Dear Colleagues,

 

We are happy to announce this year’s Cyber Monday 40% off discount. For details, see the announcement in this issue. Mark the dates on your calendars!

 

We are pleased with all the positive reports we are receiving about Lumina: Online Guided Practice to Accompany LNM. To learn more, see the webinars posting later in this issue and hear Professor Michael de Brauw of North Central College share his insights on using Lumina. Mark your calendar for November 19!

 

Composing this issue’s report on the Jesuit Latin Colloquium V prompted some personal reflection on the connectedness of our discipline. Do indulge me for a moment . . .

 

The gathering in Cincinnati elicited a wave of connections. These colloquia always bring forth fond memories of my twenty-six years teaching Latin and Greek at Loyola Academy, the Jesuit college preparatory school just north of Chicago. The presence of two teachers, Emil Penarubia and Maureen Toner, from Boston College High triggered memories of my first studies of Latin and Greek. Emil was a classics major at the College of the Holy Cross along with my former student from Loyola Academy, Tim Joseph, who now teaches in their classics department. I know Maureen’s mother, a Latin teacher retired from the Chicago Public Schools, from our participation in the Illinois Classical Conference. Rev. Bryan Norton, S.J., who delivered the Rettig Lecture, prompted recollections of my undergraduate studies when he referenced our mutual alma mater, Williams College. Xavier University and its Classics and Philosophy Honors AB Program recently came up in conversation while I was at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. While dining with the parents of former students Paul and Tim Joseph (mentioned above), Bob and Sarah Joseph, Bob mentioned having attended his college reunion at Xavier and his checking in at the CPHAB office. To bring things full circle, Bob also shared that he serves as a docent for the Anderson House in Washington, DC, the home of the Society of the Cincinnati. In his presentation at the Jesuit Latin Colloquium, Professor Thomas Strunk noted that the city of Cincinnati was renamed for Society of the Cincinnati, whose members are descended from those who fought in the American War for Independence. Connections. Connections. Connections.

 

As we celebrate Thanksgiving later this month, know that we at Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers appreciate our connections with you, our classics colleagues. Thank you for those connections.

The Latin teachers of St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, OH—Nora Denning, Dan Dery, and Braden Mechley—organized and hosted the Jesuit Latin Colloquium V, November 7–9. The gathering of high school Latin teachers represented twenty Jesuit high schools from Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, CA, and Gonzaga Preparatory in Spokane, WA, to Boston College High in Boston, MA, Xavier High in New York City, and Jesuit High in New Orleans, LA. The biennial conference set a record with thirty-nine attendees. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers was honored to have been invited to exhibit. Editor Don Sprague, who taught for twenty-six years at the Jesuit Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL, again represented the company.

 

The conference carefully blended informal networking time with formal presentations and small group discussions on topics suggested by participants. In this vein, conferees gathered Thursday evening at Cincinnati’s Fueled Collective for pre-prandial and hearty hors d’oeuvres and pizza from Bravo Cocina. The informal setting encouraged returning attendees to catch up with one another while welcoming teachers new to the colloquium. Almost half of the attendees were newcomers.

 

Professor Thomas Strunk of Cincinnati’s Xavier University, where he teaches in the classics department and leads the CPHAB honors program in classics and philosophy, kicked off the colloquium’s presentations with a talk entitled “A Tale of Two Dictators: Caesar and Cincinnatus” that made connections between the classical world and Cincinnati, OH.

 

Other presentations included “Romance Languages via Latin,” “Savvy Travel: Tips for Touring Italia,” “Lingua Latina per Sē Illūstrāta: Experimenting with the Natural Method,” and “Social Justice: Cicero, World War II, and Today.” A highlight of each colloquium is taking a tour, led by Latin students, of the host high school campus and facilities. This took place Friday morning after the welcome and before the formal program of presentations. Friday’s program ended at Xavier University with the annual Rettig Lecture and Reception sponsored by the CPHAB program. Fr. Bryan Norton, S.J., took a break from his studies in Paris, France, to provide a brilliant lecture, “The Jesuit Classical Tradition: Past Perspectives, Contemporary Questions, Future Horizons,” to a full house.

