ARLT Newsletter 29: September 2005
Dear Fellow Classicist,
I hope the new school year has begun well for you. There was no newsletter in August,
so you didn't miss anything you should have had. This one is going to be (mercifully) short.
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The ARLT web site and blog
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The statistics of visitors are encouraging, but some of the visits are by automatic
devices looking for a chance to advertise gambling and other undesirable activities.
That's why I've stopped the experiment of letting people comment without registering
their details. With that proviso, the figures for the past two months are:
ARLT site 6373 visitors in August; 8004 in September
ARLTBlog 35,284 visitors in August; 38,136 in September
I tend to put new things on the Blog rather than the main site, so if you notice the
main site being out of date in some way, do please tell me about it. With a number of
sites to administer I tend to miss these things.
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Exams
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New GCSE Latin for 2007
The general specification, with the reduced vocabulary lists, is here.
The Cambridge Latin site vocabulary tester
tests, naturally, the longer list, which is still needed for 2006.
For a balanced view of taking A level Latin, The Independent has this (published in 2002)
http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/az-alevels/article178767.ece
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A former pupil's GCSE notes on-line
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Gareth introduces himself as "Hi, I'm Gareth and this is my site. .... A proportion of
my GCSE notes
are available online along with some other revision materials. I'm 18 and am in year 13
at Hills Road sixth form college, Cambridge. ..."
His GCSE Latin page is here:
http://cyro.cs-territories.com/latin/
At the foot is this acknowledgement: With thanks to Mr. Andrew Wilson and Mr. W. Griffiths.
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Some welcome correspondence
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First, two letters from Kristian Waite at Caterham:
Dear David
Many thanks for your note, and I look forward to receiving future newsletters.
As you say, it's easy to feel a bit under siege - I'm a one-man band at Caterham,
which has certain benefits, but also obvious disadvantages, particularly if
anything goes wrong!
I've been busy writing a Latin textbook for all my classes from the 3rd year (Year 9)
onwards, having finally reached the decision that the CLC no longer suits my needs
and covers too much extraneous material (and vocab) of no immediate relevance to
the GCSE syllabus. Next year will be the first year where the changeover is complete.
Perhaps I can write a progress report for your website in a few months' time.
If anything the changeover has attracted more people to doing Latin GCSE as an
option here, and it certainly makes me more comfortable about covering the syllabus
in good time.
Talking of which, do you know if OCR have any immediate plans to publish the new
GCSE Latin and Greek syllabuses (for summer 2007) and wordlist in the immediate
future? Leaving it until September seems to be cutting it rather fine.
Best wishes,
Kris
I was interested in the new Latin textbook, so I asked Kris for more information:
Dear David
Thanks for getting back. Basically, my textbook picks up from Common Entrance.
In Years 7-8 I run a Common Entrance course to Level 2, using a book called
"Latin Prep" (Galore Park), which is very old fashioned (basically, Wilding,
with colour and pictures), but the children have really taken to it. Also, CE
seems to have a lot more in common (vocab and grammar-wise) with GCSE than book 1
of the CLC, and it means that we cover exactly the same work as the pupils
who join after taking CE at 13+. As far as paralinguistic work goes, I cherry-pick
the best bits from the CLC (theatre, gladiators, baths) and do my own sheets;
the less interesting stuff (farming in Britain etc.) can safely and discreetly
be put to one side.
The two books I've done, for Years 9-10, are basically a mixture of Wilding, Siegel
and lots of other influences that I've liked and absorbed along the way. One bit of
grammar per chapter; lots of exercises; one unseen and comprehension at the end of
every chapter; everything scrupulously based around the GCSE wordlist and grammar
requirement. Nothing fancy, but I've tried to personalise it a bit and add some
cartoons and humour. The obvious advantage is that if books get lost then new ones
can be run off cheaply and quickly. I encourage mine to add notes along the way or
highlight things so that they can focus revision more effectively. Ditto with the
GCSE wordlist and principal parts at the back.
I'm quite keen on getting pupils to pronounce Latin and read it aloud, but it's
not really a coursebook like the CLC; there is a lot of English explanation along the way.
I'll let you know how it goes. As far as OCR goes I had hoped to update my Greek
stuff this summer, since they're taking a scythe to the vocabulary list.
Looks like it will be a bit of a last minute job in the autumn with that one.
