classroom

Project Domus

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For the past couple of years, I have enjoyed leading my eighth-grade Latin class in a project on Roman houses. I am sure that many teachers of Latin have some sort of domus-related activity, and this is mine. The project aims mainly at introducing students to this important aspect of Roman daily life; it also offers plenty of opportunities for students to compare and contrast their own lives to ancient ones and to engage in Latin language composition and communication through simple descriptive sentences.
I like to start this project by discussing different the living situations of Romans, from the insulae of cities to urban domī to elaborate villas in the countryside. They study a number of houses that were preserved and excavated around the bay of Naples. We hone in on the typical Roman domus, discussing different generic rooms in the Roman house and their apparent uses and features (e.g. the vestibulum, atrium, culina, peristylium etc.). An impressive array of resources are available to students, and here are just a few that I have enjoyed using:
VROMA does a lovely job of clearly labeling rooms with links to names and longer descriptions of the rooms’ apparent uses. I love the simple floorplan as well.
This site does a similar job with a few more rooms added to the layout.
This virtual tour is a neat video, and it works for activities where you want students to identify different rooms (they could even do it in Latin!).
This video was created by a student (of either History or Latin). He brings up some interesting points and identifies room names for a quick and dirty review.
Khan Academy has a number of resources as well, like this article on the house of the Vetii.
After discussing and describing the Roman house, students are tasked to create their own domī. They go about choosing features, frescoes, and furniture for their houses, which would appeal to Roman taste as well as their own. In years past, the final products have come in the form of posters, dioramas, and google drawings, and I also ask students to describe their houses and the function and/or appearance of the rooms and the objects within.
Students tend to enjoy this project because of the degree of personal choice and creativity that goes into designing their own home. Some students–and even some adults–may never have given any thought to the architecture and design that they might want in their own house; this project gives them an exciting opportunity to do just that. I will add lastly that the project brings together culture and language learning and is easily tailored to students’ ability and comprehension.

Beyond God of War: Latin and Ancient Rome in Video Games

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Latin puns: Fun for the whole familia

Latin puns: Fun for the whole familia


For me, one of the funniest moments of every year is when my beginning Latin students learn the word ubi. When I was a kid, this is when we first learned the faux-Latin phrase semper ubi sub ubi. Nowadays, it’s when my students realize that the name of the French video game developer Ubisoft, which publishes some of the most successful gaming franchises in history (Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell), is a Latin pun on the word “software.”
While teachers are usually happy to embrace films (Gladiator, Ben-Hur, The Eagle, etc.) as an entertaining way to engage their students with ancient history, video games are still slow going. As a lifelong gamer, I find that disappointing. To that end I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite games to show, talk about, and (on those rare occasions when we have a free class day) play with my students. I’ve selected games that are rated Teen or below and have some meaningful educational value to them, so you don’t need to worry about things getting absurdly violent – or worse, sacrificing historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment.

Civilization VI


The Civilization Series are strategy games in which you play as the leader of a civilization of your choice. Players attempt to conquer the world through a combination of warfare, cultural influence, and technological superiority. Everything – names, building types, military units – is based on historical fact, and is a wonderful opportunity to spark students’ curiosity.
The two most recent entries, Civilization V and Civilization VI, are the only games I am aware of that contain spoken Classical Latin, courtesy of Augustus (in Civ 5) and Trajan (Civ 6).

Rome II: Total War


Known for its massive real-time battles, Rome II: Total War is for the military enthusiasts among your students. Players have the option to replay historical military engagements (how would you have fared against Hannibal at Cannae, or in the Teutoburg Forest?) or create their own with a wide variety of military units, from hastati to ballistae to war elephants. While the graphics are a bit dated now, these games give a sense of the sheer scale of ancient battles.
An expansion pack, Caesar in Gaul, could be fun during the post-AP exam doldrums.

Europe Universalis: Rome


Your more diplomatic and detail-oriented students might enjoy Europa Universalis: Rome. A so-called “grand strategy game,” you are plopped into the Roman Republic in 280 BCE, given control of one of 53 separate factions (you can control Rome, obviously, but how might you handle being in charge of Numidia? Colchis? Bithynia?) and maneuver your way to the top through bribery, diplomacy, compromise, assassinations, strategic marriage, and warfare.
EU: Rome is far and away the most challenging of these games and isn’t for everyone, but it gives players a good idea of the complexity of politics and diplomacy in the ancient world and is worth, in my opinion, the considerable time investment.

Minecraft in Latin


And finally, simply for the possibilities, is good old Minecraft. Over the years I’ve had a number of students who’ve preferred to do architecture projects in the game, which has led to some beautiful creations I still have on my hard drive.
There are also a wide variety of user generated Minecraft creations available on YouTube, which always captivate my students as a sort of “guided tour.” You can look at all kinds of baths and villas, of course, but what about a full-size recreation of the Colosseum?
For additional fun and challenge, the default language can be set to Latin.

Happy gaming!

Slavery and Social Media

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This week we’re pleased to bring you an article from Katy Reddick, a middle school Latin teacher in Durham, CT and long-time CANE enthusiast.

 
Slavery is a difficult topic for my students.  They struggle imagining it as anything other than race-based since they have read so much about the antebellum American south.  As a result, their ideas of what slavery looks like are limited and there is a great deal of cultural baggage.  Some students feel shame, others a sense of superiority- ‘I would never own a slave.’  Broadening the discussion to include modern day slavery enables students to move to a more nuanced definition, recognize slavery’s myriad forms, and contemplate how they support or fight slavery today.
As always, time is limited in the classroom!  I worked with my technology integrationist, Bill Kurtz, to develop a streamlined approach for students researching modern slavery, synthesizing their findings, and creating an authentic product.  During two days in the computer lab, students researched modern slavery after having been provided with a few websites.  You can find these resources at http://nulliservi.weebly.com/.  During those two days, I encouraged students to take the Slavery Footprint Survey and to follow whatever facts interested them.  They then summarized their findings by composing a Tweet.  They did not post their Tweet, but submitted it to me via a Google Form.  Students learned how to write a powerful Tweet by including a shortened URL, hashtag, and mention (@) influencers.  See the Using Social Media tab at the same website for Twitter tricks and tips I shared with students.  
We then created the Twitter handle @NulliServi for the entire class.  By having a single Twitter account, we don’t have to worry about privacy concerns.  Each day one of the students’ Tweets is posted in order to educate and activate others about modern slavery.  Each day we take two minutes out of our class time to read the posted Tweet, perhaps follow its link, read other posts about slavery, and see how many followers we have. Evaluations after the project indicate that students are enjoying the ongoing engagement, seeing their posts appear, and having an authentic audience.
What delighted me about this project was how much students learned and how excited they were about sharing their learning.  Feel free to steal any and all ideas here for a project of your own and contact me with any questions you have.  Lastly, don’t forget to follow @NulliServi on Twitter!