Harvard Latin Oration

Every spring at Harvard University, it is a long-standing tradition that one of the commencement speeches be given in Latin by an outstanding Classics student.

Sample the ACL Institute and Workshops!

Emerita Latin Teacher Rose Williams will be presenting "After the Fall -- Early Medieval Latin Writings for the Latin Class" at the 61st American Classical League Institute at the University of New Hampshire. For those of you who would like to get an idea of what her workshop is all about -- and for those of you who can't make it to Durham this year -- Rose has placed a copy of her basic handout on the ACL site as well as a copy of the full presentation with all the pictures, literature and maps on her own website.

Now, although your first inclination would be to skip the basic handout and download only the full presentation, do be sure to check out the collection of basic handouts at the ACL site, because you'll find previews of other workshops and presentations there as well. It's likely that this site will be updated with more handouts as the presenters upload them.

Last year's handouts from the 60th Institute remain available at the ACL site -- along with memories of previous ACL Institutes from 1948-2007 and pictures of the winning posters from the 2007 ACL Poster Contest (Theme: "So What Can I Do With Latin in My Life?")

There's simply no way that these basic handouts can substitute for attending the actual presentations, but downloading them is a great way to get a small sample of what's on offer from the ACL! The 62nd ACL Institute and Workshop will be held at Loyola Marymount College (in conjunction with the Getty Villa) in Los Angeles, California, so start planning now!

Free Latin Stories!

There are a number of free downloadable booklets and ancillaries available for users of Hans Oerberg's Latina Lingua Per Se Illustrata at the website of his American distributor, Focus Publishing. Fabellae Latinae is a supplementary collection of easy stories which correspond to chapters 1-25 in Familia Romana and has recently been updated with the addition of 3 extra fabellae in a separate document.

But wait! There's more! You can also download a set of exercises to accompany Fabellae Latinae plus vocabulary lists for many of the other books in the Oerberg series!

There's also a link to 2 sites which include interactive quizzes covering the vocabulary of the 30 chapters in Familia Romana!

AND there's a Scope and Sequence for Lingua Latina designed for middle school students!

Euge! ("Awesome!")

Latin Decreases Violent Crime!

Boris Johnson, the Classically-educated old Etonian mayor of London, believes that a study of foreign languages -- specifically ancient Greek and Latin -- would decrease violent crime. See the full Telegraph.co.uk article, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, Says to Teach Classics to Cut Knife Crime.

Is Your Latin Program in Crisis?

Due to problems in the housing market and the recent increases in fuel and grocery prices, many school districts are facing budget cuts and that can sometimes mean cutting programs. All too often, the courses put on the chopping block include art, physical education, music -- and foreign languages.

The Committee for the Promotion of Latin, sponsored by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South, has put together an online Programs in Crisis Kit. For teachers whose programs are facing imminent closure, directions for a letter-writing campaign as well as links to downloadable materials and brochures are provided.

Of course, it's always important to be constantly vigilant in ensuring that Latin and the Classics are valued in your school district. The Committee for the Promotion of Latin and the National Committee for Latin and Greek have lots of resources to help you remind parents, school boards and administrations about the benefits of studying the Classics, including:

• Important facts about the benefits of studying Latin, Greek and the Classics
  
• A bank of links to newspaper and magazine articles featuring Latin
• Downloadable brochures and posters that you can print out and distribute
• Addresses and links to helpful websites and teacher and university placement services

Latin Boot Camp

This may be of some interest to homeschooling families. Latin in the Christian Trivium, which primarily produces textbooks and offers online courses to the religious homeschooling market, is offering a free Latin Boot Camp course to parents who would like to teach their children Latin. According to their website, the course will last seven weeks and will cover the rationale for teaching Latin as well as an overview of Latin grammar. Each week the Latin in the Christian Trivium staff will send out a worksheet that will be reviewed and returned to each participant via e-mail.

J.K. Rowling on Failure and Imagination

Perhaps the world's most famous (and ultimately quite successful) Classics student, J.K. Rowling, delivered this year's Commencement Address at Harvard University. Visit the online edition of Harvard Magazine to view a video recording or download an MP3 audio version.

Read Some Catullus in New England This Summer!

This summer Tufts University will be offering an advanced Latin course, Catullus and His Reception, taught by Professor Anne Mahoney.

Dates are 1 July through 7 August, Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9 to 12:30.

Normal tuition is $1650 but through the TUCET program Tufts offers a 50% discount for employed teachers. The course is open to graduate students and advanced undergrads.

Participants will read Latin poets from Catullus's own contemporaries down through the 19th century. Although students will spend a fair amount of time on the Renaissance re-discovery of Catullus, participants will also consider how Augustan and Silver Latin poets used Catullus, and there are a few more recent works to be read as well. All readings will be in Latin; students will write four short papers in English.

