Here is a report from Bob Patrick:
Hey Ben –
I take great encouragement from things like this. Each year, we have students keep their timed writes in a folder. All they do is a word count, date a title and drop them in the folder. At the end of each semester, we give them some analytical questions, in English, to help them SEE their own work and progress.
So, today I am going through them. One of the questions we ask is “What most surprises you about the entirety of your portfolio from the first to the last timed writes?” This is a third year student, writing about what’s in her portfolio since her first year in Latin:
“The most surprising thing about my portfolio is the jump in vocabulary, grammar, length and story complexity. My beginning timed writes are 40 words long and use simple sentences simply stating a characteristic. My most current timed writes are over 200 words and describe myths, stories, feelings and characters in Latin grammar sentence style.”
This from a Chinese student for whom English is a second language and Latin a third.
Made my day. She can SEE her own progress, acknowledge it, understand that it is real and be proud of it.
Bob