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Note: This blog is large departure from the games and whimsical stories that populate most of this website but I thought it was important to share what I have learned about the topic. All incidents discussed are true but the names have been changed to protect students' privacy. Reina arrived ten minutes late on the first day, well after everyone else had already settled in. She stood in the doorway looking suspiciously around the room. There was only one seat left in my crowded classroom - center seat, front row. I said, "Hello Reina, would you prefer to sit in the front or the back?" She frowned and dropped her thin tense body in the last available seat. Inwardly I exhaled and continued to teach. Every teacher who had seen my class list had something to say about this child. "You'll have fun with that one," an aide had said. "Watch out," counseled her English teacher. "She has a mouth." The assistant principal warned me to call him immediately if she didn't come to class. "She cuts," he said. However, this year, I noticed something that would have escaped me in years past. This little girl with the big reputation was carrying trauma. I could see in her shoulders and in the in clench of her hand around her pink phone. Two years ago, I might have given her a detention for showing up so late without a hint of a reason. Today, I just gave her the papers I had previously handed out and kept on teaching. I was taught in teacher training to start strict and loosen up later, apply the same rules to everyone. Conventional class management dictates that If you have established rules and routines, you can relax them later but its difficult to do the opposite, And there is truth to that - but not when teaching kids with trauma. In fact, the opposite generally applies. I have no formal education in counseling or professional training in identifying students with trauma. What I have learned is from talking to people who have suffered from the consequences of childhood trauma, reading, and working with traumatize students in my classroom. Its not enough- I admit, but what I have learned has changed my teaching for the better. I feel a bit like Aeneas surveying burning Troy after Venus lifts the veil from his eyes. Now I see more of what is really going on even if I lack the power to change it. How does a child become traumatized? Unfortunately - there are a myriad of ways: students who live with an alcoholic or drug addicted parent or a parent with mental illness very often suffer traumatic affects. Students who live with domestic violence, or have experienced sexual abuse will most certainly be carrying trauma. Students who undergo a great deal of verbal abuse can be victim of trauma. Trauma can be created at school as well. Students who are consistently bullied either physically or online can become victims of trauma. This is not a definitive list but perhaps some of the more common circumstances. Poverty certainly plays a role here as well. Fear of physical instability and food insecurity are also traumatic. However, do not dismiss trauma as something that "only happen to poor kids." Sexual, domestic violence, drug abuse and bullying know no class or racial boundaries. If you teach in the United States, you have taught students suffering from trauma. The common denominator in all of these situations is that their environment is physically or emotionally unsafe over a period of time. The longer the period of time, the more significant the trauma. What happens to a traumatized child? This subject both fascinates and depressed me. It's important to understand because your reaction as a teacher is very much tied to a understanding of what is happening in the child's brain who is living with trauma. At the end of this blog, I have some resources if you want more than this summary. When a person is afraid, an automatic response originating from the amygdala, the primal part of the brain is sent. This message can be "fight, flee, freeze or faun." Whichever message is the one that is most facilitates survival in the moment gets sent. For a child in a safe environment, this message rarely gets sent but for a child living in traumatic circumstances - the message gets sent - a lot. Neural pathways are a lot like trails in a forest - the more they are used, the wider and deeper they become. Eventually, that well-worn path neural pathway from the Amygdala starts to replace more thoughtful, more circuitous routes and the "fight, flee, freeze or faun" reaction is engaged even when it is completely unwarranted. For more information about how this manifests in adults, see resources below on C-PTSD. What does this look like in class? Identifying the signs of trauma has been an enormous benefit to helping me to form relationships with students who otherwise may have been unreachable and at the very least has given me patience with students I can't reach since I now better understand their behavior. Below are five ways that I have both and seen how trauma presents in the classroom. It is not an exhaustive list and it is not unusual for students to exhibit several of these kinds of behavior. I have labeled them in terms of how they are likely to be described by other teachers and administrators. Oh... that kid is bad news A child carrying trauma may act much more aggressively to a small slight. They may physically push other kids away or otherwise lash out at threats that seem trivial or non-existent to the teacher. Conversely, they may swear a blue streak or verbally attack the teacher or other kids for similar trivial reasons. I think its important to understand that the subtext to this behavior is "Stay away from me or I'll l f--ing kill you." It is as you have no doubt figured out, the "fight" response. While the first behavior and its reason is pretty commonly understood, there are other reasons why a traumatized student may be so eager to fight or push everyone away. A close friend of mine who suffered from sexual abuse growing up described his own behavior this way. "I think I often acted up in school because if I was a "bad" kid, it made it easier to cope with what was happening to me at home. If I was bad, I deserved it." I think he has ADHD... A student who fears for his or her safety may appear very distracted. This isn't distraction - it's anxiety also described as "hyper-vigilance." They are listening or looking for changes in the environment that indicate a lack of safety. For example, let's suppose you are watching a horror movie (a good one not a cheesy one) where you along with the protagonist are doing that intense listening because you both suspect that something awful is about to happen. Now picture someone trying to explain the uses of the genitive to you while you are watching and you see my point. Hyper-vigilance doesn't leave a student much brain room to concentrate on school. This student is bracing for a "flight" response even if they never actually flee - they are preparing for it. In other