 

The colloquium ended Saturday morning with Fr. Norton celebrating a Latin Mass at Xavier University’s Bellarmine Chapel. Following the service, St. X classicist Dan Dery led a group to Eden Park and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Attendees returned to their schools energized, enthused about their teaching, and planning to attend Jesuit Latin Colloquium VI in 2021 at an East Coast Jesuit high school.

The Advanced Placement syllabus, the ACTFL standards and their ACL adaptation, and state and local curricula often stipulate that interpretive communication allows learners to understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics. For this reason it is important that the cross-pollination between AP Latin goals and all levels of Latin be integral to the program.

 

Early on in instruction for beginning texts that do not feature Latin-author based readings, it is beneficial to introduce outside readings from The Latin Library. When celebrating Caesar in March of Latin 2, you can present students a modified version of an excerpt from De Bello Gallico. For example, the Druids regularly fascinate students. An excerpt (DBG 6.14) from the AP Latin syllabus follows.

 

 

If you want to expose Latin 2 or early Latin 3 students to AP Latin texts, you can adapt this passage in a straightforward way by simply changing the word order to the English word order and giving vocabulary help as necessary (e.g., pendunt, tributa, ediscere, mandare, utantur) This activity exposes students to previously unseen text and, with vocabulary provided, they are better able to comprehend Caesar’s own Latin.

Regardless of your state or school district performance indicators, check points, or other criteria for student performance, you probably have your own guidelines for reading and comprehension, translation, and some kind of textual analysis. How do you make critical thinking a basic part of your instruction? How do you check for understanding of vocabulary, translation, analysis? For this passage, overall thought questions that check for such understanding might be:

For a more specific check for understanding of the adapted passage’s four sentences, ask students to articulate what happens in each sentence and include specific Latin words that indicate where they found their answers. This activity is the basis of writing an essay with Latin support. And reading your adaptations of the text of either the Aeneid or De Bello Gallico is a learning activity that exposes students to the thoughts and ideas that we hope will stimulate them to look forward to their later, more intensive work with the original texts.

Reading Latin from the earliest days in the first year is about communication and learning about another culture. What are we trying to learn about these people? I hope we can inspire students both to develop an interest in and to grow in their knowledge of an ancient culture. In Latin, our communication goal means translation, interpretation, contextualization, and reading aloud with appropriate attention to the metrical form, in effect, sharing the sounds the ancients heard when a poet read his work aloud. It is my belief that the basic tenets of the AP Latin program can readily permeate and enhance your instruction and can lead students toward higher level thinking and understanding of Latin texts, and prepare them well for the fifth semester of college Latin, i.e., the AP Latin course.

 

 

 

The corridor connecting Terminal 1 and 2 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is decorated with a series of artwork created by youth participating in the city’s Gallery 37 art program. The caryatid, most likely inspired by Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry’s “Porch of the Maidens,” catches a classicist’s eye. The Columbian Exposition of 1893 Fine Arts Building now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

Editor Amelia Wallace carves classical pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lumina online content offers new resources to support LNM, Levels 1 and 2. The interactive guided Language Fact sections provide immediate feedback to students as they preview or review each chapter of Latin for the New Millennium Level 1 or Level 2. Mouse-over vocabulary lists allow a new format for vocabulary mastery. Infinitely replayable crossword puzzles engage students in derivative work. Automatically graded quizzes free up student-teacher interaction time for translation, oral/aural work, discussion, and other learning activities. For a brief overview of the program, check out this video.

 

 

Lumina offers a revamped Artes Latinae. This fully interactive online program teaches all of Latin grammar in two courses. Purchase the program at a special discounted price of 25% off! For a brief overview of the program, check out this video.

Based on the program developed by Dr. Waldo E. Sweet of the University of Michigan for Encyclopedia Britannica, Lumina: Artes Latinae is an easy-to-follow course that includes all the tools a student needs to achieve a firm command of Latin. The course was carefully crafted and refined to suit the needs and abilities of a broad spectrum of students. Lumina: Artes Latinae meets existing foreign language requirements for high school graduation.

Contact us for an individual consultation on either program: bridget@bolchazy.com.

 

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