Correct noun-adjective agreement, that’s what.
I got some positive feedback on the last Mad Libs assignment I posted, so I decided to make another one. This assignment is based on passage 19 from Ecce Romani I, and corresponds to the content of the surrounding chapters, particularly noun-adjective agreement. In these chapters, the distinction between 2-1-2 and 3rd declension adjectives is discussed, so special emphasis is placed on that. Download after the jump.
For my followers in the US of A, here is a downloadable poster (optimized for 11×17) of the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin. Translation by Claude Pavur. Download after the jump.
In The Book Thief, Max takes Hitler’s memoir Mein Kampf, white washes the pages and from that creates something beautiful. Through this lesson plan, students have the opportunity to do the same.
As my roommate said as we were doing this together, “I’m taking Hitler’s words, reducing it down to 10%, and now it’s so much better!”
Mine’s about zombies. Teehee.
Lesson plan after the jump.
I saw Catching Fire yesterday. Ohmygoodness, so good. I highly recommend it. Team Peeta all the way.
That got me in the mood to create a poster that highlights some (of many) Classical allusions that can be found in the books and movies.
I got the text here, at slate.com, and the article has even more examples of Classical allusions in character names. They even explain the etymology of other names, Classical or no.
Downloads after the jump.
I can’t believe I forgot to put this up here. I made another crossword puzzle a few weeks ago, something to keep kids busy while I was subbing for middle school study hall.
On one side of the page I copied a handout on the 12 (but really 14) Olympians. I forgot to include Hestia, dernnit. Maybe I’ll update it at some point to include her. On the other was the crossword. For some reason, middle schoolers really love crosswords. Go figure. Downloads after the jump.
BEGIN RANT —
Hey, you know how some students use text/Twitter-speak in their academic papers? Yeah… STOP.
— END OF RANT
Sometimes it’s hard to get students engaged.
Especially when in Latin class.
Taking inspiration from Mad Libs, and adapting a passage from Ecce Romani, I made what I think is a fun activity to help students practice noun-adjective agreement. The passage is from chapter 5, but the activity actually correlates better with chapter 6. Chapter 5’s story was just more entertaining.
Students fill in blanks to prompts such as “masc nom sing,” meaning a masculine nominative singular adjective. They then plug in these adjectives into the story and translate. Comedy ensues! Grammar is practiced. Download after the jump.
Woo! I made a crossword puzzle! There are a number of sites out there to use, like this one and this one. Not quite sure I’ve found a favorite yet. Some interfaces are better than others, but those others have a prettier end product. Hmm. Jury’s still out on that one.
This crossword is for grammar drills – the perfect active system of Latin verbs. Perfect, pluperfect and future perfect. Correlates with Wheelock chapter 12. Enjoy!
Oh, we had some fun with this activity.
To discuss word choice (particularly words of Latinate vs Germanic origins), we used the wonderful Joseph Decreux meme. This meme takes rap lyrics or other well-known quotes, and “translates” them into archaic language. Often with hilarious results.
After having a good laugh looking at some hilarious (yet school appropriate) memes, the students got their chance. Again keeping with the Hemingway theme that drove the course, I gave them an excerpt from the Simple Wikipedia entry on Hemingway. They then “translated” sections, with hilarious results.
BEHOLD!
Before: At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper.
After: In thine place of eating, resting and bladder drainage, he inked for the scholastic scroll.
Before: At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer, Ring Lardner, and he made his writing skills better.
After: In the vicinity of household near Oak Park, Ernest inscribed for his schoolhouse biweekly. He attempted at composing approximative to noble frolic wordsmiths, such as Ray Lardner, and in result of that improved his wordsmith trade for the worthier.
Before: In 1917, Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri.
After: In the year 1917, the Kansas City Star newspaper, abiding in Kansas City, abiding in Missouri, supplied Ernest with employment.
Before: One reporter said: “Hemingway liked to be where the action was.”
After: A single reporter aforementioned, “Hemingway enjoyed to exist approximal to the location of heated activity.”
The best part about this activity is how much Hemingway himself probably would have hated it. Teehee…
In a writing class this summer, my 8-9 graders took a crack at writing about film. No easy task. Since they’ve been reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, we took a clip from the 1957 film to analyze and write a thesis on. Before watching, we gave them a glossary of film terms (stolen from Wikipedia, of course) and looked at some examples of story boards. Hitchcock has some good ones.
Step one: Watch the clip with a critical eye. To make sure the kids watched it looking for small details, we had them create a story board for the clip, one sketch for each shot. Our kids are lil’ perfectionists, so this step took a bit.
Step two: Discussion. We asked them what filmic elements stood out the most. Maybe it was Henry’s hand slamming down on the sugar cubes he had lined up. Maybe it was the dramatic music. Maybe it was the warm colors of the bar compared with the cool colors of the hospital. Lots of options there.
Step three: Thesis statement. This has really been the focus of this summer class: writing good thesis statements. And these kids pulled through. Although new to film analysis, they produced some good analytical thesis statements that could eventually be developed into decent essays. So proud.
Student examples after the jump.
magistra monson 