Story Library

Below is my library of CI Latin stories which I use to introduce vocabulary/structures. 

I am still learning how to use CI in my classes, but when writing these stories, I tried to make sure that I incorporated the following CI tenets:
  • limited vocabulary
  • cover high frequency vocabulary first
  • lots of repetitions of target vocabulary/structures
  • scaffolding/repetition of past vocabulary/structures
  • compelling interest, e.g., using celebrities/students as characters
Currently, I am doing a hybrid untextbooking/textbook approach, i.e., I am following the semester scope of a textbook (what topics do I absolutely need to cover?) but doing it my own way and in my own sequence. As a result, the stories reflect this. 

As there are no CI-based stories in Latin similar to Anna Matava's TPRS story scripts, this is my attempt at having something like those for my classroom. By no means do these stories reflect 100% comprehensible input, but they are a work in progress, nor have these stories undergone any type of peer review in the CI/TPRS community.

To learn how I use a single story to teach, here is my post on Putting It All TogetherIn many cases, there are two stories: version #1 which I used as the base story and then a version #2, which was a longer version with version #1 embedded in it. 

The stories go in order of how I presented them, so each story depends on past stories for much of its vocabulary/structures. Next to the title is a list of the target vocabulary/structures. 

Latin 1
  1. Leonard et Infans (done after a one week of TPR)
  2. Yoda, Darth Vader et Oprah (habet, amat, dat) - this story is not available. This is the exact story which Betsy Paskvan used to teach Japanese at NTPRS 2014. I translated it from Japanese into Latin verbatim to use with my students. As it is Betsy's story and not mine, I have chosen not to post it here, but as you can see, it targets habet, amat and dat, as they are high frequency vocabulary
  3. Yoda et Kim Kardashian (videt, vult, capit, sed
  4. Familia (pater, mater, filius, filia) - this is actually a take-off of a story which Carol Gabb demonstrated at NTPRS. I have adapted it for my own purposes.
  5. Ian et Puellae (puella, pulchra, quid nomen tibi est, mihi nomen est, tristis, dicit)
  6. Jack et Poptartes (vendit, ego, clamat, iratus, volo)
  7. Dies Natalis (laetus, hodie, dies natalis, celebrat, do
  8. Bill et Canis (canis, tu, vis, amicus, pecunia, quod, dicit)
  9. Phillip et Femina (femina, sum, es, iuvenis, fortis, subito)
  10. Jonathan, Phillip et Serpens (parvus, puer, perterritus, audit, gladius)
  11. Matt et Senex (heri, erat, pulsat/pulsavit, erat, nunc)
Latin 2
Perseus, Prima Pars (screencast, story)
Perseus, Secunda Pars (screencast, story)
Perseus, Tertia Pars (screencast, story)
Perseus, Quarta Pars (screencast, story)
Perseus, Quinta Pars (screencast, story)
Perseus, Sexta Pars (screencast, story)



10 comments:

  1. Thank you for posting stories! I'm getting "Invalid Security Token" when I click though.

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  2. Hi Keith-
    I have been very inspired by your teaching techniques. I was wondering how many words you try to cover in a unit? Or in the year?
    Thanks! Madeline (madelinepage@gmail.com)

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  3. Hi Keith-
    Very impressed with your site and looking to jump into TPRS/CI fully next year.
    Possible silly question here, but one that has made me hesitant to use spoken Latin: how do you handle case endings for English names, especially native English and Hebrew ones that are not derived from Latin?

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    1. In some versions of the Vulgate, Hebrew names are indeclinable. The late David Morgan, a fabulous speaker of Latin and an equally fabulous teacher, started his conversational Latin life not declining his first name (which is from Hebrew, as you know). But after a few years he decided that it was too confusing, and started declining it. Many Hebrew names end in a consonant and work pretty well as third declension nouns: David, Davidis (Davidi, Davidem, Davide). Manuel, from Immanuel, Immanuelis. Some biblical names are better known to us through Greek: Thomas, Thomae; Miriam / Maria, Mariae. The names that are giving me trouble these days are from Arabic. My student Mohammed didn't care for the sound of any Latin versions of his name; eventually I just started calling him Marcus because I found that I was avoiding talking about him since he didn't have a declinable name that I could use in CI. Same for Said. He became Sulla. Sometimes I work with the student to find an entirely different name, or a name that has the same meaning.

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  4. Wondering..how much time do you spend on a story? Enjoy your site very much!

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  5. Usually 5 days is enough. I will do a mix of pre-reading, reading, and post-reading activities.

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  6. Some Latin teachers have been converting Ellie Arnold's "Mille Noctes" collection into a workable database of Latin stories, tagged by vocabulary, word count, and a variety of other things. Would it be alright to link to these stories on that page?

    This is the link, so that you can see what it looks like now. You'd obviously be credited under the author line:

    https://airtable.com/shrCmEgIPo54D85H2

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  7. You used to have power points on Cambridge stories. Any way I can access them?

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    1. I no longer use CLC, so I don't have the powerpoints any more.

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