This picks up on the Jeff thread. It is from John talking to James. I am in hearty accordance with him about the reading suggestion, and not just because I believe in the raw unbridled power of reading to bring unexpected huge language gains, but also bc just about everyone is crawling to spring break and reading is the mule that will pick us up and get us there as we crawl through the desert, looking for any help we can get. Anyone struggling right now (is anyone not?) take note. We always hit this wall in March, and the fool tries to knock it over by continuing with more auditory CI in the form of stories and the like, but the wise teacher goes on a reading jag. Refer to Reading Option A in the categories for how to do that; it is the reading plan I use, anyway. Here John cites James, who is providing the Latin team with some simple readings, to start:
…this, the most difficult of times in the school year…
“Thanks so much, Jim, for the readings, and for the sentiments. We need to cut ourselves some slack and realize we’re not the ones responsible for lack of student enthusiasm this time of year. Even the best CI teachers are doing this sort of thing. Let’s keep the kids busy with reading, and reflect on how next school year can get off to an even better start.
“There’s a lot of talk about crowdsourcing easy Latin readers, and I hope that turns into something, but Ben suggested to me that the most efficient way for readers to get written is for individual writers to produce individual works. So maybe, rather than waiting for the perfect collaboration, we should all just go ahead with whatever idea we have in our head, keep the vocab simple, under 300 words, or limited to unit 1 of cambridge, etc., and just start writing something, be it the opening chapters of a novel, or a myth/fable in truly comprehensible Latin. Then we can share, try out, edit, critique them, which is a better way to make use of collaborative time.
“I know this is a tall order for most of us right now, but it’s something to keep in the back of our minds, and once Summer hits, just start.”
John