cases, these students can erupt aggressively as described above. She's so quiet. You'll be lucky to get her to speak A student who is unusually still and quiet may be hiding because that is their safety. They are listening, may even appear to be concentrating on what you are saying. However, they tend to startle easily and often.This student is experiencing to a greater or lesser degree the "freeze" response. Their stillness is a tense one. They don't laugh much or contribute often to class discussions. In the faculty room, this student may be described as " well-behaved but very shy." That Kid is in La-La Land A student who always seems to be "in their own world" may be disassociating. Disassociation is be most easily summarized as a sense of feeling disconnected from one's body. It happens naturally to all of us - the most common instance is when you "tune out" while driving. If you have ever driven, usually a familiar route and suddenly realized you have no memory of how you arrived at your destination, you have disassociated. For students undergoing trauma, it is is a protection response from the emotional affects of abuse. It fluctuates and there are mild and more severe manifestations than the one I have just described. See resources at the bottom of this article for more information. Other teachers may describe this student "a nice kid but really spacey sometimes." He is so polite, so helpful. He won't give you any trouble. Conversely, the student who is doing the best in your class may be doing so out of a trauma response. This student has learned the key to safety is to be as nice and as kind as possible - to do their very best to please people. This is the extremely polite kid, the kid who is always checking to make sure he or she did it right, and make comments that sometimes sound like something out of a 50's sit com. One of my students who I believe exhibits the "faun" response is gay. He has the stereotypical gay speech pattern and mannerisms. In a large urban school, this makes him a prime target for bullying. He manages this threat by being extremely nice to everyone. If anyone needs a pencil, Greg has one. If someone looks sad, Greg will inquire and offer to help. He begins all interactions with me with "please" and 'thank you very much." In other words, by constantly checking to see if anyone is mad or even displeased with him, he is trying to deflect possible harm. It works - but it's exhausting. OMG Do All Students Have Trauma? No - they don't. A quiet student may simply be shy and there are other reasons why students pick fights with other kids. That really spacey kid may have just fallen in love for the first time. Trauma is most often found in the extremes of these kinds of behaviors. The other thing traumatized students have in common is that they are tired - a lot. Being on edge all the time is exhausting. So What Do I Do? Well first let me tell you what yo don't do - you don't assign a "consequence" which is the of course the thing we have all been taught to do. We are expected to establish clear rules and consistent consequences. Often we are required to post them. But here's the problem - a behavior problem resulting from trauma wasn't made with the rational part of the brain. The behavior was not a decision but a reaction from a more primitive neural pathway. Assigning a consequence will do absolutely nothing to prevent it from happening again. In fact, its likely to exacerbate the situation. For example, my student Reina showed up ten minutes late to my class every day for the first month. This kind of lateness is usually not something I let slide but consequences and confrontation had already been tried by previous teachers with no good effect so I decided to ignore it and see what happened. After the first month, she started showing up only five minutes late and then gradually started sliding into class right after everyone sat down. The most important thing a child suffering from trauma needs is safety - In the classroom, safety is built on trust. Trust is a slow process and it can't be hurried. Students suffering from trauma want to establish a connection with teachers but they have learned to be wary. The first month working with Reina, I tried not to come too close to her desk which was tricky because she was always about three feet away from me. I would often move to the other side of the room just to give her a little more space. Body language is often a tell. Her posture which was often tense and tight radiated, "back off." So I did. Eventually, she relaxed, started coming to me for help and did every piece of work I gave her. If that "distracted" student is not actually distracted but hyper-vigilant, he or she might do better in the back of the room where they can survey the classroom more easily. This again is counter-intuitive because we have all learned in teacher school to keep kids who have difficulty concentrating up front and under our thumb. A hyper-vigilant student may be aware of feeling "keyed-up" but its unlikely that they can verbalize why they can't concentrate. They will probably tell you exactly where they want to sit. Let them sit there. The safer they feel, the less anxiety occupies their brain and the more easily they can learn. And then there are traumatized students with the exact opposite needs. I had a different student, one very likely to "fight" but given enough coaching and encouragement would calm down and get to work. I am going to confess - this one was not a success story. One day his penchant for picking fights ended in a verbal stand-off between the two of us. As the assistant principal led him out of the room, he hurled his Latin binder against the lockers while he described my class in less than glowing terms. If juggling all of this is sounding exhausting - it can be. I'm not going to sugar-coat it except to say that it is important work. I really wish I had a formula like many of the games I have described here to handle and identify and handle the myriad of ways trauma presents in the classroom but I don't. What exactly are triggers and how can I avoid triggering my traumatized student? Well, first let me say that a trigger is an event or even a memory - that causes that neural pathway from the amygdala to be reactivated - a student who is truly triggered may blow up, disassociate, freeze in their seat or go on "high alert." No learning is happening when a student has been triggered. This word has been co-opted by social media where more often it means "I was uncomfortable when" Being uncomfortable is not remotely the same thing as being triggered. There are also many well-meaning educators who have long lists of "triggering words and phrases" to avoid. While the intent is good, triggers are different for each student and often not predictable even for the them. There is no list. The best thing to do is to watch the student's body language and learn the signs. Here is an example of one such incident. Ethan joined my class a month into school. He was always tired and