Association For Latin Teaching

Automatic crossword puzzle maker

Here is a site that will arrange your words and the clues you provide. You can do it on-line, free, and print the result, or buy a program.

Here is what it made of the last few words in the GCSE Latin vocab list:

Teaching the earliest Latin lessons by the Direct Method

Before the ARLT, CA, and Orbilian Society came together to form JACT, ARLT used to publish a magazine called Latin Teaching. Much of it was given over to reports on summer schools and other matters of merely passing interest, but there are some articles of more lasting value.

An article from June 1965 may be interesting to today's pressurised teachers.

How the Direct Method, described in detail in this article, could be combined with the Latin courses at present in use is an interesting question. Although I was not taught Latin by this Method, I am ever grateful to Miss Sweeney, the Headmistress of my first little school in Dublin for introducing me to French by the Direct Method.

One part of the method would now be taboo. The teacher touches, links arms with, even punches and is punched by pupils, all in the pursuit of understanding and internalising the Latin verb system. No doubt inventive teachers can find an alternative for our more sterile classrooms.

Start your own classroom museum?

If you have browsed my personal website, www.parsonsd.co.uk, you will have seen that I am keen on using Roman artifacts, genuine if possible, but repro if necessary, to help bring the ancient world to life in lessons.

So I was interested to find that a Roman glass jug has just been sold on e-bay for just $9.90. This makes the point that starting your own museum need not be too expensive. Greek decorated pottery may be out of our league, but items from Roman daily life could be affordable. Even coins, if you don't insist on fine quality.

Incidentally, the ARLT has collections of such objects for loan. They are best picked up at Summer School or Refresher Day, to avoid the postage to you on the bulky protective housing, though you do have to send them back. See Resources for Classics.

Incidentally, today brought news of a Dudley Museum's award for presenting an exhibition in the Romans on a small budget (Dudley News):

At the Renaissance West Midlands Awards on Thursday April 3, The Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley won best exhibition for a small budget' for its Romans exhibition.

It can be done.

Francis Holland School Classics Department launches a resources site

Steven Jenkin of Francis Holland School has contacted us to tell about his website. It is all to the good to have another place to share teaching resources, to add to OCR's Classics Community and ARLT's own Teachers' Section.

I’ve designed a website, where Classics teachers around the country, or internationally, can upload resources of their own, to share with others. The site is organised by subject and key stage, and should be simple to navigate. From all I can discover, there’s no other site that does this, or at least does this comprehensively for all classical subjects (irrespective of examining board) at every key stage from 2 to 5. I am considering including key stage 1, if we think there would be sufficient interest. I have also included pages on classical associations and on specifications, which will expand and be updated very regularly, to help people access the information they might need, should it be specification-specific.

The simplest thing would be for you to visit the site:

http://www.theclassicslibrary.com/

You’ll find that my department (at Francis Holland School, NW1) have already started uploading documents. I am currently contacting colleagues and other classical associations to call on people to view the site and share their resources. I will also be writing to Aisha Khan and Bob Lister to encourage their PGCE students to take full advantage.

You’ll notice that the url of the classics library is part of my department site, in which you might also be interested:

www.fhsclassics.co.uk

I hope this all seems clear and helpful. Potentially, I think this could be an extremely beneficial resource for classicists: it’s true that its usefulness is determined by the regularity of uploads.

Steve Jenkin

Latin grammar revision sheets

Grammar sheets can be downloaded from the JACT Latin Summer School notice. Scroll down to the appropriate Summer School.

Handouts are on:

• A GUIDE TO CASE
• METRE
• CONDITIONALS
• PARTICIPLES
• GERUNDS AND GERUNDIVES
• SUBJUNCTIVES-Basic
• INDIRECT STATEMENT
• SUBJUNCTIVES

Pro Roscio new audio

I've made a podcast of chapters 15-16 of Pro Roscio, available here.

It is not high quality ARLT-type recording, and there is at least one stumble, but it may be useful...

Podcasts already on line on GCSE Latin set texts

Podcasts by Clive Madel of Camden School for Girls are available here.

Subjects are Lycaeon, Baucis and Philemon, Town and Country Mouse, City Hour by Hour, Country Spring and Sights, Sounds and Seasons of the Countryside.

There's something wrong with my computer sound card, and I haven't been able to hear these for myself. I am sure you will be able to listen and enjoy.

Thanks to Clive for making these generally available

A couple of books - GCSE Latin and Seneca

Two books perhaps worth a look.

OUP has published a collection of essays on Seneca, edited by John Fitch, at £29. The blurb says:

• A collection of the very best essays about Seneca written over the past forty years
• Represents the diversity of approaches by which recent critics have attempted to understand this multifaceted figure
• New introduction locates the essays in the context of current trends in academic criticism and research

Seneca was a man of many facets: statesman, dramatist, philosopher, prose stylist. His life was marked by extremes of fortune - extremes that are reflected in much of his writing, and in the vicissitudes of his reputation in later centuries. This volume brings together some outstanding essays written about him over the past four decades, and illustrates the diversity of approaches by which modern critics have attempted to understand this multifaceted figure. Just as Seneca's writings often reflect his times, so current critical approaches often reflect issues in contemporary thought and society. Several of the essays have been revised by their authors for this volume, and two of them are translated for the first time. A new introduction places the articles within the context of recent academic thought and criticism. All Latin has been translated.

