Brad Savage, newly elected ETC Information Chair shares tips on how to teach Latin and Classics to the very young.
Fall 2020 · PRIMA · TEACHER ARTICLE
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Teaching Latin to Pre-Literate Children
Brad Savage, ETC Information Chair
Even though I always knew I was going to be a teacher, I never thought I would be teaching students as young as 3 or 4, but that is one of the many opportunities I have as I teach Latin daily, to kids pre-K through 12, at The Einstein Academy. Latin teachers, more so than other teachers, seem most perplexed as to how I teach Latin to pre-literate children, largely because Latin continues to be taught in a grammar-translation model. Indeed, I myself was taught via the G-T method, and I still believe there is value to this pedagogy, but teaching these wonderful, eager students required me to throw out that sort of teaching methodology, thereby helping to reinvigorate my love of teaching and, more importantly, my love of the Latin language. My goal here is not to enter into the debate as to which of the various Latin teaching methods is best, although I think we all need to be aware of and involved in the spirited debate surrounding these pedagogical issues.
My hope is to discuss various activities I have developed, adapted, or stolen over the last seven years so that people who teach pre-literate or beginning students will have one more source of inspiration. I am also hopeful that many of the activities I employ will be useful to MS teachers, and even to HS teachers, either to be used at the introductory level or in upper level classes as a brain break or to encourage a more “active” use of oral Latin. I am by no means an expert on oral/active Latin or on CI, but, as with most practitioners, I read blogs, talk to fellow teachers (of many other languages beside Latin), and attend conferences.
At the end of this introduction, you will find links to all sorts of material I use; some of it is on the web, and some of it is material I have created either alone or in collaboration with my students; feel free to use ANY material I have created for your own purposes: adapt it or use it exactly as I have. Latin teachers are, as a rule, an altruistic bunch, and I hope this can be another way I contribute to the generous community of magistrae/i linguae Latinae
As I mentioned, I do not intend this to serve as a how-to manual for CI-teaching of Latin to pre-literate kids, but, when teaching children of this age, the “3 Cs” are vital: comprehensible, compelling, and caring. Keep them
active, talk to them in story form, if possible, and make sure everyone can understand you. Sometimes I will read to them a story they already know in Latin (Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Goodnight, Moon are good stories to begin with, and they don’t require TOO much of you to translate them).
To begin, you will have to learn some new vocabulary: animals, colors (you are going to find various words for what we think of as the main colors, so stay consistent), classroom objects, emotions, etc, and you will be using habēre, velle, vidēre, and ire a great deal. In addition, you are going to make mistakes with gender and number and case, as will your students. You may be very afraid to speak in Latin, but practice will give you confidence.