when he wasn't tired, he was distracted. I had heard that he had "melt-downs" in other classes. His worried little body always wrapped up in his puffy parka radiated trauma. One day during a round of Kahoot, I could see the tension building as he selected wrong answer after wrong answer. I was on my way to his seat to ask him if he needed a break when he slammed Chromebook shut, screamed "FUCK THIS!" and started sobbing. What Do I Do if it Happens? While a student sobbing over a break-up with a boyfriend or an argument with a friend may benefit from a hug or a talk in the hall, students crying, wailing or otherwise in distress because of trauma generally need to be left alone. This display of emotion is not "drama." They are nearly always deeply embarrassed about the scene and confused because it was not their "decision" to react this way. I have found the best tact is to simply instruct the class calmly that "Jon needs a minute" and carry on with whatever you were doing. Just leave them alone. It may seem heartless because your instincts may tell you to come close, give them a hug - don't. Their brain is radiating "Danger..Danger" and approaching them is almost certainly going to make it worse. When you see the meltdown subsides, wait some more. When the student appears composed, then approach them calmly. Ask them if they would like to use the bathroom, give them a tissue. Tell them it's okay - re-establishing safety is key. Now is not the time to discuss the incident or gush about how terrible you feel for them. In all the times that I have observed this, the student desperately wants to fit back into the class after they have calmed down. Let them. Talk later. Myth and the Traumatized Student Another misconception is that discussions of mythology and Roman history should be avoided because so much of the stories contain the stuff of trauma - rape, abandonment, imprisonment, violence etc. and will "trigger" a traumatized student. And again - the truth is that triggers are not predictable. If they were, the treatment of childhood trauma would be a great deal simpler. That of course does not mean that discussions of mythology and history should not be age-appropriate and contextualized but I would not avoid talking about them in the off chance that a student might be "triggered." In fact, I have had the opposite experience telling myths. My seventh graders relate especially well to the story of Perseus. (My 7th grade version has no rape) Many of them are immigrants and being sent away from your home to live with a stepfather you dislike is something some of them understand too well. They love the part where Perseus turns the wedding party to stone and often spontaneously act it out in class after I describe it. In my class, telling stories is a community building event. Students always interrupt the flow of the narrative to ask questions, suggest actions the hero SHOULD have taken, make jokes or relate their own stories. If I could get through the story without interruptions, the telling might take 10 minutes but that never happens and it shouldn't. Storytelling in my classroom creates trust and building trust is the bedrock that teaching students with trauma must be built on. Trauma and Teaching Method If you have followed the evolution of modern language teaching, you have probably learned about using comprehensible input. It is a theory that I ascribe to as well, and it is the foundation of many of the language based activities on this blog because it is the best way to reach the widest swath of students. However, if you have attended any CI based professional development, it may surprise you to learn that many of the stock activities that are taught to teachers as a part of this method can fail dramatically with students suffering from trauma. For TPRS or circling to work effectively, there must be a large element of trust from all of the participants. Students also must do a great deal of listening which is difficult for students suffering from trauma since their concentration is limited. Many of these activities involve putting students on the spot for a response or a story idea. I am not saying that you should not use these methods but you need to build trust first with more "low risk" activities if you want students dealing with trauma to buy in. Diving in on the first day as is often advocated by CI facilitators can cause these students to either completely withdraw or wreck it for everyone. Trust takes time. How Does it End? Well in the movies, trauma always ends where the troubled kid confesses his troubles to the hero teacher or counselor. There is usually a big hug, accompanied by swelling emotional music and vast improvements in behavior, and understanding. (Sometimes that's just alluded to - it depends how much of the movie is left) Like this scene from Good Will Hunting: In reality, it’s unlikely that you will ever know the cause of the trauma because the other unifying feature of trauma is "the secret." A student suffering from abuse of nearly any kind has been coached "never to talk about it." This isn't always a threat, but more often a plea from an adult the child loves as well as fears. Most students are also aware that to tell another adult about the situation will result in some kind of police action and a dismantling of their family. Often the abuser has laid that out that possibility, to further ensure their silence. That isn't to say that students never do tell but most often while the abuse is occurring, they don't. The other sad reality is that understanding the reason for the behavior doesn't resolve the problem. Several years ago, I had a student prone to getting into fights (never in my class) but often in the hall or outside of school. Eventually, he told another teacher that his step-father was beating his mother. Social services intervened and the step-father was removed from the home. I saw this student a few years later and I asked him how he was doing. He told me that he was still very angry and his temper frightened him. Even though the threat had been removed, and he understood logically why he reacted the way he did but the problem was not "solved." I was worried too - an angry Hispanic teenager doesn't get a warning or a trip to MacDonald's from the police. Retraining the brain to forge new pathways takes a lot of time and therapy. EMDR can help a great deal but there are no short-cuts here. So What Can I Do? The best thing you can do is to read more than this blog and learn to develop your own trauma radar. If your school has one, talk to the counselor and get the student on their roster. A good counselor can help a traumatized student understand their own behavior better and at the very least help the student learn to manage some of their anxiety, anger and fear through meditation and grounding. If they can get the student to talk more specifically about their circumstances, they are equipped with the knowledge to help. The other best thing you can do is be the safe harbor for this student going