[Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers] August 2009 eLitterae

Welcome Letter
Specials
eLearning
Digital Did You Know
Links for Classicists
Pompeiiana Comic

LeaAnn A. Osburn, Executive Editor
Andrew Reinhard, Managing Editor
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
www.BOLCHAZY.com
eclassics.ning.com
Number 66, August 2009

Salvete!

Bolchazy-Carducci has big news! Latin for the New Millennium Level 2 is in print and pre-orders have been shipped. Level 2 Teacher’s Manuals will be in print in September. You can download the PDF of the Level 2 student textbook from the Teachers’ Lounge at http://newmillatin.ning.com now, and PDFs of beginning units from the Teacher’s Manual will be available soon for downloading. To learn more about both levels of Latin for the New Millennium, please visit http://lnm.bolchazy.com.

We are also thrilled to launch the new-and-improved grammar review website, Looking at Latin Online. Just in time for the start of the fall semester, we improved the quality of Latin-English and English-Latin translation questions, and made the site easier to navigate and use. Now it’s even simpler to test your grammar knowledge with nearly 6,000 questions on a wide range of grammatical concepts. Site licensing is available for schools. Individual students, homeschool families, and distance learners can also subscribe. Visit http://lookingatlatin.com to sign up for a free, 7-day, all-access trial. No credit card needed! To subscribe, visit http://bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=LAL1. Curious about how to use Looking at Latin Online? Watch the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_pdpr7GlaE.

In other Looking at Latin news, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers has PERMANENTLY reduced the price of Anna Andresian’s book from $55.00 to $39.00, making this useful and user-friendly volume more affordable for students and teachers. Order your copies today by visiting: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=6153.

The other new release for July/August is William S. Anderson’s A Terence Reader: Selections from Six Plays, the second title in the Bolchazy-Carducci Latin Readers series edited by Ronnie Ancona. Learn more about the series by visiting http://bolchazy.com/readers and order the book here: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=6781.

Bolchazy-Carducci continues to attend conferences and participate in workshops. Vice President Allan Bolchazy and Editorial/Production Professional Peter Sipes enjoyed the recent NJCL conference in Davis, California. Andrew Reinhard, Director of eLearning, led a workshop on digital tools for Latin teachers at Sally Davis’ methods course at the University of Virginia. Download the free, how-to workbook at eClassics: http://eclassics.ning.com/. Andrew also gave two lectures on online resources for Classics and Classical Archaeology at the 20^th Anniversary celebration of Excellence Through Classics held in Pittsburgh in July. He will be speaking on digital Classics for Latin teachers on September 19^th, too, at the Colorado Classical Association.

Until next month,

Andrew Reinhard
Managing Editor, eLitterae
Director of eLearning
areinhard@bolchazy.com

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Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers invites its eLitterae subscribers to take advantage of a 50%, single-copy in August/September on one of the following Latin for the New Millennium ancillaries by Rose Williams:

The Original Dysfunctional Family
x + 62 pp (2008) Paperback ISBN 978-0-86516-690-5; $12.00, $6.00

From Romulus to Romulus Augustulus
x + 70 pp (2008) Paperback ISBN 978-0-86516-691-2; $12.00, $6.00

The Clay-footed SuperHeroes
x + 70 pp (2009) Paperback ISBN 978-0-86516-719-3; $12.00, $6.00

From Rome to Reformation
xviii + 102 pp (2009) Paperback ISBN 978-0-86516-718-6; $12.00, $6.00

One copy, prepaid, no returns, not available to distributors. Offer expires 09/30/09.

Make sure you mention that you are an eLitterae subscriber if you place your order by phone or fax. If you place your order via the Bolchazy-Carducci web site at www.BOLCHAZY.com, your discount price will be relfected in your online invoice.

Monthly Specials are available on our website, check our "Special Offers" link.

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Active Latin Masterclasses with Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers is pleased to announce two masterclasses in active Latin from two of its biggest proponents: Dr. Milena Minkova and Dr. Terence Tunberg of the University of Kentucky. Minkova and Tunberg, authors of Latin for the New Millennium, host the annual Conventiculum Latinum, the longest-running immersive seminar for active Latin in North America. Join them live, online, for two evenings this September:

Training Techniques for Spoken Latin Expression
September 23, 2009

Minkova and Tunberg maintain that the active use of Latin can help all students and teachers, whether the teacher prefers a more inductive, reading-oriented approach to teaching Latin, or a more analytical and grammatical approach. Participants in this webinar will explore a range of activities involving spoken Latin designed for learners at levels ranging from beginners to the advanced.

Virtual Conventiculum
September 30, 2009

This webinar is designed for people who have had some previous experience in spoken Latin and have acquired at least a moderate ability to express themselves orally in the language. Activities will be focused on enhancing vocabulary relating to various spheres of daily life, as well as discussion of short Latin texts in Latin. The Virtual Conventiculum will be conducted entirely in Latin.

Both webinars are scheduled for 6:00 – 8:00 PM Eastern Time, and are priced at $99.00 each. To register, visit http://www.bolchazy.com/webinars.html or call 847.526.4344. Questions? Email them to Andrew Reinhard, Director of eLearning, mailto: areinhard@bolchazy.com.

