginning of a tape. Be sure to label the outside of the tape with your name, and begin the reading with the chapter number, title of the passage, and the paragraph number with which you begin.

The 4" x 6" postcards, written from Quintus to his family, will be graded on fluency (ability to develop a narrative), comprehensibility (e.g. is the grammar reasonably correct, are the appropriate tenses being used), and coherence (does the story leave out relevant information, flow from one sentence to the next, use the proper transitional words, etc.). Try to write the first draft looking up only a minimum of words. Put it aside, and then come back to it later. I expect you to use the vocabulary and grammatical structures that are currently being studied. Remember to write and think, as much as possible, not in English, but in Latin! Each postcard should include on the front a picture of some place Quintus has visited and on the back a brief letter.

These assignments will be due on the fifth, tenth and fifteenth day of the term.

Visiting Virtual Rome through the VRoma MOO

The VRoma Project is an educational website that is a re-creation of second-century Rome that combines a series of chat rooms with webpages to create a virtual city where students and teachers can explore ancient Rome and interact with one another. You will first take part in an introductory session focused on the Baths of Trajan to learn how to move around in the MOO. The next three activities will ask you to use Latin as the means of communication. The first is a scavenger hunt to help you learn more about important monuments in the Roman Forum and other regions of the city. The second is a game, similar to the board game Clue, where you will attempt to learn who killed the dog Argus. The third is a game modeled after "Go Fish" in which you will have to collaborate in Latin in order to exchange and place objects in a culturally appropriate space. Each time you visit the MOO, you will email the results of your visit (either answers to questions for the scavenger hunt or a transcript of your log for the other two games). We will play each game twice.

Grading:

• homework, preparation for and participation in class, VRoma activities, taped reading of passage, postcard writing 25%
• frequent quizzes (1 of which may be dropped) 15%
• 2 midterms, each worth 20%
• final exam (comprehensive), worth 20%

Since one quiz can be dropped, there will be no make-up quizzes. There will be an oral component to the exams in the course.

Letter grades will be assigned according to the following pattern:

Final Note: Do not get behind at any time. Ask for help before you feel you are slipping. Carpe diem!