Attendees at Our Display, Houston Hall, 2006 ACL Institute, University of Pennsylvania.
Left to right: Allie Mae, Zell, Instructor Barbara Patla, Edith Anne, Zulema, Gene and Instructor Ginny Anderson.
Experiences of a First Year Student at the ACL Conference
by Alliemae, June 2006
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 23, 24, 25th of 2006 I attended my first Latin conference after having studied Latin for only one year.
On arriving at Houston Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, and in search of other SeniorNetters, I immediately noticed the hum of excitement as the book and souvenir tables were being set up for the 12 Noon opening. As other SeniorNetters arrived one by one or two by two we had a fun time meeting each other and believe me it was a thrill to finally meet our teacher Ginny and Barbara Patla, Latin and also Greek teacher. I also met my classmate GeneJ, EA my auxilia, as well as other upperclassmen and their husbands. What a great way to start the day!!
After looking through some tables but mainly chatting with each other plus greeting and nodding to other attendees who, by the way, were very, very friendly to us there was just enough time for a lovely, friendly lunch before the first round of presentations.
The first presentation I attended was Prima Lingua: A Preparatory Course for the Study of Foreign Languages. Prima Lingua is a web-based Latin course to prepare students for beginning foreign language studies.
Prima Lingua focuses on two main goals: Familiarizing students with key grammatical concepts that English shares with other languages and comparing these structures, and Introducing grammatical elements that are not present in English but that students will encounter when they begin foreign language study.
The program itself is subscribed to by the teachers, which makes the web site available to all of their students. The teacher is free to use the basis of the games for his/her own Lessons and Vocabulary as well as use the web-based to create his/her own games appropriate to their classes' current lessons.
The course uses computer games of a great and interesting variety including our Hangman games and some of the other Quia vocabulary lists and word-matching. It engages students by its computer game qualities and even adults and this senior became engaged in the fun and challenge of learning by this method.
Their Web address is: www.primalingua.net. The site explains their approach and also gives samples of a few of their games.
The second presentation I attended on Friday afternoon was entitled Incorporating the Study of Everyday Life in Rome Into the Latin Curriculum, and the theme was Using Archeology and Ancient History in the Latin Classroom. It addressed issues which were fundamental to being Roman and integrated into the courses in age appropriate and population diversity approaches. The presentation targeted the Elementary, Middle School, High Schools and College/University audiences and teachers of the same.
Twenty main topics are addressed in this course:
As you can see, there are not many facets of Roman life not covered and the course targets all classes and strata of Romans. I found this presentation interesting and especially engaging after having been introduced to Latin through Cambridge 1 and Caecilius, his family, friends and others who touched his and their lives.
On Saturday afternoon, after a trip to the University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, looking through three very large exhibits on the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (including listening to a recording of Etruscan pronunciation) we returned to Houston and I was off to a presentation of Reading Strategies (for all levels of Latin) during which the introduction was quite interesting to me as a student although I am sure most teachers were already familiar with the strategies mentioned.
I lasted through the introductory stages such as: Set a purpose for reading; Preview the text; Make predictions; Preview vocabulary; Activate prior knowledge (as a catalyst) but found it necessary to leave before the audience, mostly teachers, broke up into smaller groups to work on each of the above-listed topics.
In this presentation along with, but even more-so than others, I realized that much which I had seen presented was already being done in my Latin 101 and 102 classes on SeniorNet.
Until Sunday morning I would have to say that the first presentation I had attended, Prima Lingua was the most interesting. However, on early Sunday morning I found the presentation called, "Teaching Latin and the U. S. Constitution to Second Language Students: Developing Educated Citizens of the 21st Century," based on NOS POPVLVS, a Latin Companion to We the People, by E. N. Genovese, the presenter of this marvelous lecture.
"Nos Populus" is a Latin text that teaches both the content and grammar of both Latin and constitutional History, and the theme was "Teaching Latin to Non-Traditional Students/Audiences." Students involved in this approach have gone on to study a number of different foreign languages. This topic was the one I had been waiting for and also the reason I had registered for all three days. It was better than I could have imagined.
The students in this course were from all over the world and from every situation we have seen in the news from all those countries where children are at risk. There were other students more fortunate as well and all of these children as well as the founders and teachers of these students reached achievements that were so impressive I cannot name them all here. This course is truly a much-needed new frontiers for the 21st Century!
