A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana (Lingua Latina) is a Latin textbook published by a Danish man, Hans Henning Orberg, first in 1955 and then revised in 1990. The text is designed for fast paced instruction where, like modern foreign language teaching methods, Latin must be spoken as much as possible in class. This approach, therefore, is meant to discipline students to develop the skill of reading and speaking the language quickly.…
When talking with teachers who are new to classical education, I am often asked about planning a lesson “classically.” In response I suggest that a classical lesson is distinct from all other lessons in that it possesses elements of the classical Trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.
If the ingredients of a lesson contain three features: deciding what to teach, organizing materials and activities, and bringing the lesson to life, then the Trivium is most readily applicable in the organization of the lesson.…
The ice is broken, and you worry that your Latin instruction, held afloat solely by your enthusiasm and love for the language, is sinking. Here are three practical tips for teaching and building confidence in your Latin lessons:
1. Keep Moving
When planning and executing your lessons, maintain a quick pace. Don’t get bogged down in any one concept at a given time.…
It’s one of the most common questions we hear in classical schools, and below, Jordan Adams from the curriculum and instruction team at the Barney Charter School Initiative offers an answer:
…By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys…. I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence–which is a noble thing. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English; I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.
Our curriculum requires students to study Latin I, Latin II, and Latin III. Students typically complete Latin III at the end of 9th grade, and from there they may go on to study advanced Latin or another language in the high school. To see how our students are introduced to Latin and learn a little bit about the language, here’s an Introduction to Latin in 6th Grade. …
At Founders Classical Academy, students begin studying Latin and Greek root words in 3rd grade, and when they get to 6th grade they begin Wheelock’s Latin. Over the course of 6th and 7th grade, students complete Latin I and are ready to go on to more advanced Latin in 8th grade and high school. Learning Latin is a new experience for students who have never had it before, but the benefits of studying this ancient language are hard to overstate.…