Yearly Archives: 2016

L.A.R.P. in the Classroom

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L.A.R.P. stands for “Live Action Role Playing.” It may sound odd, but chances are good that if you’ve ever run a classroom you have asked students to dress like, write like, act like, or argue in the mindset of a historical figure or fictional character. These active, imaginative modes of imitation speak to the essence of L.A.R.P. A few years ago I decided to implement some L.A.R.P. tactics in my middle school classroom.
I learned about extended classroom role playing projects at a teaching seminar in the summer of 2014; we discussed RTTP (Reacting to the Past) pedagogy embraced and developed at Barnard College in which students take on roles of historical figures and engage in debates about events as they are revealed by the “Gamemaster” (i.e., the professor). Students use primary and secondary sources in order to inform their discussions. In the seminar, we talked about potential benefits of this kind of activity. Some suggested that taking on a role in history would increase level of student interest and engagement with the important questions of history. Students might learn to feel more empathy for others. The activity could also promote independent thinking and curiosity, provide practice with communication, and promote literacy skills involved in interpreting primary and secondary sources. With hopes set high, a colleague and I decided to implement a version of RTTP at the middle school level in our own classrooms.
Inspired by one of the Barnard programs, we assigned each student a role in the Roman senate and played out debates in the aftermath of Caesar’s death. I won’t go into the nitty gritty here, but ultimately, many of our desired results were achieved. Students became excited about the classical history and the class. They dove into primary sources and historical events. They sought out their own answers for questions and discoursed with their peers. They understood key points about the history. I was even able to rope in some language content and concepts using “graffiti” projects and short Latin compositions.
The challenges of this activity had to do with planning and implementing a project of this size in the time allotted. A protracted game with complex characters took many steps to set up. Scaffolding was key and takes time. Three years now using a similar project has resulted in my cutting down what students need to know to the most important points, reformatting all of the primary source materials, and focusing in on how to best “debrief” debates in order to avoid anyone going away with the impression that Caesar’s body was dumped into the Tiber. It took ample preparation to maintain continuity between debates, try to create meaningful assessments and assess students’ work, and role play during class time.
After discussing this project at length with my colleague from the seminar and with other teachers at school, I have come to a couple of conclusions about this level of role playing in the classroom. These may already be quite obvious to you!

  • It’s worth it. Most students enjoy role playing. They get into the ideas and they like to be empowered in their roles.
  • Students don’t always understand the activity. They need resources that clearly show them how to become this other person and frequent review of how to engage with their peers. A fishbowl framework will be my strategy this year.
  • The activity should either be everything you do in class, encompassing language learning and cultural units, or downsized to be a much smaller learning activity to spice up your classroom like a Saturnalia celebration. Balancing a sizable role playing agenda with separately language learning is a difficult task.

I would be excited to hear about your experiences, strategies, and opinions concerning classroom role playing in the comments or at C.A.N.E. this year.

Quid Agitur? (Oct. 1)

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Please check the News page on this site to see what’s going on in the world of CANE in the upcoming months!
Reminder for the upcoming event on October 5th:
The Advisory Board of the John C. Rouman Classical Lecture Series at the University of New Hampshire is pleased to announce that Professor Richard Hunter of Cambridge University will be the next speaker for the lecture series. Dr. Hunter’s lecture, “The Measure of Homer,” will take place on Wednesday evening, October 5th, at 7:30pm at Huddleston Hall in Durham. Following the lecture, there will be a reception for this world renowned speaker. The event and reception are free and open to the public. If you wish to attend with a larger group, please contact either jrouman@comcast.net or papcotwo@papcoholdings.org to reserve seats.

Book Review: "Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin" by Ann Patty 1

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ann-patty
Ann Patty, a highly successful woman in the world of book editing in New York City, is ejected into unwelcome retirement during the Great Recession. At loose ends in her country house in upstate New York, she is increasingly haunted by the memory of her mother, a parent with whom she felt she had had little in common and whose final years had been an accelerating slide into alcoholism. Ms. Patty’s solution? To throw herself into learning Latin as an auditor at Vassar and Bard.
Although the heart of this book is extremely serious, addressing the issues of the fear of being trapped by our parents’ mistakes, of unwanted change and of growing old, the narrative reveals Ann Patty to be a very lively-minded soul, clear-eyed about herself, with a hilarious but fundamentally kind sense of fun. I really roared at her incidental sketches of Vassar and Bard students and profs. Her glimpses into the New York publishing world in the 70’s and 80’s is captivating and leaves one a little breathless. Ms. Patty’s keen eye for the characteristic quirks of the people she studies with, learns from, and comes to know and love fills this book with unusual, intellectually passionate people.
Patty (perhaps unsurprisingly for a very successful editor) is also an unusually perceptive reader.  She comes to know Latin remarkably well (I would be silly to dwell on differences of opinion and the occasional mischaracterizations or slips that pop up.) A remarkably large portion of the book is given over to describing the structure of Latin, even the nuts and bolts of Latin grammar. I’ll admit that my eyes often glazed over trying to read what I teach all the time. But Patty just loves all of it, and really does manage to convey her enthusiasm. She is without question a person and an intellect who, as our colleagues who embrace the principles of providing comprehensible input to their students to foster true language acquisition would say, a true 4 percenter. Di ita eam ament, Patty’s a four percenter’s four percenter.
The outstanding qualities of Roman literature, as we all know well, differ a lot from those found in any modern literature. Roman literature is (among much else) demanding of the reader and unabashedly elitist. Patty is an excellent interpreter, forging interesting connections to the writer’s world that she knows and to a series of pivotal events and people in her life.
As I read most of Patty’s book with real interest, I found myself wondering what sort of ambassador for the study of Latin she really is. She excels, by virtue of consistent hard work, in a traditional Latin program, with classes that differ little in their fundamentals from those I took 4o years ago. To judge from book reviews on Goodreads and Amazon (wherein the most damning review is from someone who claims to be a career Latin teacher), Patty’s enthusiasms leave some entirely out in the cold. And, as a secular, progressive adoptive New Yorker who is not shy with her opinions, she has several strikes against her around this country to begin with.
And yet, to give Patty due credit, when she discovers SALVI, Paideia, and John Byron Kuhner, she is like a cat in cream. Not only does she like the people in the Latin-speaking community, she likes the approach (which is difficult and frustrating for her). In the garden of Patty’s mind, many flowers bloom and are welcomed, even those who showed up by chance.
The takeaway? I wouldn’t give this book to my Republican in-laws to explain why I do what I do. But if you have a friend who is over 50, intellectually curious and who loves the humanities, make this their Christmas present.