how to properly chant the grammar forms

[Anonymous]

I recently read the Memoria Press article on the 4 principles of teaching Latin and I have a question. We have a small co-op group and Latin is one of our subjects taught. The Latin teacher and myself were wanting to incorporate the grammar chants into both the co-op setting as well as for daily home use. Do you have any material available to show us the proper way to chant Latin grammar as a group? I would think we would start with amo, amas, amat, etc. but do you have the kids say "first conjugation....amo, amas, amat...." or do they say "o,s,t..." or do they say "First conjugation....o,s,t" ? What is the best order to follow when having the kids recite the grammar forms? How many forms would you expect a 7th grader to be saying?

We appreciate your help

[blowe]

We do not have any recordings or video of the students chanting, however, I will have Leigh or Cheryl Lowe post a description of how they do it in their classrooms.

[Cheryl Lowe]

This is what I do in my beginning upper level class. Depending on the grammar you have learned you can add or subtract from this content. One of the keys to the recitation is that the teacher can say all of the prayers and grammar from memory. If students see that you can do it they figure they can too. Seeing is believing. (If you have to look at grammar and prayer sheets that is OK, too. I did when I started. You will know it in no time.) Students should stand up straight, speak clearly and stay together, not show off, etc. Ready for Prime Time!

I start with Salvete Amici Latinae, surgite, oremus and students stand and say all of the prayers they know: Table Blessing, Pater Noster, etc. I have a prayer sheet for them to follow along and say them aloud from day one. They should fold their hands and be respectful even though their eyes may be open and looking at you or a paper.

If you are learning music you could sing or recite music. We are practicing now for our Holy Thursday program so we recite or sing, Ave Verum Corpus, Veni Creator Spiritus, Stabat Mater.

I say "declension endings, a, ae" and they complete seven sets of declension endings including two each for the 2nd and 3rd declensions.
Then I say "model nouns, mensa, mensae" and they complete the seven model noun declensions: mensa, servus, bellum, pater (or lex), flumen, portus, res.

(If you are in Latina Christiana just use the cue words in the margin of your teacher manual to start each grammar recitation.)

If you have done the i-stems and er nouns you can add ager, puer, vir, pars, mare.

(You can also take time to call on students individually to decline any noun from previous vocabulary, especially the difficult 3rd decl. nouns. Also to recognize the declension of us nouns that can be in three different declensions: corpus, agnus, manus.) If you are in Latina just give individual students nouns to decline from their vocab lists.

I say "conjugations, voco" and they conjugate voco in 6 tenses active voice, then "moneo" and they complete moneo in 6 tenses also. If you are in Latina just use your cue words to start the recitation. As with nouns call on individual students to conjugate additional verbs.

You can also do meanings for all 6 tenses in English. You can go on to pronouns, adjectives, and more verb forms if you know them.

We also have a set of grammar questions such as
What are the 5 cases?
What is the possessive case? the to/for case? the direct object case? the subject case? What are the two ways to show possession in English? etc.

What are the 4 attributes of nouns (gender, number, case, declension)
How many genders? What are they? and so forth
What are the 6 attributes of verbs?

Then we have Form Drills:
I say "of girls" and an individual student responds "puellarum"
or "to or for the men" and the student responds hominibus.
or you can reverse it and give them the Latin and they give the English
and same for verbs:vocabat, he walked, they will pray, etc.

Form drills are difficult for young students but you can start working on them slowly. The idea is if you say puellam they know that is a direct object, or puellarum means of the girls. You want them to know the form instantly, not have to decline the noun in their heads to get to the form they need.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Cheryl or Leigh,

When reciting the Latin Grammar, are you having your students recite only the latin: amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant? Or are they reciting both the Latin and the translation: amo-I love, amas-you love, amat-he,she, it loves, amamus-we love, amatis-you love, amant-they love?

Blessings

Zoraida

[Anonymous]

We do the Latin as a unit and then less frequently chant the English meanings as a unit.

[Anonymous]

We do not have any recordings or video of the students chanting [...].

Is this something Memoria Press would consider producing? I think it would be a tremendous help to homeschoolers. (I'd buy it in a heartbeat! :D )

[TJean]

Some of my older students think chanting is for the little ones. I'm showing them the evidence to refute their claim at 8:00 AM on the Pacific coast. If you listen hard, you might hear the sighs and groans all the way to the East coast!

Yeah!!!!

[Leigh Lowe]

Just a follow up post on the Latin Recitation. Our students participate in a recitation all the way through high school. We actually start even the Kindergarteners out with some simple sayings, prayers and songs, Dona Nobis Pacem, Salvete, Oremus, for example. Each year the recitation accumulates content. The grammar school students recite together 2-3 grades at a time so the younger students get acquainted with what's coming and the older students offer leadership and expertise. The LC I DVDs offer a good example for our recitation style at the beginning of each lesson. As familiarity increases, students need little to no prompting.....

Also, when we recite, we do not say definitions, only roll through the Latin. We do, after the recitation drill the definitions as part of an oral review. For example, we might offer, "vocabamus" and the student(s) would respond, "we were calling." The same goes for vocabulary and declensions. The oral review is a very important part of the lesson because it trains the student to quickly decline and conjugate which will serve him well when it come times to translate.