SALVI's Rusticatio Virginiana

Thanks to the generosity of the American Classical League scholarship committee, I had the opportunity to attend SALVI’s Rusticatio spoken Latin immersion workshop for the second time this July. My first time at Rusticatio was in 2014, thanks to a Parent Association teacher grant fund at my school, which has since been discontinued. What follows are my observations and lessons learned from both experiences, since repeated Rusticatio experiences are truly cumulative, and in no way redundant.

Upon arrival at Claymont Mansion in rural West Virginia, the quiet and solitude of the place is striking, but also intentional. The “dux,” “repititores,” (i.e. instructors) along with “sodales,” and “curatores” (i.e. support staff) greet participants warmly and casually. Though we are still speaking in English until bedtime the first evening, the nervous anticipation of the first-time participants and the excitement of the staff and returning participants is palpable. Accommodations are cozy though a bit spartan, and always with fellow participants so the immersion may continue even between programmed activities. It really is like summer camp for Latin enthusiasts.

After my first experience, I was lured back for a second time by the incredible warmth, camaraderie, and joyful attitude from the instruction staff, which filtered down to all participants. Expectation to speak or “perform” your Latin skills is minimal, and nervous participants are often treated like beginning students in order to ease the transition to a fully immersive environment.

To continue the immersion, most meals for the week are prepared with the assistance of participants on an assigned rotation, with the “coqua” and “subcoquus” overseeing and teaching “kitchen Latin” along the way. My first year I was terrified at this prospect (I do not particularly enjoy cooking), but during the meal prep I was surprised at how easy the coqua and subcoqua made the process, and I enjoyed the hands-on aspect of learning the names for utensils and foods.

The lessons I learned at Rusticatio for my pedagogical practices range from the philosophical to the practical. On the philosophical end I have internalized the importance of providing input to my students that is comprehensible and compelling. Limiting all the Latin a class reads or hears to stodgy stories about dead Roman men is rarely compelling for all but a few. I’ve learned to season the selection of Latin stories in our textbook with personal anecdotes about my life or my weekend or my dog, or through relatively simple conversation with students in the class. I have also been introduced to the concept of sheltering vocabulary but not grammar. Bombarding students with new words to learn while also learning new language structures is far more frustrating for them than being exposed to new ways to use the words they have already learned. I have also begun to shift my methods of assessment from verbatim translation to assessing their actual comprehension, often in Latin. I.e. many comprehension questions are in Latin, and their answers may be too. I do still occasionally ask for direct translation, particularly as part of an all-class reading of a story and for particularly tricky sentences or phrases, in order to check for understanding, but that’s usually as a last resort.

I have picked up a number of practical techniques and activities as well. I recall from my first Rusticatio learning methods of interactively practicing morphemes aurally and orally by establishing a comprehensible noun-verb phrase and then asking for one-word student input - a verb form - prompted by an instructor-provided noun or pronoun. I have used this method in my class in addition to or in place of grammar notes and worksheets. 

During Rusticatio this summer the “repititores” (i.e. assistant instructors) introduced a number of methods of practicing and reinforcing vocabulary which I plan to use this school year. One was a simple listing of known words by alphabet letter, an “abecedarium” As the students during the activity, we listed either words for things in sight of us at the time, or just words we know or had learned, e.g. under P, I wrote “pictura” and “phantasma.” A partner share followed, which included an element of competition as well; if one partner came up with a word the other didn’t, they got a point. Another activity included looking at a work of art (not necessarily ancient or Classical art, but could be) and choosing from a provided list of words to describe it, as well as the open option to provide our own known Latin words to describe the art.

Probably the most simplistic classroom practice that I picked up this summer (although the instruction staff did this in 2014 as well, it just hit me this summer how useful and helpful it was to me from the student’s perspective): keeping a running list of Latin words on a large-sized sticky note pad. As I talk about the weather, or my weekend, or my dog, or ask about how the students are doing, I may use Latin words or phrases that are new to the class. They aren’t going to be in any official vocabulary list in our textbook, but I still think they are good words to know and reinforce. I write the words (often with English meaning written, or a rudimentary illustration) on the large sticky note pad that hangs from my dry erase board for all the class to see. Things may get added throughout the class period, and maybe the list for a particular class continues onto a second sheet if the conversation or story goes for awhile. So far with this method, I’ve reviewed impersonal phrases like “me dolet” with my Latin 4s (upon the occasion that a student complained that his back hurt from a fall in dance class), and comparative adjectives “maior/minor” with my Latin 2s when we were talking about siblings and our age orders within our families, and many other random but useful words. By putting these ad hoc terms on the large sticky pad paper, I can keep each sheet after each class, instead of erasing it from the white board, with the intent of reinforcing these words and phrases. Students are also writing many of these words in their personal vocabulary lists that they keep in their class spirals for continued review.

Rusticatio has been a very eye-opening and mind-changing experience for me. The first year was much about simply changing my overall mindset about how to approach the teaching of Latin, and I’ve been on a journey since then. My second time this summer I was acquiring and refining the applications for my new mindset of teaching Latin. It’s also important, as it is for any language, for its teachers to simply have the experience of speaking and living in the language, even if it’s just for six days. Thanks to my time at Rusticatio I feel much more confident launching into a story, or discussing a Latin passage, or asking questions about a story in our target language during class time, all of which provides more input of the language for the students.

