Lone Pine Classical School -- Latin Classes Online!

  STELLAE - See our Quia page for details!
  STELLAE - Spring 2008 Convention Results & Entries

  Latin 100 - Click for course plan

  Latin 200 - Click for course plan

  Latin 300: Work from adapted selections to authentic selections by ancient authors: Read selected works of Caesar, Cicero, Pliny, etc. Continue Latin Composition work.

  Latin 400: Read unadapted poetry from Horace, Catullus, Ovid, Martial, and Vergil. Continue to develop writing skills - write 5-paragraph thesis essays in Latin!

Further Latin 100 Details:

(Please see the Course Plans page for an overview of the entire Latin 100 course.)

A typical week from late November (finishing Ch. 6, starting Ch. 7) might look like:

Monday 11/27: Work on homework -- Play 2 Quia games - one matching, one "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"... take a vocab quiz on the Quia site (as many times as you wish, until you're happy with your grade)... Review the Ch. 6 packet and take the Ch. 6 exit quiz (not graded, just counts as homework)... Email me with questions!
Tuesday 11/28: Class! (Online students wishing to participate in our games will receive materials lists ahead of time and be partnered up with other online students via a messenger program (like Yahoo messenger).

1:00 - 1:05: Intro - Chat in Latin: Quid agis? (How are you?), Quaenam est tempestas? (What's the weather?), Calendar (all in Latin!)
1:05 - 1:15: Read Colloqium 6 (a dialogue) together, with one student acting out each part and other students acting it out using our miniature Lego model of the family's house. I point out grammatical constructions and ask questions to check for understanding.
1:15 - 1:30: Review prepositions, and play a game with M&M's to reinforce them. Each student gets 10 M&M's of various colors and makes a design (that their partner can't see). Then they give their partner 10 M&M's of the same colors as theirs, and have their partner try to construct the same design they made -- only speaking/typing in Latin! E.G.: (in Latin) - Put a red M&M on the table. Put a blue one in front of the red one. Put a green one to the right of the blue one. Each partner gets a chance to build and describe a design -- see who gets closest!
1:30 - 1:45: Review active/passive verbs and giving commands: Students take turn giving commands ("Eat a green one, Jacob!") or saying sentences that must be acted out ("Melissa eats a green one. A red one is eaten by Caitlin.") Note: If students can't eat M&M's, we will substitute another food or just use colored pieces of paper/Legos, changing the commands/sentences to "Pick up the yellow one! A green one is picked up by Anna.").
1:45 - 1:55: Review "quo?" (where to?) and "unde?" (from where?) constructions, making M&M-related sentences and acting them out: The green one goes from Melissa to Jacob.
1:55 - 2:05: Review "tam...quam" (as good/big...as) constructions: (in Latin) "Is a green one as good as a red one?" Also review counting and numbers, as we put away the M&M's.
2:10 - 2:15: Open for student questions on any of the Ch. 6 material. Preview the homework. Put stickers on our wall chart signifying that we've completed Ch. 6! We're 6/16ths done!

Wednesday 11/29: Work on homework: Read Orberg's Fabella # 6, Puella in Horto, on page 8 of the pdf file "Orberg_Fabellae_Latinae" on your disk. Email me a 10 (or more) sentence English summary (NOT a full translation) of this story! ... Make sure that if you have any lingering Ch 6 questions, I know about them!
Thursday 11/30: Class!

1:00 - 1:05: Intro - Chat in Latin: Quid agis? (How are you?), Quaenam est tempestas? (What's the weather?), Calendar (all in Latin!)
1:05 - 1:15: Introduce Chapter 7: Talk about the "Latin in English" phrases: M.A. - Magister Artium - Master of Arts, Ph.D. - Philosophiae Doctor - Doctor of Philosophy, Summa cum laude – with highest praise, Magna cum laude – with great praise, Cum laude – with praise. Talk about Roman food and drink (Usborne Vistor's Guide to Ancient Rome).
1:15 - 1:20: Brief macron (accent mark) and pronunciation review (prepositions) - lively! Work on being able to "hear" where the macrons go. ("Accent" and speaking skills are never graded, but they're used when analyzing poetry in Latin 300/400 POETRY.)
1:20 - 1:40: Introduce the new Ch. 7 vocabulary in TPRS format (act out words, make connections between the words and English derivatives, e.g. pecunia (money) --> impecunious (poor), give hints for remembering the vocab).
1:40 - 2:00: Read Ch. 7 part I together, with the students acting it out and me asking grammar questions or pointing out new constructions we find.
2:00 - 2:10: Preview the homework (workbook-type exercises) and explain the history portion of the homework (working on building their own timeline of Roman history).
2:10 - 2:15: Open for student questions. Answer any lingering Ch. 6 questions or new Ch. 7 questions.

Friday 12/1: Work on homework (Exercises 1 and 2 from the Ch 7 packet, and doing some history reading and adding relevant information to your timeline.) Attend ONLINE HELP SESSION from 11 a.m. to noon - ask questions, have a spoken or typed Latin conversation, get help with your timeline (What to include?).

Note: This is just an EXAMPLE - we do not use M&M's or do the other specific activities listed every week! Other days may be quite different from these two sample days. But I hope that this gives you a flavor of the interactive nature of the class, and level of teacher support available. (The online help sessions will not be scheduled in the morning.)

About the Latin 100 Text:

Latin 100 and Latin 200 use the Orberg book Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. I actually dislike “textbooks,” and did not use a textbook as our main source until I found this book. The Orberg book is EXCELLENT. Some strengths:

> It is actually a novel written in Latin; it’s a fun, interesting story with characters the students either love or love to hate. 90% of students actually read ahead – sometimes far ahead – just to find out what happens next. The story then blends into actual Latin by classical authors.

> The entire book is in Latin. No English anywhere. That’s right! No explanations or glossary. How does it work? It uses the natural (or immersion) method. Each word is understandable based on context and pictures; the stories were very carefully written to introduce just 1 or 2 new ideas/constructions at a time, so they slowly build from “Marcus is a boy” to authentic texts by Livy, etc. Students read and hear each chapter multiple times to really absorb how the Latin feels – they get a great natural sense of “right” and “wrong,” as they have for English, e.g. “The dog food the eat” vs. “The dog eats the food.”

> It introduces three times as many words (vocabulary) as any standard textbook. This helps students avoid the annoying problem of having to read with a dictionary at their side when they reach the higher levels.

> It has been used since the 1960’s, mainly in Europe, with very many students, so it’s well-tested. The text has not changed at all in the recent past, and there are no plans to change it in the future. It’s the “cutting edge” for Latin instruction, but it’s also “tried and true.” People who do Orberg LOVE Orberg. He sent us some additional unpublished stories – ask to see them!

> It’s completely opposite of the “grammar/translation” method by which I learned. There are not pages of meaningless charts to memorize. It really is “grammar without pain.” It’s FUN!

Click here to see more about the book (opens new window).

Please email Karen Karppinen with questions!