help with struggling 5th grader

[Terri S.]

In LCI it talks about not expecting the same proficiency out of younger students as you would older ones. My 5th grader completed LCI last year. He struggles with both declensions and conjugations (and confuses them with tenses). At one point, the TM mentions allowing students to use grammar charts to complete exercises.

My son can do alright using charts, but thus far, cannot do translation work without them. He cannot bounce between the concepts of meanings of cases, appropriate case, case endings, type of declension, verb tense, and conjugation. They all seem to get mixed up in his head. I should mention that he had a very good understanding of English grammar and regularly does diagramming (including prepositional phrases, d.o., adj, and adv).

How long should I allow him to use the charts, and how do I test if he relies on them? I've debated on letting him write out the charts from memory at the beginning of the quiz/test, and then use that during his test.

Or would it be better to just back off of new material and continue to review LCI until he can more fluently perform the work?

[sahamamama]

Hello, Terri!

Did you ever figure out what to do with your son? I wish I could help you, but I'm not teaching Latin to anyone just yet. Can anyone help Terri?

[martin]

Terri,

Sorry for the delay in getting to your post. In the situation you describe, I would stop and review for a while. There is nothing wrong with review, and, in fact, most of what you do in Latin is review. We strive for mastery learning in our subjects, which just means that keep doing one step until you know it well, and only then do you go on to the next step.

I hope that helps.

Martin

[Terri S.]

That's what we finally ended up doing. As long as I prompt him with questions (how is this word used in English, what case is that in Latin, which "person", what verb tense and person?), he does great. When he translates on his own, he misses at least one component on one or more words.

I don't know if he's just rushing through it or not understanding the process. We've slowed the pace in LCII to complete a lesson in about 6 class sessions. He's using the online LCII "games" at quia, and completing Ludere. We stopped attempting to use Lingua Angelica because it seemed to overwhelm him. Any other suggestions?

[Laudo]

This post has had 155 views, and only 1 reply. :(


I kinda wish this forum had more activity myself. Maybe they should make the link to the forum more prominent on the home page of Memoria Press? I mean, it's not exactly hidden right now, but maybe they could put up an announcement and make it front and center for a few weeks to see if we can get more participation.

[Cajun.Classical]

Terri,

Do you drill the Latin grammar daily? This has made all the difference with my children mastering Latin. Read the articles on Conducting a Latin Recitation on the MP website. I think there are a couple of more articles about this as well. Good luck.

Blessings,
Angelina in Louisiana

[orear]

Terri, can you provide the link for Conducting a Latin Recitation that you recommended?

Thanks!
Valerie

[inashoe]

http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Latin-Recitation.html

[chaellabird]

I used the Prima Latina last year with my 4th grader. It actually seemed a little easy for her...but we were new to it and wanted to ensure success. I am so glad we did. I think it really set the foundation for this year. The LCI does go at a much faster pace. This year, I have not been able to "learn" it with her. Since I've had other foreign language training, I understand all the concepts and have been trying to learn the declension endings and conjugations, but I just haven't had the time to keep up with the vocabulary. My daughter does this course independently for the most part. What we do is on Mondays she watches the DVD lesson, On Tuesday she does vocabulary & grammar drill with the form and listening CD, reviews the lesson material, and completes the exercises. On Wednesday she does the drill again, and completes the Ludere games for that lesson. On Thursday she does Drill w/ CD again and then adds in the Flashcards for the new lesson to the ones already learned (or half of them when it gets later in the year), and we review history material together, which is my first involvement with teaching in the week (she is taking Famous Men so she actually learns the info in another session for that subject) using the questions in the teacher's book as a sort of "quiz" each week over what she's learned. On Fridays we do the quiz over the vocabulary and grammar forms that is in the book, and then we do Latin Roots together. In the beginning of the year I tried to have her do the roots independantly and found it too much. I decided I'd rather have her focus on the Latin and we could always pick up more extensively on the roots in a few years. We do the roots as a sort of enforcement on the vocabulary and derivatives for the lesson, but I don't expect her to really retain the English words...mostly I'm looking to help her understand why knowing the Latin words/roots can help her with understanding her own language, and also help her understand word parts like suffixes and prefixes and parts of speech. We don't do any English grammar exercises. She is learning these things along with the Latin from the DVD lessons. I would suggest even taking two weeks a lesson if needed to learn the material, or two years to finish the book, rather than having your son be frustrated with the material. This weekly pace is working for us, but my daughter is gifted with language (she spoke in paragraphs at 2 years old) and she reads voraciously. I must add, however, that she is ADHD, so her success in Latin has certainly not come without overcoming her learning disability. I must note she spends 45 min to 60 minutes daily on the Latin, so if you have less time available, a weekly schedule might not work. I hope our experience is helpful. Be encouraged! Your son can do it...you just might have to change your expectations of how quickly he learns the material.