Secret Agent Sketch

Salvēte omnēs!

Here is an activity that I use as a whiteboard game, although the possibilities for what you can do with the pictures are many - I am excited to see if anyone else puts a different spin on it. And my standard disclaimer applies, I can't be sure I didn't borrow this from someone else, but to the best of my recollection, I developed it myself.

So what's this about secret agents? Students, as much as they would like to, don't play the role of the secret agent - hidden letters do. To see what I mean, can you find all the letters of the alphabet hidden in this image?

image credit: http://www.kiddoshelter.com/

This is the kind of drawing students will be creating and inspecting.

Preparation:

This is a low-prep activity, at least the way I use it. All you need are:

• Student hand-held whiteboards
• A list of vocabulary words that are easily 'drawable'

It is also helpful to have students sit next to a partner (although they all do their own work), but you can have them move around the room too if that works with your class energy levels.

Procedure:

1. Give students a word to draw - make sure it is spelled out on the board / projector / word wall.
2. Give them 2 minutes to draw a picture of the word (i.e., what the word means).
3. They should also hide 'secret agents' in their sketch - the letters of the Latin word.

example sketch of 'videt' (sees)
Can you find all the letters?

4. When the 2 minutes is up, students switch whiteboards with the partner.
5. Students then try to find the letters of the word in order in their partner's sketch, circling them as they go.
6. Lastly, they review the letters & meaning with the partner before switching back their boards for the next word.

I hope this is a helpful tool! I find it pretty great as second activity to do with new vocabulary, especially if you limit yourself to 3 or 4 words. Let me know if you try anything different with it.

A Twist On New Classical Standards

Salvēte omnēs!

Don't let today's title fool you! Although I am deeply grateful for the work done on the New Standards for Classical Language Learning (which you can check out on the ACL's page here), our topic today is more of a construction project.

First, the story. A few years ago, I came across the idea of rejoinders (hat tip Bryce Hedstrom & Grant Boulanger), and had already incorporated the idea of staying within the target language in my classroom. When class was expected to 'stay in Latin', I simply flipped the 'zona Latina' sign seen at right, which was held by magnet to my whiteboard. As I started thinking about including rejoinders, I was pretty low on board/display space in my classroom. And I knew from stuffed animals/circling with balls/props that students loved to hold things. This led me to thinking about signs that didn't go on the wall - it led me to thinking about hand-held signs, like Roman military standards. It took me a bit of trial and error, but I came up with a quick and relatively painless way to construct something that works.

Here's what you will need to make your own:

• A wooden yard stick
• packing/moving tape
• the front flap of a 3-ring binder
• N.B. - you will specifically need the kind that has a plastic film around the outside which creates a pocket on the front of the flap
• my teaching partner and I collect student binders at the end of the year to reuse them for ourselves, so all my standards are made from binder flaps that would otherwise have been trash!
• scissors/box cutter
• an large, old cardboard box (optional)
• I use this as a workstation to protect myself and the floor from the box cutter and the packing tape

Here's the construction process:

1. First, center the yardstick on the back of the binder flap, ensuring that the top of the stick is flush with the top of the flap.

2. Now attach the stick to the flap using a serious amount of tape. First, tape vertically along the sides of the yardstick, trying to keep the tape flush with the sides of the yardstick.


3. Next, tape in rows, starting from the top, and maximize the surface area in contact with the tape.

4. Cut the tape along the edges of the binder flap.

5. Test your standard by holding it in the air, waving it, trying to wiggle the binder flap. Drop it in an accidental way to make sure it is sturdy.

6. Slide a printout or something into the front pocket of the binder flap so it is visibile when the standard is displayed. Now it is ready to use! 

And a final note - once you start making these, your students will want more of them.

We store our standards in a 'milk crate' with file slots.