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Advice for teachers -
Latin

Teaching and learning activities

Unit 3: A Latin prose author or Latin poet

Unit 3 – Area of Study 1: A Latin prose author or poet(s) of a genre other than epic

Outcome 1

Demonstrate knowledge of accidence and syntax and understanding of the content, context and purpose of the chosen work.

Examples of learning activities

Note that not every text will be suitable for this area of study. Teachers will need to choose a text that has sufficient scope for the context and purpose aspects of this study. A text that contains allusions, or requires technical knowledge of history, politics, mythology or the military might be suitable for the context requirement, while a text that has deeper purpose or delivers a message that can be explored will be suitable for the purpose aspect. It can be difficult finding a text that suits all requirements, but students will benefit from a text that allows them to demonstrate their skills at the highest levels.

  • As background before reading a text, students present to the class on a relevant aspect of Roman society or history.
  • Teacher selects passages in translation from other texts to be read that will enhance students’ understanding of the text.
  • Students create a glossary of technical terms and allusions on an online document that can be added to and accessed by all members of the class.
  • Teacher creates a set of discussion questions to assist students in considering ideas about the author’s purpose as they progress through the text.
  • Students create a character/event/theme guide for the main characters, with every observation supported by a reference from the text.
  • Teacher creates a set of revision questions for students, focusing on a set of 20–30 lines, with sections on accidence and syntax, content, context and author’s purpose. These are not given to students until at least one week after teaching those lines, thus encouraging students to go back over their notes and revisit the text.
  • As an aid to revision, students create a podcast exploring the text, translating and discussing contextual reference and grammar.
  • Example icon for advice for teachers
    Study ancient texts to make comparisons with modern-day issues.
Example icon for advice for teachers

Detailed example

Modern echoes of ancient issues

Teacher prepares the following activities for students.

This activity is best completed towards the end of the study. For this example, the text being studied is Juvenal’s 3rd Satire.

  1. Students list the issues raised by Umbricius, and organise them into categories.
  2. In groups, students are assigned a category for which they seek to find the underlying issue, distinguishing between surface complaint and the real cause. For example, Umbricius complains about the Greeks, but his real problem is that he has been displaced by them in Roman society.
  3. Ask students to consider whether issues like this are still current in different societies, including our own, and if so, in what forms they manifest themselves. Discuss: What are the differences, and what are the similarities between the ancient and the modern?
  4. Assign students research tasks to look into modern discussion of the issues, perhaps by sociologists or political analysts. For this topic, students may be directed to the work of Hochschild, who studied disenfranchised white workers in the modern USA; and Fukuyama, who has examined the role of the loss of dignity in the rise of nativist and other movements.  Students present a summary of their findings to the class
  5. Bring the discussion back to the ancient text. What are the key differences between the ancient situation and the modern one; and what can we learn from the ancient text about our modern situation, and vice versa? This approach can be used to enrich our understanding of the ancient text.
  6. This example looks at nativism and racism of the disenfranchised when studying Juvenal, but the same approach can be used when studying other texts where different issues arise, such as the rise of modern authoritarianism when studying Horace, or limits of power in a democracy when studying Cicero.

Unit 3 – Area of Study 2: Unseen translation

Outcome 2

Translate an unseen passage from a Latin prose author.

Examples of learning activities

As with Units 1 and 2, students will benefit from exposure to a range of authors and subject matter. Suitable authors include Caesar, Livy, Cicero, Sallust, Aulus Gellius and Valerius Maximus, but teachers may select any prose author.

  • Translate an unseen passage under timed conditions.
  • Every so often, instead of completing the unseen translation individually, the passage is worked through as a class, with individuals tackling different sections at the board and talking through their decision-making process, assisted by the rest of the class as necessary.
  • After completing a series of unseen passages by one author, students construct a shared online document that details key features of different writers: their subject matter, any grammatical quirks they might have and key vocabulary used by the author.
  • Students are allocated a topic of grammar revision in pairs.  They teach the class a ten-minute mini-lesson that contains an explanation, summary of the rules and at least five examples for practice.
  • Example icon for advice for teachers
    Complete an unseen translation under timed conditions, using a dictionary.
Example icon for advice for teachers

Detailed example

Complete an unseen translation

Teachers can assist students in this task through the following steps:

  1. Students complete an unseen translation under timed conditions, using a dictionary.
  2. Teachers indicate what is correct and what is incorrect in students’ work, rather than writing corrections on the students’ answers. To achieve this they may use a highlighter pen to show which Latin words are incorrect, or they may complete a marking rubric organised by grammatical areas (for example, nouns, active verbs, passive verbs, prepositional phrases, participial phrases, subordinate clauses, indirect statement).
  3. Students are then responsible for following up on their errors. The teacher may split the class into small groups and work through the translation with each group, with members contributing suggestions and asking questions. Students may be given a correct translation, and have to work out individually where they went wrong. The teacher may work one-on-one with the students.
  4. Students then organise their own follow-up activities. They need to prioritise what they will focus on, informed by their history in unseen translations. The teacher may direct them to vocabulary that needs to be revised, and where to find information on grammar and practice exercises. In some cases, re-teaching points of grammar may be necessary.