The syllabus is on line along with a course description and schedule.

If you'll be in New England for the American Classical League Institute and Workshops anyway, why not stay another month and read some poetry?

Quod Caelum Est?

(Translation: What's the weather today?)

hic pluit hodie mane! It's raining here this morning!

You'll always be prepared to answer that question with a shirt from the Cafe Press shop of Taberna Magistrae (the shop of a teacher) . Apparently the Magistra's students wanted Latin language weather-themed shirts -- and when she couldn't find any, she created her own. Each shirt bears the question "Quod Caelum Est?" with illustrations and phrases for different kinds of weather. Very clever! In addition to t-shirts, tanks, sweatshirts and golf shirts, she also has messenger bags, mugs and caps with a Latin and meteorological theme!

National Latin Exam Announces New Latin III Exam!

The National Latin Exam has announced a new Latin III exam for 2009. According to the most recent issue of the National Latin Exam Newsletter (Vol. XXIV, No. 2, Spring 2008) available at their website, next year's Level Three teachers will have three exams to choose from, based upon their students' own particular needs: Latin III-IV Prose, Latin III-IV Poetry, or the Generic Latin III Exam. According to the NLE Committee, this new exam "will strive to represent the middle ground between the Latin II exam and the Latin III-IV Prose exam." The NLE Committee has placed a copy of the proposed syllabus in the aforementioned newsletter and they are asking for feedback.

While you're visiting the NLE site and getting your own copy of the newsletter, make sure to spend some time checking out the rest of the site. You can download syllabuses and sample exams to help your students prepare for next year's tests and try out some practice questions.

The NLE site is also the official site for the Forum Romanum DVD series, which is a collection of Latin news shows based upon significant moments in Roman history, presented entirely in Latin. These videos allow students to experience Latin as a spoken language and learn about Roman history and geography in a realistic context. Students will probably not understand every word in the videos, but it's likely they will be able to follow along and comprehend the main points. The intention for beginning students is to hear the sounds of Latin, whereas intermediate and advanced Latin students will be more able to pick up the gist of what is happening and understand some of the language. A Companion Book to the Roman Forum, written by John Donohoe, who also plays the anchorman in the series, has been published and it contains scripts, worksheets and teaching hints to help you incorporate the series into your lessons. More information is available at the NLE site. Sample videos and excerpts from the scripts and supplementary activities are also available online for examination.

The Elusive Latin-English Bible

It is extremely difficult to find a bilingual Latin-English version of the Bible. A Latinteach list member mentions that he uses the Vatican's online version of the Vulgate (mentioned in a previous blog entry) while he keeps his King James version nearby. However, some people really prefer to have print versions of both. There are several other Latin language versions available online (mentioned in that same blog entry) and through booksellers but none of them include an English translation.

While there are several print Latin and Latin-Greek versions of the Bible available, this is one of the only Latin-English versions available, Loreto Publications' Clementine Vulgate & Rheims New Testament. For the money, it appears to be quite reasonably priced at $39.95, bound in burgundy bonded leather with a satin ribbon page marker. A sample excerpt (several chapters from the Gospel of Matthew) is available for download at the aforementioned link.

As might be expected, online booksellers show no shortage of Greek (and Hebrew) - English interlinears, published by a wide variety of denominations.

One More Freebie from Open University!

I should have known! There's also an Interactive Greek Site at the Open University's Department of Classics! You can review the Greek alphabet, practice recognizing the letters, review the order of the alphabet, form a Greek word and see how sentences work!

Classics Freebies from the Open University!

The Open University is a distance learning university based in the United Kingdom which awards both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees to students around the world. The Open University also offers free non-credit mini-courses through it's Learning Space. Several courses look like they may be of interest to readers of this blog:

• Getting Started on Classical Latin For students who have no experience whatsoever with Latin. You'll develop "an awareness of the links between English and Latin, an understanding of basic English grammar...and an awareness of the fundamentals of pronunciation in Latin." There's also a similar Greek mini-course!
  
• Introducing the Classical World "aims to get you started on exploring the Classical World by introducing you to the sources upon which you can build your knowledge and understanding" as well as "getting you started on an exploration of both time and space in the Classical World."
• Exploring a Romano-African City investigates the archaeology and history of a Roman North African City. The learner will learn to identify both indigenous and Roman identity and culture and study the development of Romano-African culture.
  
• The Roman Empire: Introducing Some Key Terms is a course "introducing key terms that are essential for understanding the Classical Roman world."

The Open University Classics Department also has a neat Interactive Latin Website for students who are learning Latin inflections -- noun, verb and adjective endings -- with vocabulary standard in most Latin courses.

