Lecturer in Classics

Department of Classics

Monmouth College

E-mail virginiamay@monm.edu

Galesburg home 309 343-8957

Home in woods 309 734-8758

Office phone 309 457-2332

A background in Latin is a great benefit to the study of English, the sciences, medicine, law, and many other professional fields, and certainly expands your English vocabulary and improves your comprehension and use of English grammar. Your work in Latin will help you in writing papers, studying, and expressing yourself beautifully.

The aim of Latin 101 - 102 is to learn basic reading and writing skills in Latin as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. At the end of two terms of Elementary Latin, a student should know the fundamentals of Latin grammar, have a basic Latin vocabulary, and be able to read a Latin text with the help of a dictionary. Speaking and listening skills in Latin will be encouraged in order to assist the development of reading and writing Latin.

These courses are primarily directed towards students desiring to meet the requirements for graduation under the foreign language component of the Monmouth College General Education requirements. Elementary Latin can also fulfill partial requirements for a major in Latin or Classics.

The Monmouth College catalogue gives the following description of courses that meet the Language requirement:

The creation and use of language is the most significant achievement of human beings, for our ability to organize our understanding in verbal symbols and to communicate sets us apart from all other life forms. The symbols of our language make possible at many different levels of meaning and allow us to translate our private experience into universal terms.... A sure understanding of language is the foundation of all knowledge, and the ability to use verbal symbols effectively is the most important of all skills.

This component provides that every student have experience with a second language. The study of a foreign language allows students to see that their native language often reflects cultural needs and interests at the same time that it shares many basic patterns with other languages.

WHEELOCK’S LATIN (6th Edition), Frederic M. Wheelock

Richard A. LaFleur, Revision Editor

harpercollins college outline, HarperPerennial (NY, 2000)

38 LATIN STORIES Designed to Accompany Frederic M. Wheelock’s Latin

Anne H. Groton and James M. May

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc. (Wauconda, IL, 1986)

COMPUTER EXERCISES

TRAUPMAN NEW COLLEGE LATIN & ENGLISH DICTIONARY, Revised

John Traupman, (Bantam, 1995)

Virginia Hellenga, Lecturer in Classics

115 A Wallace Hall, office next to WH115, the Capron Room

Monday, 10:00 am - 10:30 am

Tuesday, 10:00 - 10:50 am

Wednesday, 10:00 am - 10:30 am,

when I am in my office, or by appointment

Latin tutors will be available several hours a week to help students individually

with class assignments. Working with the tutors also does them a favor, because it gives them the opportunity to explain concepts clearly, as well as review basics of Latin.

Class meets on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 9:50 a.m. in Wallace Hall 112.

There will be daily assignments from the textbooks and daily quizzes. In addition, there will be a number of supplementary readings in Latin, as well as music, videos, Latin songs, Latin games, and simple conversational Latin.

For most students, Elementary Latin is a two-semester experience. You will not really have a full sense of the Latin language until the end of second semester.

Class Participation 10%

Quizzes 30%

Homework 20%

Tests (including final) 40%

Learning another language is a lot easier in a group, but only if everyone in the group is working together. This kind of course requires daily attention. You cannot study only before tests and quizzes. You must attend class faithfully and be prepared every day. Attendance at all meetings of the class is required.

Each student is permitted three unexcused absences during the semester. A student with more than THREE unexcused absences will drop one grade point on the final semester grade for each unexcused absence over three.

Active participation by all students in the class is very important. You are expected to ask questions, volunteer answers, and actively participate in class.

You will have the opportunity to act out some of the stories you translate, using your sense of fun, creativity and imagination in entertaining and relaxed class presentations in Latin.

Class participation will count 10% of the final grade.

Most classes begin with a quiz based on current assignments. There are

no make-ups on quizzes unless you present a written excuse from your doctor.

If you know that you will have an excused absence, you may take a quiz ahead of time.

If you take all of the Quizzes when they are given to the class, you will add 5% to your final semester grade average.

The average of Quizzes will be 30% of the final grade.

Homework assignments will be given daily to challenge you to practice and master new grammatical forms and vocabulary, and to review and remember what you have already learned. You will be asked to demonstrate reading comprehension of sentences and passages in Latin, stories in Latin, and the texts of Latin music.

Homework will count 20% of the final grade.

There will be at least six major tests, including the final exam, which counts as two tests. The dates for these tests will be announced in class at least one week in advance. These tests will demonstrate your understanding of the grammar and assignments. There are no make-ups on tests unless you present a written excuse from your doctor.

The creative project on deception, manipulation, and trickery inspired by the story of Laocoön and the Trojan Horse [art, creative writing, original music, etc.] will be counted as one test grade.

The average of these tests, including the creative project and the final exam, will be 40% of the final grade.

There will be several opportunities to gain extra credit in this class, including writing response papers after attending Classics Department and Archeological Lectures during the semester. Many extra credit opportunities are offered in class.

At the beginning of class the next day, you will be able to make corrections on quizzes and tests from memory and by thinking, without the use of books, notes, papers, or any other material in making these corrections. You may also make corrections on homework, using Wheelock and your class notes. Corrections on homework are due the day after homework is returned to you.

Successful corrections will add 50% to your score on each homework assignment, quiz or test. You must have completed at least 75% of answers on the original work in order to be able to make corrections. It is only on the final exam that you will be unable to make corrections.

The goal is for all students to perform at their optimal level. The grading system is designed to give each student maximum control of the final grade earned. The focus of all assignments, quizzes and tests is not grading but learning.

Students are encouraged to do their homework together. All other class work, especially quizzes and tests, must be the student’s own work. Plagiarism, i.e., copying someone else’s work without giving credit, is to be avoided. Such copying—from a book, another classmate’s paper, or any other source—is dishonest. Any student submitting plagiarized work will receive a failing grade for that assignment. If two papers with identical or nearly identical work are submitted by different students, both papers will receive a failing grade.

Caveat: This syllabus is subject to revision by the instructor, provided that written or verbal notice is given in class.