Creating a Comprehensible Input

ClassroomDr. Robert Patrick

Parkview High School

AgendaPrinciples of CI

Daily Engagement and JobExerceamus!

What a year looks likeWhat a week looks like

What motivates me• Healthy Latin programs

• Equity in the classroom

Comprehensible Input

Mission StatementOur aim is to make the acquisition of Latin possible

for all kinds of learners. In order to do that:

• we affirm that Latin is a language like any other with its level of inflection.

• we affirm that anyone who wants to acquire ability in Latin can do so if offered an approach which employs principles of best practice in language acquisition.

Mission Statement . . . • We acknowledge that most Latin teachers,

like most language teachers are themselves "four percenters" who enjoy questions of linguistics, grammar, and philology.

• These are fascinating disciplines of their own.

• They are not language acquisition, and they interfere with acquisition whenever and wherever they are substituted for best practices.Latin teachers are NOT normal. For our

programs to grow and thrive we must be good at teaching NORMAL kids.

??????????????????????????• Do I have to give up my love of

grammar?• My love of Latin literature?• My passion for Roman history?• My unending delight in philology?

• Latin teachers MUST know and be trained in these things.

• It’s not what we know. It’s how we use it.

How to make a cheesecake

Cheesecake• Graham crackers• Sugar• Salt• Butter• Cream cheese• Vanilla extract• Eggs• Sour cream• Heavy cream• berries

Rotary Principle 1The directions you are given may not

mean what you think they mean

Rotary Principle 2You can stay on the rotary as long as you

like until you are sure where you are going.

Principles of CI--so far

Principles of Best Practicies for Acquiring Latin IIt is impossible to prepare

students to read the great Latin literature in 3-4 years.

It is possible to give them basic reading facility AND an enjoyable experience of reading Latin, which may encourage them to continue study, in school or on their own.

IIEvery student has a right to experience

being in a second (or third or fourth)

language

IIILatin teachers are not

normal and Latin is not different.

IVStudents only acquire

language, including Latin, when they receive understandable

messages in the target language.

VOne of the quickest ways to

deliver an understandable message in

Latin is to give an English equivalent for a new word or

phrase and then continue delivering messages in Latin.

VILanguage acquisition,

including the assimilation and understanding of grammar, according to the latest brain

research, happens unconsciously..Forgetting that I am speaking Latin

VIIDirect grammar instruction does not advance acquisition. It interferes.

It raises stress levels. Rising stress = lowering acquisition

Grammar instruction can be helpful in advanced stages of acquisition as students begin to NEED to edit their own language.

VIIIError correction tends to put

students on the defensive (raise stress).

It focuses on the form (grammar) of the Latin and not the message, thereby inhibiting acquisition.

Understandable messages are lost in the “endings”.

IXShelter vocabulary, not grammar.

• All our texts do just the opposite.• Consider Tres Ursi.• What to do with our texts, especially if

they have good stories?

X"Four percenters", both students and

teachers, will interfere with their own language acquisition by their desire to focus on grammar study, translation,

and language control.

XIWe have an obligation to stay

focused: am I delivering understandable messages in

Latin?

“This is a game changer.”Keith Toda

Delivering understandable messageswill mean that WE are uncomfortable

and that students are more at ease.Lower stress = raised acquisition

XIIReading Latin is

not translating Latin or speed translating.

• Reading: looking at squiggles on a page and seeing a movie in your head.

• Reading proficiency: what you are able to do, not what you know about the language.

• Our methods have focused on knowing about and not allowed us to do much in Latin.

XIIITrue reading develops in stages.

• It depends on acquired language.• It does not correspond to a grammar

curriculum.• Reading is taking in understandable

messages. If the messages are not understandable, it’s not reading.

XIV i + 1

• i + 1 = where the students are, with interesting material plus a slight edge.

• Reading Latin only advances acquisition when it is i + 1.

• No textbook currently in use in the US provides those kinds of readings

• Teachers are obligated to create and edit readings to fulfill this requirement.

XVProduction, of any kind, does NOT

advance acquisition.Think sex.• Production happens when the

individual is ready to produce and not a moment before.

• The individual will produce at the levels he/she is capable of and will advance at his/her own pace.

• The only thing that will increase the individual's ability to produce higher levels of Latin is to receive regular and constant understandable messages in Latin, i + 1.

XVICI is not Immersion

Immersion camps like Rusticationes, Bidua and Conventicula

• Helpful and delicious in their own way, but . . . • They are filled entirely with 4 percenters• Screened by prior knowledge of Latin grammar• and not reduplicable in classroom• with normal students (i.e. not 4 percenters)Immersion camps are stressful, and rising stress

= lowering acquisition.

XVIICI does happen in all kinds of

classrooms.• In strict grammar-translation

classrooms, moments of understandable messages in Latin happen, usually unintentionally.

• In immersion camps, understandable messages happen all the time, intentionally and unintentionally.

• How do we craft class sessions where for 90% of the time, we are delivering understandable messages in Latin?

GPS Rule -- use tools the way they can best

be used in the location

Various Delivery Methods Under the

Umbrella

TPRCircling with ballsTPRS--ask and tellPQAWAYKMicrologueDictatioEmbedded readings

Read and DiscussOne Word PicturesWord Chunk GameReaders' TheaterLanguage ExperienceQuae creanda et facienda

Teacher: delivers understandable messages in Latin.

Daily Engagement and JobsDaily Engagement requires:• Bright eyes, heads up, square

shoulders• Clear desk• Responses to EVERYTHINGJobs (there can be millions of them):• Dinumerator• Scriptor• Pictor• Horologiarius/a

Exerceamus!

Q and AWhat is comprehensible input?

What does it have to do with equity in the classroom?

What does it have to do with healthy Latin programs?

How many ways are there to deliver it?

Various Delivery Methods Under the

Umbrella

TPRCircling with ballsTPRS--ask and tellPQAWAYKMicrologueDictatioEmbedded readings

Read and DiscussOne Word PicturesWord Chunk GameReaders' TheaterLanguage ExperienceQuae creanda et facienda

Teacher: delivers understandable messages in Latin.

A CI Week in Latin 1?Die Lunae: Dictatio

Die Martis: 4 new words, circle, ask, tell, PQA,

with jobsDie Mercurii: 4 new words, circle, ask,

tell, PQA with jobs

Die Iovis: 4 new words, circle, ask, tell, PQA, with jobs

Die Veneris: Word Chunk Game