The other book is rather different. I saw it at the Hellenic Book Service display in London last Saturday, and can't comment on how good it is, but if I were teaching GCSE Latin I'd get at least one copy to look at. (Update: Anna Davey of OCR writes: "the [Amazon] customer review would suggest that this is a reprint/revised version of a resource originally published for the old 1400 syllabus (which we stopped examining in 2002)."

It's called GCSE Latin Resource Book, and the contact address is 20 Apsley Street, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells TN4 8NU - but probably better to contact the Hellenic Book Service. The price is now under £15.

A junior school site on the Romans

You might like to see how another school does it. This is by Mandy Barrow, Woodlands Junior School near Tonbridge. http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Romans.html

It's a multi-page mini-site, with information about houses, Hadrian's Wall, and loads more.

Teaching by the Direct Method

Link from Brian Bishop - looks good, but played only jerkily for me. Hope you have better luck.

Latin at Kentucky
Watch and listen:

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=19338&fID=182

The programme page says:

Modern Latin curricula typically place vastly more emphasis on passive understanding of the language, i. e. reading only, than on inculcating facility in active use of the language as a means of communication in speaking and writing. It is well established that participation in a variety of learning modes, including writing, listening and speaking - not merely reading and translating - enhances the comprehension of any language and the appreciation of its nuances. The active use of Latin in speaking and writing, in addition to the reading of Latin texts, is one of the cornerstones of this sequence in Latin Studies.

ink from Brian Bishop - looks good, but played only jerkily for me. Hope you have better luck.

Latin at Kentucky
Watch and listen:

http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=19338&fID=182

The programme page says:

Modern Latin curricula typically place vastly more emphasis on passive understanding of the language, i. e. reading only, than on inculcating facility in active use of the language as a means of communication in speaking and writing. It is well established that participation in a variety of learning modes, including writing, listening and speaking - not merely reading and translating - enhances the comprehension of any language and the appreciation of its nuances. The active use of Latin in speaking and writing, in addition to the reading of Latin texts, is one of the cornerstones of this sequence in Latin Studies.

2007 A level papers

The direct link to recent OCR A level Latin papers is here.

The OCR site has been redesigned since my last visit, and is much more helpfully arranged. Everything you need to know about A level Latin is on that page.

The new audio is on the ArLT website

You saw video of ArLT members making the recordings.

You read that the CDs are ready to buy.

Now those recordings of the 2009-2010 set texts are also on line here.

There are 11 tracks of Aeneid 12 for A level and 8 tracks of Aeneid 6 for GCSE.

Links from the above (Vergil) page lead to other authors, for those taking the alternative poetry.

Songs for teaching Latin

There's a CD with Latin grammar songs advertised here.

An article about a teacher who uses songs in his teaching is here.

JACT website page of Latin resources

If you haven't explored the JACT website recently, you may not have found a page of Latin resources.

• Inscriptions found in Pompeii
• Orpheus & Eurydice exercise 1
• Orpheus & Eurydice exercise 2
• NEAB GCSE Vocab List
• AQA AS Latin word list
• Latin Descriptors

Useful stuff on the OCR Community site

Agamemnon essay titles, Medea questions, Hippolytus questions, Tacitus test, Themes in the Odyssey (7 pages), introduction to epic (3 pages), notes to Oedipus Tyrannus (24 pages), Odyssey worksheets with answers (36 pages), intro and notes to OT (11 pages) -  these have all been  submitted to the OCR Classics Community pages this week.

Going back in time,  past exam papers (2003 and 2004) have been on the site since last December.

If you aren't a member yet, it would be worth your while to join, at http://community.ocr.org/community/classics/home

Just as when you join the ArLT Teachers' section, you will need to wait until you are personally admitted, but after that it all works easily, and you get an email notice of anything new.

A2 Latin poetical vocabulary - a list

Following his recent message, Kris Waite has kindly given us his list of poetical words likely to come up in A2 Latin unseens. Thanks, Kris. His accompanying email is below:

Please find enclosed my attempt at listing some 130 items of essential Sixth Form poetic vocabulary, taken from Virgil and Ovid. The words have mostly been compiled with the help of the wordlists in Roy Hyde’s Latin Unseen Translation, Kennedy’s Latin Unseens From Roman History, the old A2 vocabulary list supplied by AQA, plus some helpful suggestions from my second in department, Sophie Naish. If you think that other classical departments might find this list useful, you are very welcome to put it on your resources page for general use. I would also be interested to hear of any important poetical words which have been omitted: there are bound to be some which can be incorporated into a revised version at a later date!

The list is available to teachers who have registered on the ArLT site. Having logged in to the For Teachers section, follow the link to A level Latin unseens.

A level unseens vocab learning tool

Atriades has noted a vocab learning tool on the Perseus site, which might go some way to helping with the compilation of a list as requested in yesterday's post.

Perseus can show all the words used in a particular work e.g. the Metamorphoses, or those that occur most frequently, whether the top 90%, 80%, down to 10%.

Apparently it's a slightly blunt instrument, confusing bellus and bellum, for instance, but it must be useful.