Kristian Waite
I have edited the next letter a little, even though it doesn't identify the school.
I wrote to Emma saying that I couldn't find a Classics web site for her school:
Hi yes regrettably our subject site it is only available on the Intranet. Headed
by a picture of Brad Pitt as Achilles! Oh the lengths we go to ...
We have a thriving department here. We are currently capped at 50 students in
Year 8, and are always over-subscribed - huge numbers of parental complaints are
currently being dealt
with as a result of children not getting Latin next year! When our current
Head of Languages retires (2 years' time) I think they may let us expand at
the expense of German and/or Russian - we are losing several language teachers
at that time, so no-one would have to be made redundant (which is the reason I
don't push for more numbers right now.)
Given that the whole of the options process works against us (the children are
only allowed to do nine subjects, 6 of which are compulsory plus two others
"strongly advised"), we're pretty pleased with our numbers too! At AS this year
we had 13, and we had 16 in the previous year. The numbers do drop at A2 as
loads of them take AS Latin as a 5th subject. I spent some time during my
training at Brentwood School in Essex, a huge private school, where Latin was
compulsory for all students in Years 7 and 8. They had two doing A level!
Mind you, it is all pretty exhausting...!
I'll be interested to see what is available on your site. I spend a simply
unbelievable amount of time creating resources, especially electronic ones now
we have lots of Smart Boards in the school. I am really jealous of teachers in
mainstream subjects, who have loads of stuff created for them!
Good to be in touch
Emma
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An exhibition in Liverpool
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Museum of Liverpool Life exhibition until the end of the year on Living with the Romans:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/liverpoollife/exhibitions/livingwithromans/
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They asked for an article
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I was contacted by an American-based organisation, Foreign Language Educators,
who asked for a short account of ARLT and Latin teaching in the UK, and this is
what I sent them. It is to be published in their October edition. I hope other
ARLT members approve.
ARLT and Latin Teaching in the United Kingdom
As long ago as 1911
W.H.D.
Rouse, a headmaster in Cambridge, England, who was a brilliant Latin
scholar, was concerned at the state of Latin teaching. He organised the
first Summer School for Latin teachers, at which he explained and
demonstrated his new teaching method. Instead of pupils learning grammar
by rote and then writing translations of Latin into English and English
into Latin, Rouse advocated teaching Latin in Latin. His lessons were
full of movement, as a boy (his school was for boys only) got up from
his seat saying 'surgo' (meaning I'm getting up), took a few steps
across the classroom saying 'ambulo' (I am walking), turned and walked
back saying 'revenio' (I am coming back) and sat down saying 'sedeo' (no
need for translation?).
Rouse founded the
Association for
the Reform of Latin Teaching (ARLT) in 1913, and enthusiasts have
been meeting every year since then. The strict use of Direct Method
teaching has largely been abandoned - it needed a teacher of Rouse's
brilliance to make it fully effective - but many of the principles that
the Direct Method embodied - using Latin as a living language, engaging
the interest of the pupils by gripping stories and so on - have been
taken up by the ground-breaking, and now well established,
Cambridge Latin Course.
Ten or more years ago the ARLT concluded that the work of reform had
been done, and that the organisation should continue as the Association
for Latin Teaching. The initials ARLT, however, had become so dear to
many teachers, particularly of the older generation, that they were
retained, although the R is now otiose.
ARLT joined with two other Classical organisations, the Classical
Association and the now defunct Orbilian Society, to found the
Joint Association of Classics Teachers,
JACT. This is now the main professional organisation for Classics
teachers, and runs courses and residential Summer Schools for pupils in
Latin, Greek and Classical Civilisation, while ARLT retains its role as
trainer and inspirer of teachers, with
a Refresher Day
each March and
a Summer
School each July. Its website, http://www.arlt.co.uk, and its blog,
http://blog.arlt.co.uk/blog, attract between them over 1000 visitors a day.
The teaching of Latin in the UK, as in the USA, is now mainly in private
schools (but see
here,
and numbers opting for it continue to drop; but the ARLT, like
Friends of the Classics,
an initiative of the erudite and entertaining Dr Peter Jones, does what it can
to turn the tide.
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Peroratio
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That's All, Folks! I have probably left out much that I had meant to include,
but am a bit distracted at the moment as a dear friend has just had a brain tumour
removed and I am spending quite a time in hospital with her. Prayer would be appreciated.
Best wishes
David