Anticlimactically, but still very interesting was the final presentation I attended. It was "Getting Inside Their Heads." The most impressive tool they used was a diagram, which they called "Grammar Town" and a river ran through it, which they called River Stems. Picture a square of land with a winding river running through it diagonally. The northern area above the river had houses representing nouns of each declension and the southern part of the town was a verb town with houses of conjugations. The presenters were also presenting mnemonic songs such as we were given for our declension and conjugation endings here in our SeniorNet courses.. But then I got hungry and bored and made my polite thank yous and excused myself. After all, Sunday was the day they broke down the sales tables and items were being marked down!
Posters and Textbooks -- And Gifts, oh my!
DVDs, T-shirts -- And Tres Porculi!
There were two rooms with at least three tables in each and oh, what an abundance of books. They had Grammars, Dictionaries, Workbooks, fiction and even mysteries. Some of the great and famous writers were: Cicero, Horace, Ovid, Vergil and a very interesting book by W. Welch and C.G. Duffield, Caesar's Invasion of Britain which I would love to have bought but it was already tagged as sold. I did buy myself two books:
"Amo, Amas, Amat and More" (How to Use Latin to Your Own Advantage and to the Astonishment of Others) with an Introduction by WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. so I figured it can't be too shabby, and also On Old Age [de senectute] by Marcus Tullius Cicero (Latin text with footnotes). I may as well think big!
My favorites, however, were the two I got for my grandchildren:
Quo colore est? and Quis me amat?--both by Marie Carducci Bolchazy who was right there at the table and who signed both books to each of their names!
Other children's books I saw were: Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis
Cattus Petasatus (Doctore Seuss)
Winnie Ille Pu
Virent Ova! Viret Perna!! -- (Green Eggs and Ham, also Doctore Seuss)
Tres Porculi books, dolls and tee shirts!
My final thrill at the Conference was my visit to the table of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (find them at http://www.vcoins.com), where I was given three ancient coins:
Valentinian I, 364-375 AD, Small bronze of Constantinople
Arcadius, 383-408 AD, Small Bronze, Constantinople
Valens, 364-378 AD, Small Bronze, Cyzicus
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 23, 24, 25th of 2006 I attended my first Latin conference after having studied Latin for only one year.
On arriving at Houston Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, and in search of other SeniorNetters, I immediately noticed the hum of excitement as the book and souvenir tables were being set up for the 12 Noon opening. As other SeniorNetters arrived one by one or two by two we had a fun time meeting each other and believe me it was a thrill to finally meet our teacher Ginny and Barbara Patla, Latin and also Greek teacher. I also met my classmate GeneJ, EA my auxilia, as well as other upperclassmen and their husbands. What a great way to start the day!!
After looking through some tables but mainly chatting with each other plus greeting and nodding to other attendees who, by the way, were very, very friendly to us there was just enough time for a lovely, friendly lunch before the first round of presentations.
The first presentation I attended was Prima Lingua: A Preparatory Course for the Study of Foreign Languages. Prima Lingua is a web-based Latin course to prepare students for beginning foreign language studies.
Prima Lingua focuses on two main goals: Familiarizing students with key grammatical concepts that English shares with other languages and comparing these structures, and Introducing grammatical elements that are not present in English but that students will encounter when they begin foreign language study.
The program itself is subscribed to by the teachers, which makes the web site available to all of their students. The teacher is free to use the basis of the games for his/her own Lessons and Vocabulary as well as use the web-based to create his/her own games appropriate to their classes' current lessons.
The course uses computer games of a great and interesting variety including our Hangman games and some of the other Quia vocabulary lists and word-matching. It engages students by its computer game qualities and even adults and this senior became engaged in the fun and challenge of learning by this method.
Their Web address is: www.primalingua.net. The site explains their approach and also gives samples of a few of their games.
The second presentation I attended on Friday afternoon was entitled Incorporating the Study of Everyday Life in Rome Into the Latin Curriculum, and the theme was Using Archeology and Ancient History in the Latin Classroom. It addressed issues which were fundamental to being Roman and integrated into the courses in age appropriate and population diversity approaches. The presentation targeted the Elementary, Middle School, High Schools and College/University audiences and teachers of the same.
