Another Way I'm Using Loom

salvete!

I am loving Loom lately! I recently had my 8th graders, who are reading Cloelia, draw a number to choose from a pile of famous paintings, sculptures, and other depictions of the story of Lucretia in art. Each student took their painting and was given the following directions:

1. Analyze your picture. Look for connections to the Cloelia novella. Which sentences or phrases can you use from the text?
2. Write a Latin description of the image. Use at least three sentences from Cloelia in your writing.
3. Go to useloom.com to record a 1-minute video of yourself describing your picture.
4. Send Magistra a link to your video when you’re done.

They recorded their picture talks on Loom. They were able to use a written script and read from it while they recorded. Some did a screencast of the picture alone while others did a selfie-style video and held a printed copy of their picture.

Here is a sample student video.

Things I noticed:

1. It was easy for them to find sentences from the text to use.
2. This activity was easily differentiated. Some students stretched themselves to include passive verbs or tell backstory. Others picked 3 sentences from the text, wrote a few intro/outro sentences, and called it a day.
3. Watching the videos in class was fun and got in extra repetitions of targeted vocabulary. Every student was included.
4. They really liked this project. It felt like a creative opportunity, but was not overwhelming.

- Ashley Schneider

Draw 1-2-3 Mini-Project

salvete!

In my 7th grade class, we just finished reading Agrippina Mater Fortis. I assigned my students a "mini-project" to wrap up after we read the last four chapters in class. Here's what happened:

1. I assigned each student a chapter. In my class of 15, 3-4 kids were assigned to each chapter. The students could collaborate, but everyone did their own work and earned their own grade.
2. Students first did a Draw 1-2-3 to summarize their chapter. That's ONE picture, TWO Latin thought/speech bubbles, and a THREE-sentence caption at the bottom.
3. Students practiced reading their chapter aloud in Latin with expression.
4. Students used Loom to record a video of them reading their chapter in Latin and showing/explaining their Draw 1-2-3.
5. We had a "film festival" the day after the projects were due. Students got at least 3 repetitions of each chapter.

Thoughts:

• This was a great, no-prep 2-3 day project.
• It was accessible to every level of language learner. Even my new students who have never had any Latin were able to complete this.
• It is naturally differentiated. I challenged my more advanced kids to compose their own Latin captions that didn't come right from the text. I also let them write longer speech/thought bubbles.
• This was fun for students and low-stress, but really showed their understanding of the story.