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Quia in the Latin Classroom
Ginny Lindzey, Latin Teacher
Dripping Springs High School

Many people know about Quia.com (http://www.quia.com), but few use the variety of features available for the benefit of their students. Most teachers, if they use the site, simply make up flashcards of vocabulary for specific textbooks or authors. I try to use it to complement my teaching style.

In Latin 1 we use Quia mainly for test preparation and in tutorials when students come in for extra review. However, by Latin 2 my in-context vocabulary quizzes are requiring more details and thus we will use Quia before vocabulary quizzes as well as before tests, and in fact we have a dedicated day each week in the computer lab for this purpose.

The following are the main Quia features that I use:

activities: flashcards: for basic vocabulary drilling
activities: hangman: for principal parts of verbs
activities: battleship: for a fun review of verb tenses, etc.
activities: pop-ups: for review of simple grammar in the form of multiple choice (not requiring feedback)
activities: patterns: for simple conjugating or declining (where you simply pick the answer)
activities: cloze: for declining, conjugating, and synopses, and occasionally for true cloze (fill in the blank) exercises involving a story or passage in Latin

I definitely prefer to use the cloze activity for declining, conjugating, and synopses because it requires students to write everything out (as opposed to the “patterns” drill) and provides them with immediate feedback, thus preventing students from erroneously learning the wrong way to conjugate a verb, etc.

quizzes: multiple choice: for review of more complex grammar, where I can provide feedback
quizzes: true/false: for review of culture, etc., where I can provide feedback
quizzes: fill in the blank: for in-context vocabulary quizzes, where I can provide feedback

This is basically a preview of the in-context vocabulary quizzes that I will use in class the subsequent day, but gives the students a chance to think about what I am asking for—including number, tense, mood, and voice for verbs; number and case for nouns, etc. I provide feedback in the form of translations of whole sentence, explanations for morphology and syntax, etc. As students advance in their knowledge of Latin, I start requiring whole phrases be translated and not just an isolated word. For instance, in the sentence servī ab architectō arcessītī, fabrum comprehendērunt et in balneum dēiēcērunt, I might require students to provide the English for everything in capitals (“summoned by the architect”). By the time students get to AP Vergil, the idea of chunking is not even an issue because of these drills and quizzes.

Many if not most of these Quia exercises are time-intensive to create, especially if you want to include macrons. Consequently I have created my own shortcuts involving doing most of the typing with macrons in Microsoft Word and then copying and pasting into Quia. The reward, to me, is that once I have created them, they will be there year after year for my students to use and learn from. (Some of my materials are over ten years old now.)

I have found that the benefits of providing students with these online materials are tremendous and are often the difference between passing and failing for strugglers or even average students. I have gotten to a point that I feel dependent upon Quia to insure that all students have a solid review before a test or have an equal chance of success on my in-context quizzes. Moreover, by walking around and monitoring students while they are doing the Quia drills, I am able to provide additional personalized instruction to those who are still struggling. This past year I had a projector in my room and was able preview some more difficult drills with the class as a whole before going down to the computer lab for individual work.

I personally believe that having access to quia.com has made me a better teacher and my students better students. I highly recommend to teachers that they invest their time in developing some Quia material of their own.

Ginny Lindzey, Latin Teacher
Dripping Springs High School
ginny.lindzey@dripping-springs.txed.net

[Editor’s Note: Quia.com offers 30-day free trial subscriptions to teachers new to the website. Quia exercises created by others are free to access and use by anyone. To see what Ginny has done, write to her at the email address above, and she will send you some links. Quia-formatted questions produced by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers for Latin for the New Millennium are available for LNM teachers in the Teachers’ Lounge, http://newmillatin.ning.com.]

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In case you’ve missed it, it’s back-to-school time. Below are a few sites for Latin teacher resources as you start the new school year:

Do your Latin classes need class mottoes? Something to put on a T-shirt or a poster to start the year off with a feeling of pride and solidarity? This fun, online motto generator might help: http://www.inrebus.com/latinmottogenerator.php

The About.com information site contains a few useful articles and links for Latin teachers:

http://tinyurl.com/o6fwxg: Latin teaching materials at Saint Louis University

http://tinyurl.com/om5t49: Use nearly 3,000 sets of teacher-created Latin exercises on Quia.com.

http://tinyurl.com/qxno6e: Latin classroom aids for grades 7-12 from Joe Kelly at the University of Nebraska

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Pompeiiana Comic

Comic from When In Rome, Best Cartoons of Pompeiiana Newsletter.
Comic a Day Pompeiiana Blog

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See the Bolchazy-Carducci web site for classroom tips on teaching Catullus and on using children's books translated into Latin, Christmas carols in Latin, and Latin proverbs to teach grammar. In the search box, type "teaching tips" to see all that are available (click on a title to view and click on the teaching tip link).

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Affiliate Web Sites

Artes Latinae

Gilgamesh Online

Central and Eastern European Classical Scholarship

Latin for the
New Millennium

Mythology

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