Monthly Archives: April 2013

International Idol

This entry was posted in Feature Posts on by

Every year in early March, during National Foreign Language Week, our language department (Latin, Spanish, and French) puts on a singing competition appropriately titled “International Idol.” Whole classes collaborate to memorize target language songs; they then choreograph singing and dancing, and friends and family come to see them in the auditorium. Here is a video of the winning class for 2013, French V.
The students love this event and start planning months in advance. Judges actually announce a winning class, who are regaled with a doughnut cake (it’s a RI thing) and enough pride to puff their feathers for a whole year. Students are often heard singing their songs for months after the event, their brains having been imprinted with the lyrics indelibly.
So, you may be asking, how does a Latin class fit into all of this? There are a plethora of modern French and Spanish songs out in the world from which to choose – but Latin? We have Gregorian chants. We have our mnemonic inflection songs. We have instrumental hypotheses of how music may have once sounded. But modern songs?
Yes. With some determination, inventiveness, and humor, we have the whole corpus of modern pop and rock at our fingertips. My classes have performed such classics as:

Lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics
This activity is a great way to scaffold. For early levels of Latin, students can learn dictionary skills to find key words and synonyms for the lyrics. They can be asked to identify various grammatical concepts in the lyrics as well (e.g. Where are the subjects? Direct objects?)
For the more advanced levels, students are required to not only translate, but, more importantly, interpret the English lyrics as they work towards a comprehensible Latin version. Not only must workarounds be found for modern-day concepts (no Dereon jeans in ancient Rome!), but the metrical and lyrical feel of the song must be taken into consideration. The activity is great practice for composition and circumlocution, and gives the students an appreciation for the composers of old (“You mean Vergil not only had to have the right number of syllables but they also had to fit a meter!?” The mind boggles.)
For all levels, the students practice the tried-and-true skill of memorization. They are not relegated to the dusty tomes of a dead poet (though we teachers may disagree about just how dusty is a finely crafted line of Vergil.) Instead, the students interact with immediately relevant songs and end up remembering them for so much longer. I still have students singing snippets when they hear familiar words in class.
One caveat: This project will require a lot of time and perspicacity. Even the best of your students will struggle at times with the rephrasing and the metrical demands. You, as instructor, must be willing to think outside the box in terms of syntactical veracity. We aren’t emulating Cicero.
Also be willing to experiment with audio dubbing. We found instrumental versions of the songs we translated, then I sang the Latin over them and recorded it. Ideally you’d have students do this, but if you have shy students you may have to step in. One place to start is Audacity. If there is interest, I can follow up with a more technical post about how to accomplish this.
Best of luck to you and your students if you endeavor to try this!

Links for the Week of 14 April

This entry was posted in Links on by

Check out Pass the Garum if you’re interested in cooking ancient recipes.
The Dickinson College Commentaries blog has some info on what Gregory Crane of the Perseus Project will be up to next!
Our very own Emily Lewis is involved in a new comic involving a dog, Tacitus, and Agricola.  Curious?  Check out this teaser at the Tres Columnae Project.
Speaking of comics, check out the very well done SPQR Blues, featuring Pompeii, the Flavians, and intrigue galore!  There’s even some romance, too…
 
 
 
 

Introducing History Through Debate 1

This entry was posted in Feature Posts and tagged CARD-tamen debate History pedagogy Teaching on by

As a Latin teacher, I’m always eager to expose students to the great political sweep of epic events that is Roman history but stymied by the fact that students aren’t ready to read Suetonius, Livy, or Tacitus (not to mention our Greek sources) at real length and depth. Some textbook series include historical material, of course, but these readings are often basic and/or dry to many students and aren’t nearly as intriguing and inspiring without a lot of structuring by the teacher. At the same time I love rhetoric and persuasive technique, items central to the ancient thrust of education, another subject difficult for students to readily grasp when they’re still struggling with vocabulary, grammar, and the periodic structure, say, of Cicero’s speeches.
All of this was percolating in my head last year about the same time as I learned about the LAPIS Project’s CARD-tamen game decks and saw Kevin Ballestrini’s demonstration at the CANE 2012 conference. I thought struck me – could I use debate and argument as a method to examine the themes and personalities of the Romans?
I started by using the CARD-tamen deck as-is; I gave a pair of cards to each student (if you don’t know, a CARD-tamen deck consists of cards showing a person, place, divinity, etc. with some background information) and one of its debate topics (e.g. “What was more important to the development of Rome?”) Students had a week to research their cards and come back ready to debate in small groups of four students each. I created a basic rubric on which students were to debate and evaluate each other (use of time; relevance of facts; persuasiveness; confidence and body language), and then they’d trade cards for the next debate. Each student spoke for 1-2 minutes followed by a discussion within the group to determine the winner.
This initial structure had a few problems, but the biggest was that, since many students didn’t yet know the details of their peers cards, it was difficult for them to judge the validity of the opponents’ arguments. Students also lost cards occasionally, so my deck got smaller as the year progressed. The students also wanted a chance to rebut the arguments of their opponents, and so we added that into the rubric and the structure. Also, because the debates were peer-reviewed and varied widely between groups, it wasn’t always easy for me to critique individuals on technique or validity of argument. What to do?
I decided to structure a larger, class debate in which the students read Plutarch’s Lives of Marius and Sulla, argued over their use of power and propaganda, and ultimately took a side on whom they would support if they’d been a Roman living then. The debate was moderated by myself and judged by the principal and a pair of teachers who had a free period during the class. I used a structure a social studies colleague had suggested – intro statements by each side, rebuttals, and then final statements, with a break in-between each stage for students to formulate responses. This was very successful, and the greater depth allowed us to discuss afterward what kinds of arguments were valid and which weren’t, which informed their own future debates.
As part of the class midterm, students were paired up and given the topic of “Who was the better leader?” They could pick any Roman they wanted, but had to share their choice with their opponent. Each student researched and I evaluated them based on the same criteria I’d used in their peer debates, with the added category of rebuttal, in which I examined how well a student countered specific arguments made by the other side. Students liked this idea so much that I switched by model from random CARD-tamen cards to a pair of figures and a more-specific debate topic that each of the small groups used to debate.
I’ll continue to refine and use debating as a technique to study history. The students have a lot of enthusiasm (who doesn’t enjoy a good debate), and they’ll go to great lengths in research if it means they can one-up a friend or a rival in class. They’re always asking when our next debate is, and students in Latin 2 (I’d conducted the experiment in Latin 3) are already looking forward to it!
Does anyone include debate in their classes? I’d love to hear any experiences, tips, or tricks that you’ve used in your own classes, or how the experience works out for you if you try it for the first time.