--Lauren Dill

For more information about upcoming "Rusticationes" and "Bidua" (Latin immersion weekends) visit SALVI's website.

Grex Latinus: Encouraging Community and Leadership

As a Latin teacher who grew up in the Junior Classical League (JCL) herself, starting a chapter was a no brainer for me.  However, when I first came to my school there was no formal or officer structure.   Then, when expanded to start an upper school, I found myself in that same boat again.  Both times I chose to create a leadership structure for our club, partly because that was familiar to me from my own experience.  However, someone recently asked me to post about our Latin club leadership structure, and reflecting on why we are doing what we are doing has been good.

Why Do this Work

First, let me address why I believe that being a part of JCL is important for my students.  I want my students to understand that what we do in Latin class is connected to the outside world in a panoply of ways.  As a matter of fact, we have a requirement that each trimester our students find away to connect to the outside Latin community.  JCL is an easy way for my students to fulfill this requirement (though not the only way).  Additionally, the JCL organization (especially on the local and state level) is student-run.  By its very nature JCL is student-driven.  Additionally, the officers who run this organization get some of the best leadership training I’ve ever seen or experienced.  Finally, collaborating with other teachers and students through JCL has been an important part of my own professional development over the years.

Our Club:  The Early Years

When I first started our upper school club, the students and I established leadership positions for the organization that made sense according to what we wanted to accomplish:

·      Senior Consul:  basically serves as President, running meetings and following up on plans.

·      Junior Consul:  takes minutes and runs meetings when the President is absent.

·      Proconsul:  plans activities surrounding our trips to conventions.

·      Quaestor:  serves as treasurer.

·      Senatores:  represent each Latin class on the Latin Club Senate.

Unlike my own club experience (and the state and national organizations), I wanted to use Latin names for our club positions to reinforce the language and cultural concepts from class. 

Because of their exposure to the state JCL organization, our new officers wanted to write their own constitution and bylaws.  I hadn’t anticipated them wanting to do this, but I loved the idea of them establishing their own governing documents.  The many meetings that led to the final product took a great deal of time, but the students learned a lot from thinking deliberately through the organization and its functioning.  I wasn’t sure how long these documents would last, but definitely wanted to encourage their work.

Twenty Years Later

It has now been twenty years since our club was originally established.  We are still using the constitution and bylaws written by my early students, though they have been revised several times by the students who have followed.   I believe the documents specify a revision every five years or so, though I hope there will be a future change to revise them every four years so that all students will have the opportunity to participate in constitutional revisions during their high school experience.

In the ensuing years, we’ve also added a couple of other positions:  Historicus/Historica Libri and Historicus/Historica Peregrinus/Peregrina.  Both offices were established to take care of perceived needs.  The Historicus Libri makes our club scrapbook and enters it at JCL conventions.  Our Historica Peregrina was added to handle promotional and social media duties in addition to planning community service projects for the group. 

Conclusions

My commitment to continuing to foster student leadership through the Latin Club at my school is stronger than ever.  Students are expected to be leaders – often without any training or direction about what that means.  I am proud that we started this year with an officer retreat just before school started and that part of that retreat was a discussion of how to lead.  I firmly believe that the leadership training that students get through JCL is an important part of what we do, and I think it is important that we share that work with prospective Latin students. 

Additionally, the community that JCL fosters among Latin student beyond our school walls has been an important networking tool for my students that I see benefitting them during their college years and beyond.  Coming from a small school means that these connections are sometimes even more important.  I’ve seen tough adjustments to large universities made easier by meeting up with friends they knew through JCL. 

For these reasons and more I’ll continue sponsoring JCL and working to encourage student leadership and ownership over our chapter. - Parva

tempestas

salvete!

I recently had the opportunity to read Zaretta Hammond's book Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain. (Here's a link to some of her resources.) In her Ready for Rigor framework, she talks about classroom rituals and routines that can prime students for learning and create positive classroom culture. I was thinking about my own classes and how I don't really have set classroom routines. I usually have students complete a "Do Now" activity that is written on the board, but it usually involves short, independent practice over something we've been working on in class. It's not much of a ritual, and it doesn't do much beyond review the previous day's lesson.

I've read about some daily and weekly rituals that other Latin teachers do, and I was recently especially impressed with Miriam Patrick's post about hers. Her post about the weather was especially appealing to me. At my new school, I don't have my own classroom, so it would be very helpful if my daily ritual was a low- or no-prep/prop activity. The weather, obviously, is always available and more or less accessible to the eye in every room (there are four!) where I teach. I like, also, that the grammar for discussing the weather can be simple enough for my 6th grade IA students or complex enough for my Latin II's without me needing to modify the materials.

So, I developed this handout with a list of common weather vocabulary. It's adapted from the chapter about weather in Traupman. I first introduced a shorter list of new words with this slideshow of images and captions. I plan to begin each class day with a discussion of today's weather here in Austin until students are comfortable with the routine and then add discussions of other places via images. Eventually, I'm going to have students write captions for these 14 images in Latin in pairs as a class activity.

I already do a lot of Picture Talk activities in my classes, so adding weather vocabulary to my students' bank of words should be great. I'm also hoping that it will structure the beginning of class (perhaps after that daily Do Now activity) as a time of speaking and hearing Latin.

What do you do as a ritual or routine in your classroom? Have you tried a daily or weekly discussion of the weather? How'd it go?

- Ashley Schneider