Some More Mnemonics

Not sure how this got missed previously, but here are some great memory chants from Kentucky Educational Television Distance Learning to to help students remember some of the more confusing points of Latin grammar!

Latin Skits!

The Minimus Latin Blog has a simple Latin script for a play about Pandora's Box. An English translation is included. The Minimus Et Cetera Site has even more plays and support sheets.

Keeping Notebooks and Portfolios

Many homeschooling parents, especially those influenced by the teaching philosophy of the 19th century educator Charlotte Mason, are encouraging their children to narrate what they have learned in educational notebooks in order to encourage their children to synthesize and reflect upon their learning. Many regular classroom teachers also use this method to encourage higher level learning skills.

Although starting and maintaining a portfolio can be overwhelming at first, most learners find it to be very rewarding as they are able to see their progress over time. While some students create their own journals free-form, many students need some structure especially when they are young or if they have difficulty organizing their thoughts. Notebooking Pages is a wonderful site with many inexpensive notebooking templates, designed by a homeschooling mom, to help young learners create their own educational journals. You'll find templates for purchase that focus on Ancient Greece and Rome as well as Greek and Latin derivative word study. Pages include clip art and ample space for recording narrations. You can view the templates before ordering a CD or downloading to your home computer.

There are many free sample pages -- including a set of Greek alphabet strips in both upper and lower case, some timeline charts and grammar pages. You'll need to have the free Adobe Acrobat software in order to print out and use the pages.

SAT II Subject Test in Latin?

Several Latin teachers have suggested the SAT II Subject Test for Latin as an alternative to the doomed Advanced Placement: Latin Literature exam. (Keep in mind that there are two AP Latin exams and the AP Latin Vergil exam is going to be continuing!) The SAT II Subject Tests are also administered by the College Board. The SAT II Latin test is intended to assess Latin language reading ability. You can read the specifics and view sample test questions at the aforementioned link.

Documenta Latina

Documenta Latina is the official Latin page of the Sancta Sedes (or Holy See) of the Vatican. Here you will find many documents of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin, including the Code of Canon Law, the Constitutions, Declarations and Decrees of Vatican II, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate) version of the Biblia Sacra (Holy Bible), as well as Latin language encyclicals, letters, homilies and other papers of recent pontiffs since Pope John XXIII.

The Nova Vulgata (translation commissioned during Vatican II, published 1979) is the official Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. There have been several Latin versions of the Vulgate used by the Catholic Church. The Nova Vulgata is the most recent. Your blogger bought a print copy of the Novum Testamentum (New Testament) based upon the Nova Vulgata from the Vatican a few years ago with facing Greek and Latin.

Perusing the Vatican Publishing House to find a current price for a print copy of the Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, it is apparent you can even download a Latin language copy of their catalog in PDF format! Wow! Your blogger found a listing for the the Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine in that very Latin language catalog and it will set you back 46 Euros! (1 Euro = $1.54 USD these days, ouch!) If you don't need a print copy, the online version is available for free and you get the Old Testament as a bonus.

That being said, the print copy is quite nice and does include the Greek text.

There are also copies of the Latin Vulgate at the Latin Library as well as at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (downloadable in Adobe Acrobat Reader format, Microsoft Word and Palm Ebook, even) though these public domain versions are likely much older versions than the more recent translation at the Vatican site.

The Vatican Radio has been broadcasting liturgical programs online for a while now -- if you're interested, there's a Holy Mass in Latin every day as well as Lauds (Morning Prayer), the Angelus (mid-day prayer), the Rosary (all four sets of mysteries), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (the Night Prayer.)

The Classics Library

Hosted by the Classics Department at London's Francis Holland School, The Classics Library is an online resource especially designed for Latin, Greek and Classics teachers in the United Kingdom. Support materials are available for Classics teachers at Key Stages 2/3 (ages 7-14), GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education, ages 14-16) and A Levels (also known as Sixth Form, ages 16-18) as well as the Common Entrance exam (an age 11+ exam for placement in independent schools in the UK). Latin offerings on the Classics Library site include basic syntax at each level as well as prescribed vocabulary lists.

Advanced Placement Latin Update

A few weeks ago Texas Latin teacher Ginny Lindzey wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees of the College Board with regard to the cancellation of the Advanced Placement: Latin Literature examination. (Remember, it is only the Latin Lit exam that is being cancelled. The AP Latin Vergil exam is not being cancelled! The College Board apparently wants just one capstone exam for each world language.) In this letter, Ginny seeks a moratorium on the cancellation and poses some thoughtful questions about the future of the examination and the A.P.-level Latin language curriculum. Ginny has received a response from Trevor Packer, the Vice President of the Advanced Placement program, which explains why a moratorium is not possible and gives some insight as to the future of world languages in the Advanced Placement program.