Twenty main topics are addressed in this course:
- Roman Society
- The Family
- Religious Rituals
- Roman Housing
- Domestic Life
- Education
- Slavery
- Freedmen and Freedwomen
- Urban Life
- Law and Order
- Farming
- Occupations
- Travel and Trade
- Measuring time and Weight
- Leisure Activities
- Public Entertainment
- Religion
- Stages in the Lives of Boys and Men
- Stages in the Lives of Girls and Women
- Rome in Film and Fiction
As you can see, there are not many facets of Roman life not covered and the course targets all classes and strata of Romans. I found this presentation interesting and especially engaging after having been introduced to Latin through Cambridge 1 and Caecilius, his family, friends and others who touched his and their lives.
On Saturday afternoon, after a trip to the University Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, looking through three very large exhibits on the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (including listening to a recording of Etruscan pronunciation) we returned to Houston and I was off to a presentation of Reading Strategies (for all levels of Latin) during which the introduction was quite interesting to me as a student although I am sure most teachers were already familiar with the strategies mentioned.
I lasted through the introductory stages such as: Set a purpose for reading; Preview the text; Make predictions; Preview vocabulary; Activate prior knowledge (as a catalyst) but found it necessary to leave before the audience, mostly teachers, broke up into smaller groups to work on each of the above-listed topics.
In this presentation along with, but even more-so than others, I realized that much which I had seen presented was already being done in my Latin 101 and 102 classes on SeniorNet.
Until Sunday morning I would have to say that the first presentation I had attended, Prima Lingua was the most interesting. However, on early Sunday morning I found the presentation called, "Teaching Latin and the U. S. Constitution to Second Language Students: Developing Educated Citizens of the 21st Century," based on NOS POPVLVS, a Latin Companion to We the People, by E. N. Genovese, the presenter of this marvelous lecture.
"Nos Populus" is a Latin text that teaches both the content and grammar of both Latin and constitutional History, and the theme was "Teaching Latin to Non-Traditional Students/Audiences." Students involved in this approach have gone on to study a number of different foreign languages. This topic was the one I had been waiting for and also the reason I had registered for all three days. It was better than I could have imagined.
The students in this course were from all over the world and from every situation we have seen in the news from all those countries where children are at risk. There were other students more fortunate as well and all of these children as well as the founders and teachers of these students reached achievements that were so impressive I cannot name them all here. This course is truly a much-needed new frontiers for the 21st Century!
Anticlimactically, but still very interesting was the final presentation I attended. It was "Getting Inside Their Heads." The most impressive tool they used was a diagram, which they called "Grammar Town" and a river ran through it, which they called River Stems. Picture a square of land with a winding river running through it diagonally. The northern area above the river had houses representing nouns of each declension and the southern part of the town was a verb town with houses of conjugations. The presenters were also presenting mnemonic songs such as we were given for our declension and conjugation endings here in our SeniorNet courses.. But then I got hungry and bored and made my polite thank yous and excused myself. After all, Sunday was the day they broke down the sales tables and items were being marked down!
Posters and Textbooks -- And Gifts, oh my!
DVDs, T-shirts -- And Tres Porculi!
There were two rooms with at least three tables in each and oh, what an abundance of books. They had Grammars, Dictionaries, Workbooks, fiction and even mysteries. Some of the great and famous writers were: Cicero, Horace, Ovid, Vergil and a very interesting book by W. Welch and C.G. Duffield, Caesar's Invasion of Britain which I would love to have bought but it was already tagged as sold. I did buy myself two books:
"Amo, Amas, Amat and More" (How to Use Latin to Your Own Advantage and to the Astonishment of Others) with an Introduction by WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. so I figured it can't be too shabby, and also On Old Age [de senectute] by Marcus Tullius Cicero (Latin text with footnotes). I may as well think big!
My favorites, however, were the two I got for my grandchildren:
Other children's books I saw were:
My final thrill at the Conference was my visit to the table of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild (find them at http://www.vcoins.com), where I was given three ancient coins:
Valentinian I, 364-375 AD, Small bronze of Constantinople
Arcadius, 383-408 AD, Small Bronze, Constantinople
Valens, 364-378 AD, Small Bronze, Cyzicus
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