through hell. You can be that person who tells them they are worthy; they are smart and that they make you proud. We can all attest how important those voices were in our own development. They become those buoys that we cling to in rough times and push off from when we are feeling bolder. Students dealing with trauma don't often have a lot of academic success. If you can be that success - that is huge. As far as my student, Reina, I knew I had really made it when she suddenly showed up in my room - this time fifteen minutes late. I raised my eyebrow at her and she said, "It's okay Ms. D - I was supposed to be on a field trip." She got out her stuff and immediately went to work. At the end of the class, I got a call from a flustered assistant principal, "Do you have Reina," he asked?" "Umm, yes- she was 15 minutes late but she's here." He then explained to me that due to some undisclosed behavior, she was held back from the team field trip to a local ice cream stand. (In my school - that itself is an impressive accomplishment.) She had been ordered to stay in his office but slipped out and came to Latin instead. I started to giggle. We had come a long way from that first day when I wasn't sure I could get her to stay in the room. Trauma is tough and the journey is rocky but I'm going to count this one as a win. Resources for Further Reading The book that started it all: The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind and Body In the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk Internet resources on causes, characteristics and treatment for children dealing with trauma - click for the link "How to Help a Traumatized Child in the Classroom" Greater Good. berkeley.edu "Trauma Informed Approaches to Classroom Management" by Brenda Ingram, Director of Clinical Services, Peace Over Violence Understanding Trauma: Learning Brain vs. Survival Brian" - A video by Jacob Ham "The Paradox of Trauma Informed Care" by Vicky Kelly TEDxWilmington More Information About Disassociation Links between Trauma, PTSD and Dissociative Disorders About CPTSD and Disassociation What is C-PTSD? Beauty After Bruises
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"Latin is different." If you teach Latin, you've heard this phrase or even used it yourself hundreds of times. The phrase offers some protection from the over-standardization of education. It's the reason that I don't have to be on the "Food Chapter" at the same time as my modern language colleagues or tediously plot out the questions on the final exam. For some, it's fighting words - as in "Latin is NOT a real language." Then there is the Latin is NOT different movement - it can and should be taught like any modern language. And there is some truth to this as well. But still, Latin is different - perhaps not linguistically but our subject is different nonetheless. The Spanish teachers in my school tell me that their curriculum is "All About Me" in which students discuss what they like to eat, what they like to wear, what sports they like to play etc. I see the appeal. But as a seventh grader, I didn't play sports. My clothes were second-hand, and I didn't want to talk about things I might say at a party since it seemed fairly unlikely that I was ever going to go to one. I was much more comfortable with topics "Not About Me" - monsters, heroes, and powerful people making terrible decisions, battles won and lost. I wanted a vocabulary for my imagination, not a vocabulary for a TV version of my life. My students seem to want the same. The fact that our beginning vocabulary consists mainly of weapons and farm animals delights them. They ask me questions about gods and monsters. They tell me about the comic book, video game or fantasy novel heroes and heroines they admire. They are escaping too- perhaps not for the same reasons, but I understand the need and I am glad to supply the outlet. Next week, the Spanish class is moving onto "clothing." We will a read a version of Mucius Scaevola and act it out. There will undoubtedly be debate regarding who gets to stick their hand defiantly in the yellow and red tissue "fire." Latin is different. I am glad.  Play-doh monsters created for our winter break "arena." Working in teams, students moved their creations from tile to tile, answering questions, pulling off each others arms and eventually smushing each other based upon a set of overly complicated rules. This game needs some tweaking before it makes it to the blog.
Below is a short story that I wrote about Cassandra which may be of interest to you personally or perhaps to use with your students as part of a unit on mythology or the Trojan War. She has always been one of my favorite characters. Despite the fragmented literature that describe her as a selfish opportunist, I have always thought that she must have been a remarkably strong woman. What must it be like to live with the gift of prophesy while knowing that no one will believe you? The rest of the story is contained in the Omnia drive in the folder entitled, "This I Believe." Link is here
The Prophet’s Choice I see it - just before dawn – the dark beast, stark against the bright beach. I hear the grunting and thrash of sand as it lurches forward. Once or twice, I feel the terrible rumbling of its belly as it rocks back and forth. I won’t watch. Instead, I slip out of the palace, and sit on the cool marble steps of my temple. “There you are!” I turn around. It is Maya, my youngest sister. “Mama said I would find you here. Why are you here all by yourself? As she blinks up at me, I’m at loss at what to say. I notice the flowers clenched in her small fist. “Maya,” I say. “Would you like me to braid those flowers in your hair?” I pat the step of the temple below me. She smiles, skips up the stone steps and settles herself in front of me. I tuck the flowers in her hair while she prattles on about the evening’s celebration. She’s very excited – lots of gestures and I have to remind her to stop bouncing so much so that I can properly braid her hair. I can’t hear what she’s saying because he is whispering in my ear again. His tone has lost its’ teasing quality and has become more urgent. “Come with me,” he breathes. I feel his fingers brush my cheek. I look up and he is gone. There are a few things that remain universally true about teaching Latin regardless of the size of the school, age of the students and these are:
Now I know that I may be making some of you nervous because I can hear you saying, "But I have a textbook! I have to follow the order of the textbook. That is another huge fallacy. Here are some others:
