Author: Jennifer Cyr
Lesson Title: Roman short stories
Suggested Grade Level:
9
Estimated Lesson Time:
60 minutes
Student Prior Knowledge:
Students will already have sufficient grammatical and vocabulary knowledge to be capable of reading a passage of Latin appropriate for their level of knowledge. Students will also already understand literary elements such as character, plot, setting, and theme. Students will be familiar with Google.
Standards:
WL.K12.NM.2.2: Demonstrate understanding of short, simple literary stories.
Goals:
Student will translate a short story from Latin into English and discuss and analyze the literary elements of the story with the class, providing supporting examples from the Latin text. Discussing the literary aspects of the story allows students to take the process of translation one step further to actually understanding the author's meaning behind the words and grammar in the story. Understanding the author’s meaning is important for improving critical thinking skills.
Learning Objectives or “I can statements”:
Given a short passage of Latin, students should translate the passage into idiosyncratic English with 90% accuracy.
Given the English translation of the passage, students should discuss with a partner the literary elements of the passage with no mistakes.
Given the English translation of the passage, students should express their opinions about and analyze the literary elements of the passage while providing supporting examples from the Latin text.
Procedures:
1. Teacher shows example of a passage of Latin from a Harry Potter novel that is mistranslated and explains the implications of this mistranslation. Example should be funny to engage students while at the same time showing the importance of translating accurately. (5-10 minutes)
2. Class participates in quick drill game of vocabulary and grammatical constructions. (5 minutes)
3. Students individually translate a short Latin passage that is displayed on a Google document into English. Students should type in their translations on the same Google document, so the passage and translation are side by side. (20 minutes)
4. Students group into pairs and discuss the characters, plot, setting, and theme of the story. (10 minutes)
5. Class participates in a large group discussion sharing thoughts on the translation, characters, plot, setting, and theme of the passage, supporting their thoughts with evidence from the text. Teacher displays the Google document on the SmartBoard and selects a few student examples to discuss the translation, characters, plot, setting, and themes. (20 minutes)
Assessment: Teacher will make observations based on class discussion to assess students’ understanding of the passage and ability to support their ideas with evidence from the Latin text. Teacher will review and grade translations saved on the Google document to assess students’ translation accuracy.