Latin

Viam Sume Propriam

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Latin composition has been on our minds lately here on CANEns, and today I wanted to share with you a technique I’ve used successfully in my own classroom, viam sume propriam, or “choose your own path.” It’s a great way to use Latin composition at any level to review unit concepts and for students to show off what they know in a creative, fun way. I myself most recently used it as a final project for an senior level Latin class in lieu of an exam.
What is viam sume propriam all about? First, some history. Back in the 80s, catching the Dungeons and Dragons craze, a number of publishers started writing Choose Your Own Adventure books. These books were interactive stories in which, by making choices at important narrative crossroads, you could affect how the story unfolded. Each section of the story was presented to you in sentence, paragraph, or page-long chunks headed by a number. These numbers were narrative structure points used when making choices (i.e. if you want to go back and find your wife while Troy burns, turn to 27. If you’d rather flee into the mountains with your father, turn to 110.). Recently, this format has been making a small comeback through Apple and Android apps. See, for instance, Sorcery!, or Frankenstein, which are built using the same tool I use for viam sume propriam), and CANE’s own Ed DeHoratius’ Follow Your Fates adventure books that retell classic myths.
Essentially the students (usually in groups) create a branching narrative, in Latin, which can lead to several possible outcomes. Some of these outcomes are bad, some good, some merely neutral alternatives. Because this is a structure, it can be used at nearly any level with any grammar. At the upper level, for example, students can create possible outcomes to the Dido and Aeneas story, or show how different choices by Caesar might have prevented his assassination, using subjunctives, conditionals, and oratio obliqua. At the novice level, a student can create, for example, a path through a Roman villa, or some variation on a textbook reading (how does Quintus escape Pompeii in CLC?, or can the carriage avoid that ditch in Ecce Romani?), focusing on nom vs. acc forms, or including dialogue to work on personal endings.
There are a number of ways to do this assignment, from bluebooking to using Power Point (since you can link slides together), but lately I’ve been using a tool called Inklewriter. Available free of charge, it’s an online tool designed to make this kind of story. It’s trivially easy to make branching paths and add pictures. What is very interesting is that Inklewriter has a if-then logic language that you can use to make more complicated twists to a narrative. For example, you can only choose to enter a locked door if earlier you picked up the right key.
How do the logistics work? I structure the assignment like this:

  • what will the story be about – what themes or explorations of character / place you expect
  • how many choice-points (i.e. story chunks at the end of which you have to make a decision)
  • how long the story chunks are (i.e. a sentence or two at the novice level up to a paragraph at the upper level)
  • how many story end points there will be (I often make it variable, say 2 + # of students in group)
  • how much time in class students will have to organize, write, and edit
  • how much time students will have to examine each others’ work

There are a few caveats – it’s easy for this assignment to take a lot of time, because there’s planning to do and a surprising amount of Latin to write. Secondly, Inklewriter is currently still working some bugs out, and students have had some issues with parts of their story “disappearing.” Still, it’s a powerful tool my own students found intuitive to use. I’ll end by letting the work speak for itself. Da Auxilium is an unedited example from one of my own students, based on a unit we did on medieval medicine. Can you use cutting edge Four Humor technology to save your patient?

Ideas/Reasons for Teaching the Bayeux Tapestry 1

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I’ve taught a unit on the Bayeux Tapestry now for two years, and I like exploring it more and more each time. The Tapestry can make a great filler when you want to transition between units and try something quick and different! The Latin is easy, so it’s a chance for a lower-level Latin class to see authentic material sooner. How easy? There’s only two deponent words, a smattering of passives, and some easily glossable ut-clauses. The sentence structure is super simple – no complex word order, no periodic sentences, just the basics with some delayed subjects. A fair amount of repetitive vocabulary, too. You can expand the historical sources in an upper-level class to explore the period in greater depth by adding some of William of Malmsbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum, selections from the Carmen de Hastingae proelio or the Vita Aedwardi Regis, or even Phaedrus.
The Tapestry is more than a simple embroidery of a famous battle scene with some easy Latin. It’s politicial propaganda, maybe (depending on who you read) with some subversive elements in it. It’s a collection of evidence of medieval dress and customs. It’s awash in references to popes, knights, kings, God, and feudalism. It’s a bestiary with references to Phaedrus’s fables. It has famous buildings still in use today. There’s mystery to explore – who is Aelfryga, for example, and did Harold really take an arrow to the eye, and who promised what to whom when and under what circumstances. It’s ultimately a testament as to why there’s so much Latin to be found within the English language. What’s not to love?
Here are a few things that I’ve done to really dig deep into the Tapestry. Hopefully you can find something here to inspire you!