Start with Gender Despite What Your Textbook Says The best way to explain anything is to relate the new idea to something they already understand. In the complicated structure that is Latin grammar, case and declension are poor ways to start. English has neither. Nearly all textbooks begin either by listing cases or declensions. The concept that everyone understands is gender. All humans are accustomed to making decisions about gender based upon certain easily visible characteristics. I tell students that we can make decisions about the gender of nouns the same way we make decisions about the gender of people - by looking at the characteristics. Here of course there are always jokes about how "Sometimes you can't tell" and "What about transsexuals, people who change gender" etc. I explain that similarly with Latin nouns, you can make errors about gender, but many times, you can tell immediately. Incidentally, this discussion can be a great segue into a productive conversation about tolerance. The point is though to tell students that Latin nouns have three genders rather than two, a difference they will find interesting and that these genders can easily be identified by their ending. Here I teach them the nominative of first and second declension nouns - masculine, feminine and neuter. I usually begin with puella, servus and scutum. I never mention the word declension or nominative in this discussion. I tell them that feminine words end in a, masculine words end in us or r and neuter words end in um. In over 20 years of teaching, I have never met a student who did not immediately understand this concept. If your textbook begins by listing all the case endings of the first declension, ignore it and use the exercises in the first chapter of your textbook. In general, the first chapter exercises in these books only use short sentences with the nominative case. You may need to write some auxiliary exercises with masculine and neuter nouns but since these sentences will be very simple, this shouldn't present too much of a problem. If your textbook begins by explaining declension, read the stories anyway. Point out the masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. You may need to add a few neuter nouns in sentences. Several popular textbooks begins by explaining that there are three declensions that have two genders that can be identified by looking at the ending except when the can't - (a concept clear as mud to the beginning Latin student.) Ignoring this information initially will not be an issue because STUDENTS DON'T READ THE TEXTBOOK. Unless of course it is about mythology or gladiators - then they may read some. But I'm using spoken Latin and we need to use many words that are not first and second declension to communicate! Also doesn't matter - Students can and should speak and read many different phrases, clauses and sentences without being cognizant of the grammar. Understanding grammar is a piece of learning a language but it should not the sum total of the experience. Students can both hear and orally understand a great many words than they can grammatically parse. For example, my middle schoolers are very big on "volo" and "nolo." They find the words hilarious and they have learned to say volo dormire, nolo sedere, and a few other phrases. They are volo-ing all over the place. They have no idea that volo, velle is an irregular verb or even that the "o" denotes a first person speaker. They will - but their incomplete understanding of the grammar has not hindered their willingness to speak phrases they understand. Let's Make Nouns Plural From here, it is natural to discuss how to make all three genders plural. Here I mean plural nominative but I haven't actually mentioned that word yet. Again, when discussing that neuter words become plural by changing the "um" to an "a," it is useful to relate this change to the idea of gender that they understand. I ask students, if Brian puts on a dress does he become a girl? Similarly, when a noun changes it's ending, it doesn't change it's gender. Let's Talk About Adjectives The next step is to explain that adjectives match the nouns which means that adjectives take the same ending as the nouns except in the case when a masculine noun ends in "r" because the masculine adjective will end in us. This again, will seem logical and interesting to nearly everyone. Here you may need to write some practice sentences or phrases so students can practice changing the ending of the noun to match masculine, feminine and neuter nouns singular and plural. This whole process takes about two weeks. During this time students generally read the first chapter of their textbook and maybe the first chapter of some other textbook that I photocopied. The Latin Insults activity under "Beginning Activities is a useful and entertaining exercise to practice this concept. Most beginning chapters contain fairly simple paragraphs heavy on the verbs est and sunt and with few direct objects. Often there are some prepositional phrases, but that doesn't present a problem. On to Accusative The next natural step is to deal with direct objects of the accusative case. I also introduce the nominative - identify it as the endings that they already know and the subject of the sentence. Most textbooks introduce the accusative case first so it's not too hard to adapt. Again, if your text is only dealing with first declension nouns, write some sentences with masculine and neuter second declension subject and direct objects. Add first and second declension adjectives to the mix. I keep my sentences short and violent to reinforce the idea of accusative. I use a lot of white board activities and skits so that students can illustrate, "Ursus cuniculum pulsat." (See whiteboard activities and Latin Silent Movies for a more complete description of these activities.) If your textbook has third declension nouns, just ignore any explanation about the endings. In the reading method, where frequently third declension nouns are explained early on, students can read a great deal more than they explicitly understand. Tackle the Ablative Next Again, this isn't too much different from the order of most textbooks but grammar based books only tend to teach ablative with feminine first declension words. This is ridiculous. Teach ablative with second declension masculine and neuter words. Teach the ablative only in the context with prepositional phrases. I find it's easier if they learn all the ablative prepositions at once. They can all be sung in a song (See Songs and Videos). Have them speak, write, draw ablative prepositional phrases. Have them bracket them in the text. If your text has accusative prepositional phrases, don't despair - have the students bracket those so they don't confuse the endings with the direct object. If an especially precocious student asks why the nouns in some of the prepositional phrases don't have ablative endings, you can tell him or her that this will be illuminated later in the course. Praise them for noticing of course, since that rarely happens. Latin Clue is another good activity to teach prepositional phrases in the context of accusative and nominative. Take a Break and Go to Verbs. At this point, all my students know about verbs is that they end in "t" when they are singular and "nt" when they are plural. Now it is time to break out the rest of verb endings. There is a song under the "Songs and Videos" tab to help students memorize