Latin "Invent a Monster" Lesson Plan

During 1st semester in my Latin 2 classes, one of our units covered monsters, specifically adapted Latin passages dealing with the Python (from the Apollo and Python myth), the basilisk as described by Pliny the Elder, and the Basilisk from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The unit then focused on an adapted Latin passage about the Cynocephali, an ancient Middle Eastern people who supposedly had the bodies of humans but the heads of dogs (Marco Polo even wrote about these people in his travels!). At the end, I culminated the unit with students creating their own monsters in Latin. If you know anything about mythological monsters, they are usually a hybrid of different animals. As a result, this gave me a perfect opportunity to introduce body parts in Latin. 

Below is the lesson plan which I implemented (note - I did other things on these days too but I have listed only what pertains to the Invent a Monster lesson):

Day 1

1. Movie Talk - Monstrum et Cibum

Day 2

1. Cartoon - Monstrum et Cibum

Day 3

1. Project reading for class to read (story - the red represents new target vocabulary)
1. Choral Reading
2. Stultus
2. Four Word Picture (2 rounds)
1. Group 1 words - dentes, fugit, dat, torosus
2. Group 2 words - cibus, in capite, occidit, silva

Day 4

1. Drawing Dictation using words from the Movie Talk story (script)

Day 5

1. Read/Draw of Monstrum et Cibum story

Day 6

1. 10-minute Timed Write of story using Read/Draw

Day 7

1. Assessment

Day 8

1. Invent a Monster

Observations

1. I was very surprised at how creative students were in combining body parts of animals to create their monster - I wish that I had taken pictures of them for you to see!
2. The movie talk lent itself to introducing body parts in a very natural, contextual way.
3. Although I did not plan this, for second semester, the focus was on the Perseus myth, which I did not realize had so many different body parts in it (Medusa has serpents on her head and the body of a woman; if one looks into the eyes of Medusa, one turns into stone; Graiae sisters share a single eye and tooth among them). Unknowingly, I had already previewed body parts vocabulary by the time we began the Perseus myth.