  • Use the images to practice oral / written Latin! It’s easy to practice noun/adjective agreement, questions (what do you see? how many of x? What kind of x? What is someone doing?), participles (I see knights riding horses, etc.), or purpose clauses (Why are the soldiers cutting trees?)
  • Find the fables hidden in the Tapestry and puzzle out what messages their inclusion might mean. For example, one story, vulpes et corvus, is embroidered three times, each with the cheese in a different place, at significant places.
  • Study the politics between Edward, Harold, and William, and how they led to the war. The archbishops aren’t there for show, either, and indicate much of the power play going on behind the scenes to justify William’s invasion of England.
  • Examine the musical/metrical composition going on in the art. Really! Don’t believe me? Check out this theory of the way figures and scenes are laid out on the Tapestry.
  • Discuss issues of bias and propaganda, and how the Tapestry might have turned out differently under another patron, maybe one more favorable to the Anglo-Saxons.
  • Read related materials in Latin (see above) and compare / contrast with what is seen on the Tapestry.
  • Examine the spelling variations, font style, writing abbreviations, and other typographic features of medieval texts.

Ever done the Tapestry in one of your classes? I’d love to hear about what you did and what you thought about it.

Don’t Dance Alone: Saving Latin Programs

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Today’s post is a guest post by Jacqui Carlon.
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Several threats to Latin programs in the schools have emerged or reemerged in the last few years, particularly the budget ax, a shortage of Latin teachers, and the seemingly endless supply of clueless administrators. The Latin program at a school often seems like the easy branch to lop off in hard times – small enough that its demise will not require much shifting of personnel or upset too many student schedules. Even thriving Latin programs can be threatened when administrators fail to see what great benefits the study of Latin brings to its students.
So what should you do if your Latin program is in peril?
First it’s important to get help from colleagues who have experience fighting for programs. For many years now, CANE has had a Classics in Curricula Committee, one of whose jobs is to help threatened programs. I write from experience as the chair of that committee and can report that we have had some success in saving programs. We communicate in writing and/or in person with administrators and school committees, explaining the value of Latin and offering references to supporting research (more of which would be incredibly useful!!).
Don’t reinvent the wheel! Lots of helpful resources are available from the CAMWS Committee for the Promotion of Latin: http://www.camws.org/cpl/educators/promote.htm and the National Committee for Latin and Greek: http://www.promotelatin.org. Make sure to get suggestions and support from hundreds of your colleagues who subscribe to LatinTeach: www.latinteach.com.
Next rally the troops – in a hurry! Sadly many administrators and school committees don’t believe or don’t care to consider all the reasons that the study of Latin is transformative for students, but its students and their parents do! It is critical to have as many voices from the community the school serves not just in favor of keeping the program but vocally advocating for its retention. Gather a crowd to attend a school committee meeting or to seek a hearing from the superintendent. Whoever has the power to preserve the program should be barraged by supporters of all kinds – students, parents, teachers, professors from local colleges, petitions, letters, posters … the more the better. Voters have particular power, so parents are your strongest weapon in the fight.
Finally, if the administration claims that it just can’t find Latin teachers, tell them to look harder and think creatively. It is true that there is still a dearth of highly qualified Latin teachers. For years, schools have had to recruit teachers from other disciplines who have some background in the language or to put unlicensed teachers in the Latin classroom under emergency waivers from state departments of education. But it is also true that a number of colleges and universities in Massachusetts are producing well-qualified and licensed teachers.
A new Masters in Latin and Classical Humanities with Teaching Licensure at UMass Boston will have its first graduate this spring, with at least four more on track to graduate in May 2014. These added to students graduating from UMass Amherst’s well-repected MAT program, Tufts University’s MA with License, and Boston College’s MAT will provide a steady stream of new highly qualified teachers.
Schools in reasonable physical proximity to any of these programs that have part-time needs for a Latin teacher should think about creative ways to staff those positions. The MA program at UMass Boston, with all of its courses offered in the evenings, summers or online, is uniquely suited to brainstorm with local schools to create opportunities for classroom experiences for our graduate students that also serve Latin programs in need.
Above all, get in touch with me! It’s my job, both with CANE as Chair of CIC and at UMass Boston as the Graduate Program Director, to support Latin teachers in New England (and beyond!). Call me at 617-287-6121; email me at jacqueline.carlon@umb.edu.
Jacqui Carlon