this. It is useful to teach students how to form both ARE and ERE - first and second conjugation at the same time. The human brain is comparative. Students should learn that a verb has a stem, a linking vowel and a personal ending. Some have "a" as a linking vowel and some have "e." It amazes me how many textbooks only tackle first conjugation. Learning both at the same time is easier. I also explain the concept of infinitives here too. Save third and fourth conjugation for later. Again, students can read and speak verbs of all conjugations but introduce how to form first and second together first. Mendax - is a great activity to help students learn personal endings of verbs. On To Genitive At this point, the students will have enough familiarity with the nominative that they are less likely to confuse it with the genitive. Teach both possessive and partitive at once. It's easy to explain that the genitive is translated by putting "of the" in front of the word or 's, whichever makes the most sense. Teach them words like numerus and copia so they can see how partitive works. Don't bother to name these uses. It's not helpful. Accusative with Prepositional Phrases Teach them how to use accusative prepositional phrases. Have them form both - ablative and accusative prepositional phrases. Here by teaching a new concept, you are "circling" on an old one - what prepositional phrases are and how they are used in a sentence. Back to Verbs: 3rd and 4th Conjugation More circling - same concept- personal endings plus linking vowels but different linking vowels than first and second conjugation. See a nifty song under songs and videos for a way to get kids to remember which vowel goes with which conjugation. Finally onto Dative: The last case - Most textbooks teach the dative case poorly. You may need to find some supplemental stories to make sure students have enough practice with this case. As a review for all the cases, have everyone play Unus. NOW Explain Declensions - Introduce Third Declension Put all the endings on the board for masculine and feminine. Explain that they have already seen many of these words before but now we are going to learn how endings work. Declension is a tricky idea for students. I always explain it as a club. First declension is the cheerleading club. Most of the people wearing the cheerleading uniform are feminine but there are a few males on the team. I ask them, "If I told you that Alex is on the cheerleading team, what would you assume about Alex?" The 2nd declension group with endings of us in the nominative are mostly male. It's a bit like the football team. If I told you Alex is on the football team, what gender would you assume that Alex is now?" In both cases, there is a small chance that you might be wrong. I explain that third declension is like Student Council, which traditionally is a mixed gender club. When I ask the question about Alex regarding Student Council, students agree that they would have to ask a clarifying question to determine what gender Alex is. Like Student Council, the "uniform" or set of endings for third declension includes both masculine and feminine endings and so you just have to memorize the genders. they find this point discouraging but understandable. At this juncture, the learning of third declension endings is usually accomplished pretty quickly since students are now intimately familiar with the use of the cases. Verb Tenses - Imperfect First It's easy to form, it's regular - it uses the 2nd principle part. Thankfully most books see the logic of this. The imperfect tense is most often the first tense introduced. Now it is necessary to watch, the world's most bizarre and compelling Latin video. Thank you, Abbi Holt! Onto the Future So many texts introduce the future much, much later. Again, it's a little more challenging than the imperfect but it uses the second principle part and the imperfect and the future are easy to use in stories together. I wrote two stories that uses both imperfect and future tense together. One is based on the Ecce Romani series. The other is a medieval fable. They are both in the drive linked to this page. Now Tackle the Perfect System. Again, your students can be reading perfect tense verbs in context long before they understand how to use them. For example, my students know that "Dixit" means he said and "dicit" means he says long before they know any principle parts. From here, there are many different directions that you can go. Order is most important to the beginning student and less important, the more advanced students become. Third declension adjectives, imperatives, i-stem nouns, participles, ablative absolutes. I find depending on what you reading drives the understanding Resources to Supplement Your Text: Students need to read, read, and read. Most texts especially those grammar based series such as Jenny's and Wheelock don't include nearly enough reading material. Ecce Romani and Cambridge have more reading material but students who only read one text become too reliant on the style of that text and easily flummoxed when given something different. Older textbooks have wonderful, politically incorrect stories to broaden students reading interest and ability. Find them on internet book stores, in the back of your book room, at tag sales sponsored by the various Latin organizations. Here are some of my favorites. Our Latin Heritage - Many, many stories in this series from mythology, Livy and from the imagination of the authors. The first book is the most useful Using Latin - Another great text similar to Our Latin Heritage. The first book also has many stories. Latin Via Ovid - I love this book. The author has done an excellent job of adapting Ovid's self-aware style of narration. The first time the narrator addresses the reader, the students will be confused but they will get the hang of it. This series gets fairly complex fairly soon. It is a great bridge for students who need a bit more practice with subjunctive, participles and some other mid-level concepts. 38 Stories: Wheelock Supplement: This little volume is still in print. It has mostly myths in increasing levels of difficulty. It references the grammar used before each story and lists vocabulary. Lively Latin: This small, out of print book has great stories that I have never seen anywhere else. There is a whole series about a romance during World War II that makes great use of participles and ablative absolutes. You're a new teacher and you're excited but you feel unprepared. (Everyone does in the beginning). However, you will make up in energy what you lack in experience. You will work very hard and care very much. That's an excellent short term plan; one that will get you through your first year- maybe. It was my plan as well. The problem with this plan is that it's unsustainable. I know - blasphemous, since giving 110% is supposed to be the norm in education. The fact is that if you operate this way, you will burn out quickly and leave education regretful that you just couldn't hack it.
