Hi Ben,
I teach 7-8 grade Latin at Cathedral School for Boys in San Francisco, CA. Early in my study of Latin I was fortunate to come into contact with teachers and colleagues who spoke Latin as a way to encourage interest and proficiency in the language. My experiences with learning a language are what caused me to become a teacher, and have led me to search out strategies for making Latin comprehensible and meaningful to my students. There is now a new generation of Latin teachers who are realizing that the traditional (i.e. grammar-translation) methods of teaching Latin are not working, and that teaching to 4% of students and telling the rest of them to go take Spanish is not a sustainable model for the survival of Latin in our schools. With this in mind, my colleague Bob Patrick and I established an email list called Latin–Best Practices, which now has over 800 members–many of them Latin teachers who suspect that there is a better way out there, but are still trying to figure out how to make that happen. I have been kicking the theory around for almost 5 years, and after landing a steady Latin job this year, and after a few experiments and successes this year I am finally ready to work on the practical nuts and bolts of making CI happen in my classroom on a regular basis, and share the results with my colleagues.
www.johnpiazza.net
The Essential Marcus Aurelius
Now available in bookstores, or via John’s website.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
