It is time to start thinking about organizing your class materials for next year! I love the feeling of a new year—new information to learn and several trips to Staples. Here are some things I recommend beyond Henle Latin Grammar:
1. A vocabulary notebook. This is a great idea created by an outstanding Challenge A tutor from Waynesboro, VA, Lanelle Lowe. She recommends getting a seventy-sheet spiral notebook, dividing up the pages, and putting a different sticky tab for each conjugation, each type of adjective, each declension, and one for indeclinable words (prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, and so on). In the notebook, students write the vocabulary word behind the appropriate tab and its lesson number. Underneath it, they decline the nouns and conjugate the verbs. The indeclinable words are written like the vocabulary entries. The students also color code their flashcards to correspond with the tabs.
2. Index cards, a ring, and a hole punch. As students make their flashcards, they should be reviewing their vocabulary so that they know it for an entire Latin career (middle school, high school, college, and with their own kids). The flashcards are color coded so as to remind students of each word’s declension, conjugation, and so on.
3. A three-ringed binder (with pockets, preferably) for tests and quizzes. It is always good, for later down the road, to have a record of what your student mastered in Latin.
4. A Latin Trivium Table. I have seen the file and it is beautiful! It is a wonderful resource to help students parse and translate. It has an area for practice and for parsing, and it is a great review of Essentials.
5. Another book besides Henle. I love the Henle Latin curriculum, but just in case you ever get stuck, you should have another book for help. I like The Everything Learning Latin Book by Richard E. Prior (Adams Media, 2003.) (Kerrin Omer, a Challenge A Director in Kentucky, informed me that you can borrow the Kindle edition without charge if you have Amazon Prime). I also like Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar (Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company, 2001) which you can obtain free of charge at Google Play.
6. A prayerful and excited heart. Latin is a great endeavor and worth the time put into it. The more one studies Latin, the more it will impact one’s education for the better.
If you have an idea for an article or a question about Latin, please e-mail me at magistrasheppard@gmail.com with the subject line “Writers Circle.” I would greatly appreciate it!