As much as you strive to be, you cannot be the sole generator of enthusiasm, energy, and entertainment in your class at least not for very long. Teaching, as no one tells you in teacher training, must be an energy continuum to be truly effective. You give out energy and enthusiasm. Your class radiates that back to you which then in turn you give back to them and so on. This is how the momentum of the class is carried forward. I understand how ridiculous this sounds. I know you face a sea of sullen faced, drowsy, disinterested teenagers trying to steal glances at their phones when they think you aren't looking. Here's the thing - no one has explained this concept to them either. Mostly, what teenagers understand about school is that if they remain as motionless and passive as possible, they are more likely to stay out of trouble and less likely to be embarrassed in front of their peers. So how can you create this energy that propels the class forward? Give students permission to be appreciative You know that little lift you feel when someone compliments you? We know our students need praise. Hundreds of books and articles have been written about the power of praise in the classroom. But teachers need to hear it too. And I know, most likely, you haven't heard much, especially from students. Gratitude is a forgotten skill in the classroom. Teach it. Introduce the concept in practical, concrete terms. Say: It is important that if we do something in this class that you particularly enjoy or you found particularly helpful, that you tell me. Often times, I try a new game, a new approach and with no feedback from you, I wonder if it was worth it. Often times, I only know what worked in my class long after the class is over or when someone complains, "Why don't we do such- and-such anymore?' If you tell me what like and what worked right after we did it, it makes it much more likely that we will do it again. Besides, I'm human - I worked hard to make this activity fly and like everyone else, I need a compliment now and then as well. Sometimes, I find the opening to have this conversation when I hear another student talk about a different teacher. Here's a short replay of a conversation I had several years ago with an eighth grade class. Student 1 (to another student entering the room): You know, I think this is the first year that I understand math. Ms. Casey really explains things. Me: Did you tell Ms. Casey that? Student I: No. Me: It's important that you tell Ms Casey that. She's an excellent teacher, I know - but you would be surprised how little she hears about what she's doing right. I bet if you told her that, it would make her day. Student: Yeah, it probably would. Some kids are real jerks in that class. Me: (I then launch into above speech) Give students permission to monitor their peers' behavior Conversely, you cannot be the sole voice for law and order in the classroom. While it may seem at times that you are the sole supporter of learning, in reality - that is not the case. Most students want to learn. Most are irritated with those that interfere with that goal. However, they have been taught that the teacher is the only advocate for learning. You need to change that. Give them permission to stand up for the class. Say: I cannot be the only person in this room standing for this class. If you are interested in learning and someone is interfering with that, I give you permission to call them on that. Tell them, "Shh" Or say, "You know, I really want to hear this!" Your voice is more powerful than mine. I am the teacher - that means I am always saying stuff like sit down, stop chatting etc. But when a student speaks up, that's powerful. This does not mean that you have permission to yell "Shut up" or call people names but there are ways to let your classmates know that you don't appreciate their interruptions. Nota bene: You are going to need to have these conversations more than once. That's okay - it takes time to shift the flow of energy from teacher to student to a circular flow. Plan not to be the Center of Attention Consider the overall energy required from you as you plan your day. When I plan a lesson, I always ask, Who is doing all the work here?" if the answer is me - then I look for ways in which the students can participate more or that they can do most of the work in the following lesson. So much of this flies in the face of what is conventionally understood about what makes a great teacher. Our iconic teaching movies, Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and Dead Poet's Society focus on the charisma and wit of the individual teacher standing up in front of an often hostile class. This is an unsustainable fantasy. Even in the movie, Mr. Escalante, the calculus teacher in Stand and Deliver was hospitalized before he finished his first year. Ms Louanne Johnson, the inspiration for Dangerous Minds only taught high school for five years before moving onto college. And Dead Poet's Society? Seriously. Can you be Robin Williams for five shows a day? This does not mean that you should not stand up and command the attention of the class. You should - just not every day, every period. Stand in front of the class to explain instruction, stand in the back to allow students to absorb it. More time will be needed in the back than the front. The majority of your class should be spent with students doing something to practice, absorb, learn the concept you have taught. And this is good for two reasons. First of all, in order to survive a teaching career, you need time "off stage" to recharge your energy and students need to put forth energy to learn. Learn to vary your instruction - because it's good practice but also because it will save your sanity. Examine your day - do you have five periods of "Stand and Deliver?" If you do, reassess, create more student-centered activities for half your classes. Get yourself off stage or your final shows will be ragged and cranky. I know teachers are supposed to have unlimited energy and enthusiasm but let's be honest. No one does. While every teacher training program talks about the importance of varying your lessons to maximize your student's learning, it's also important for your own health and longevity in this career. The pool of available and interested Latin teachers is small. Myself and other veterans need new teachers to whom we can pass the torch. We are rooting for you: burn bright but not out! Before I begin, I feel obligated to warn you that you probably shouldn't read this blog. According to all the recent developments in education, I am about to impart some very bad advice. If you too have been schooled in differentiated instruction, student centered learning, and data driven decisions, then you know that if a teacher is standing in front of the class and the students are not collaborating, manipulating objects or generating data of some kind, that this is very bad practice indeed.
