Quid est Fabula?

8/13/2018

This is another easy review game that works best at the beginning of the year with returning Latin students. As the only Latin teacher in my school, I am in the position where all my second year students know me but only know a subset of students in the class since they were in different classes last year. I find this is a good activity to help build community as well as review vocabulary.
To play this game, you need to put your students into groups of two or three. For each group, you need a word list of 10 words or phrases that the students learned last year - adjectives, prepositional phrases, nouns, and verbs. Make sure that two of the nouns are repeated in each list. Hand each group their list and a large piece of paper. Then have them draw a scene that includes all the words on the list. The picture should be a scene - not random objects floating in space.
Once they are done, they should then switch their picture with another group and see if they can label all the Latin words used in another picture. Then everyone takes their pictures and sticks them to the front board. Now you or a student who can speak loudly describes each scene in Latin to the class.
Now for the "story" part. Identify the noun that appears in each picture. My pictures usually contain puella et canis or puella et draco and see if you or your students can connect the pictures into a story. Let the students determine how to number the pictures. Which picture depicts what happened first? Which picture is the final scene of the story? Depending on the skill of your students and their comfort with oral Latin, this can be done entirely in Latin or just in short phrases. For example if in one picture the girl is in the field, you can see "Ecce - puella in agro est." In the other picture, if the girl is in the house - "Puella villam intrat." Therefore, the class determines, "puella erat in agro sed villam intravit."
This part of the activity can take a longer or shorter amount of time depending upon your students' interest in creating the story. Some classes have many creative ideas about how the pictures connect while others have less. Don't draw it out if the class is not engaged in this part. The important part is to describe each picture in Latin. The students love to look at each others drawings and by hearing and seeing words, a lot of vocabulary can reviewed in a short amount of time.

2 Comments

Brian M

5/25/2019 06:12:50 am

On your "quid est fabula?" activity, I am a little confused. After the students have switched pictures, labeled them, and posted them on the board, you say "Now you or a student who can speak loudly describes each scene in Latin to the class". What does "describe" mean? That a student just reads off all the Latin word labels the students added to one another's pictures? Or something more involved?

Next, you say "Identify the noun that appears in each picture. My pictures usually contain puella et canis or puella et draco and see if you or your students can connect the pictures into a story. Let the students determine how to number the pictures. Which picture depicts what happened first? Which picture is the final scene of the story?" Firstly, I though there were about 10 vocab words on each group's list, but you say students are to identify "the" noun that appears in each story, as if there were only supposed to be one. I also don't understand what you mean by "My pictures usually contain puella et canis or puella et draco and see if you or your students can connect the pictures into a story": is "puella et canis/puella et draco" some known short story that I am not familiar with, but that your students have read already? You then say students should connect all the pictures/scenes drawn by each group together into a story. You had not stated earlier on that all of the several vocab lists handed out to the groups had to represent discrete and specific stages of a story that they would then put in the right order once they posted their drawings. Could you clarify whether this is indeed the case?

I apologize for the questions but I am brand new to HS Latin teaching and none of these activities are familiar to me, so the things that are obvious about the functioning of these activities to most are not obvious to me.

If you can also email me any input on this, that'd be great, as I am exploring so many online resources that I don't want to forget to come check this page and miss your insights. Many thanks!

Jocelyn Demuth

5/26/2019 05:27:28 pm

Hello Brian,
Let me see if I can answer your questions. First - what does "Describe the pictures mean?" Well, it means exactly that - in any way that your students are able to communicate it in Latin which might be just pointing to the pictures and pointing out villa, puella, ursus etc. It may mean creating some simple sentences "puella est in vila. Ursus in silva habitat" or some combination of those things.
Regarding your second question "iWhat does it mean todentify the noun that appears in each story." Each list should have one or two of the same nouns. These nouns become basis of the "story" since they will appear in each picture. I usually ask the students which picture they think goes first. So for example if the first picture, the girl is in the field and in the second, she's in the house,you might say -"Puella e agro discedit et in villam intrat."
Finally, the pictures don't necessarily create a story Sometimes, it seems fairly obvious when you look for the common noun in each picture. Other times, it's not. If you looking at the pictures or even better, a student looking at the pictures can come up with a simple narrative and order for the three - that's great. If not, don't sweat it and don't force it.

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