Notes of Lessons: Latin, Class III

[We have thought that it might be of use to our readers (in their own families) to publish from month to month during the current year, Notes of Lessons prepared by students of the House of Education for the pupils of the Practising School. We should like to say, however, that such a Lesson is never given as a tour de force, but is always an illustration or an expansion of some part of the children’s regular studies (in the Parents’ Review School), some passage in one or other of their school books.—Ed.]

Subject: Latin • Group: Languages • Class III • Time: 30 minutes

By W. T. Wilkinson
The Parents’ Review, 1904, pp. 946-947

Objects

I. To train the pupils to think independently and to cultivate their constructive powers.

II. To treat the passage chosen in such a way as to include reading in Latin, translation into English, exercises in grammar, and Latin composition.

III. To establish relations with the past.

IV. To give the pupils an interest in Latin translation and help them to attack it in the right way.

Lesson

Step I.—Tell the pupils that the passage they are going to read is about the fabulous time when Saturn reigned in Italy.

Step II.—Let the pupils read the following passage in Latin, with the correct pronunciation and accent. “Antiquissimis temporibus Saturnus in Italiam venisse dicitur. Ibi haud procul a Janiculo arcem condidit, eamque Saturniam appellavit. Hic Italos primus agriculturam docuit.”

Step III.—Take each sentence in turn. First let the pupil analyse it by finding the finite verb and the subject, and then translate it, taking first the subject, then the verb, and lastly the object or the extensions of the verb.

If the pupil does not know the English of a Latin word, help her to find it out by means of an English word derived from the Latin word, e.g., antique (derived from antiquus) = ancient.

Write the new words on the board, giving the nominative and genitive cases of the nouns, and the principal parts of the verbs, and the English in both cases.

Step IV.—Notice the different constructions in the passage, and if any are new explain them and give a few examples; for instance, the verb “docere” takes two accusatives.

Step V.—Give a few simple sentences made up of the words occurring in the passage and let the pupil translate these into Latin and write them down, putting the words in good order.

Examples.—Saturn came to Italy.

There he founded a citadel.

He called the citadel Saturnia.

He first taught the Italians agriculture.

Step VI.—Recapitulate by letting the pupils parse the words that are new to them.