And so by the new metrics of education, storytelling must be very bad pedagogy. It is teacher centered and technology deficient. There are no essays to be written or details to be analyzed. The procedure is for the teacher to stand in front of the room and tell the story. The students, despite the lack of media, accountability or formative assessments, listen. And by listen, I don’t mean do other homework, sleep, write notes or stare into space. They actively listen, eyes open, body forward and pencils down. It’s a rare sight. Sometimes they even refuse to leave the class. One day, when I timed an episodes of the Trojan War exactly right, I reached the part where Zeus saw young Paris on the slopes of Mt. Ida and declared that he should judge the beauty contest. Before I could tell them about the judgment of Paris, the bell rang. Despite the fact that it the lunch period was next, no one moved. “But what did he do?” they asked. I replied dramatically, “And then the class went to lunch.” They didn't bite. “We can stay,” someone said. I looked around and 18 seventh graders stared back at me, still in their seats. “We want to know!” yelled a voice from the back. Although inwardly dazzled, I told them that we would continue next week and so groaning, they shuffled out. This was unprecedented. Were students really volunteering to miss lunch to stay in class? I came to storytelling by accident. I used to teach mythology the correct way. I gave everyone a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and I devised a series of thoughtful reading questions for students to complete as they read the stories. At the end, everyone wrote a paper in which they analyzed the themes of hubris and heroism in three myths of their choice. They hated it. “This is the dullest book I've ever read!” they said. “These stories make no sense!” Of course there were a few that loved it but the majority despised it. I tried to vary the projects – posters, presentations, and Power Points instead of papers. It didn't matter. The projects got better reviews, but the consensus remained that the book was terrible. Still I soldiered on. Comprehension and analysis were more important than enjoyment of the story, weren't they? One day, on a Friday when a test was completed earlier than I had anticipated, I was left with fifteen minutes and no plan. Every beginning teacher knows that fifteen unplanned minutes in a classroom is roughly equivalent to quarter of a century in real time. I ran through my options. It didn't seem wise to start a new unit before the weekend and reviewing the old material had been done to death so I told the the story of Perseus and the Medusa instead. They loved it. “Can we do this every Friday?” they asked. I thought, why not? Thus began a Friday tradition. Since I wound up telling the majority of stories contained in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, I stopped teaching it. The books collected dust on the shelves. Sometimes, a student, hungry for more monsters and heroes, would take one home. The reaction of students to storytelling is different depending on the age. Middle school students simply listen, their boundless energy contained for the moment in their delight of the story. High school students relax and smile. They've heard this before. It was a movie or a cartoon they vaguely remember. They make sarcastic comments about the plot and the hero as I tell it and we laugh together. The youngest students though are confused. Inevitably one of them raises their hand. “Is this true?” They ask. “No,” I say. “It’s a story.” This answer makes them uncomfortable. If a teacher is standing in front of the room and speaking authoritatively, it is because she is giving a factual lecture which requires a worksheet or a homework assignment. They know that stories are the domain of picture books. They look at me suspiciously. They ask why I am telling a story. I reply, “Because stories are good to know. This puzzles them some more. “Just listen,” I say and they do. For a while, I felt guilty that I was not holding students accountable for their learning. I didn't scaffold my instruction, nor was I accommodating different learning styles. Twenty years of professional development whispered in my ear that I was kidding myself. Children do not learn by listening passively. There needs to be a project or a paper or at least a review sheet for students to retain knowledge. So one mid-week morning, after a long weekend, I asked my youngest students questions about the 12 gods I had described in stories the previous week. Every student in the class raised their hand, waving it wildly as young students do when they really want to be called on. As I called on them, I heard my words repeated. I saw my gestures recounted and even heard the cadence of my voice captured from a student who had only recently learned to speak English. They remembered literally every word I said. I stopped worrying. For many years, I wondered why my storytelling had been so successful. Even though I have told these myths many times, I still forget important details and have to back-track in the telling. Names of minor characters constantly escape me and send me running to my notes for a quick check. I am not a professional storyteller. Consequently, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that the sole reason for my success is because my material is so good. Mythology has captured the imagination for 1000 years. The written tales are disjointed, lacking description. Many begin strangely and end badly. But when they are spoken aloud, magic happens. When I discovered this, I felt as if I had dug up some buried bejeweled relic that has been for lost for decades, covered by the dirt of modern pedagogy. With the advent of the Common Core, this jewel has become an even rarer relic. The new emphasis on “informational texts” in the English curriculum has forced out many long standing units on mythology in middle and elementary school. Five years ago, I began my stories with the understanding that my audience had at least a passing familiarity with the Greek pantheon. Now, more often than not, I am the students’ first introduction to classical mythology. The birth of Athena, the abduction of Persephone always makes my youngest students crow with delight. “How do you know all these stories?” they ask in amazement. I pity the poor ELA teachers who had to give up such gems, but selfishly, their loss has been my gain. I feel obligated however to add a note of caution to this tale, should storytelling ever make its way back into the mainstream of scholastic pedagogy. When educational theorists discover a good idea, the pattern is, to label it with an acronym, then to over apply it until the technique has lost its usefulness and the very mention of the acronym makes teachers roll their eyes and shudder. ST (or storytelling) works better than anything I’ve tried in 20 years to create interest and enthusiasm in mythology. This technique cannot be applied to teaching Latin grammar. No class has ever volunteered to stay past lunch to listen to me lecture them about the sequence of tenses or construction of ablative absolutes. Nevertheless, if the older me could go back in time and give the younger struggling Latin teacher some advice about how to connect with her students, how to keep students from wondering if they should have taken a language with less case endings and a more familiar word order, I would say: Magistra, this Friday, put down the text book and leave that cultural video in the cabinet. Turn off all electronic media, look your class in the eye and tell them the story. You won’t be disappointed. How to Tell a Story: A Short Primer 1) Start with good material. To use a cooking analogy, most of us do much better with quality ingredients. A master chef can make a four star meal out of spam. The rest of us must have the best ingredients in order to create a memorable meal. 2) Classical myths are great material, the filet mignon of stories. Livy’s stories of early Rome are also good material – a juicy hamburger – if perhaps, a little bloody. 3) Keep it short – 10 minutes to start, 20 minutes at the longest. 4) The purpose of an oral story is to learn “WHAT” happened. Written stories answer the “HOW” much better. Lengthy descriptions, repetitive actions and elaborate metaphors enhance a written story but drag down an oral one. 5) Relax – don’t memorize your material. This will make the story stilted. 6) Vary your voice and your rhythm as you speak to build tension, increase interest 7) Add humor or modern comparisons when appropriate. Don’t shy away from metaphors or similes that draw comparisons to modern life. Remember, classical storytellers used them as well. Now they are called “epic similes.” Then, they were simply comparisons the audience could visualize and understand. |
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