LATN 102-001: Latin II Spring Semester 2011

Mastering the fundamentals of Latin yields great rewards. You'll become able to read terrific literature in all its original glory. You'll discover valuable insights into how all languages operate. We will cross some two millennia, an ocean, and from sublime to ridiculous and back again, building skills and understanding with the texts of famous ancient comedies. Clever slaves, deluded old men, and hapless young lovers will lead you into deeper and more productive familiarity with words, forms, and syntax - till we're ready to take on Roman political corruption, and learn even more about how everything changes while everything remains the same. The Latin language will be your vehicle to Roman literature, history, and culture; it will also give you tools to acquire other new languages more easily and to use well the languages you know.

Our work, therefore, will have four main aims or Learning Outcomes (plus the aim of having fun with the learning):

• to gain familiarity with commonly-used vocabulary of ancient Latin and its morphology, that is, what the words are and how they change form in order to perform different grammatical functions in sentences
• to gain familiarity with Latin syntax, the language's basic principles for combining words so as to describe ideas and make meaningful statements
• to put your understanding of Latin words, their forms, and their combinations together into the synthesis of reading
• to learn from your reading about Roman cultural contexts

• Required: Peter Jones and Keith Sidwell, Reading Latin, 2 vols. (Cambridge UP 1986)
• Recommended: Norma Goldman, English Grammar for Students of Latin, 3rd edn. (2004)
• Additional resources on-line:
  • Guide to pronouncing Classical Latin: www.luc.edu/faculty/jlong1/L101pron.htm
  • Concepts for the Study of Latin (follow the links): www.luc.edu/faculty/jlong1/L101concepts.htm
  • Blackboard site for this class, including paradigm charts, drills for vocabulary and forms, discussion board, and other resources

• Bring both the Text and the Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises volumes to class with you every meeting.
• Assignments will be determined by the class's progress; normally we will expect to complete a Section in three or four class periods.
• You will become responsible for the Learning Vocabulary for each Section as soon as we enter upon that Section. Begin memorizing immediately!
• You will become responsible for forms and grammar covered in each Section as soon as we discuss the forms and concepts involved.
  • Be sure you understand concepts discussed in class well enough to be able to apply them on your own.
  • Practice recognizing and generating forms from as soon as we come to new rules. (Drills help - see below.)
  • Continue practicing old rules on new vocabulary that uses them.
  • You are your own best monitor and advocate. When you experience confusion, try to identify what's confusing about what you're doing, then ask the questions that will best help resolve the confusion. Make sure the answers clear up the trouble. Then apply them and keep practicing. Repeat as necessary.
• Drills keyed to each Section will be available through Blackboard to help you master vocabulary and forms. The drills, in and of themselves, are not graded within assessment for the course, but the mastery you consolidate by doing them is a big part of our Learning Objectives: regular Drill practice correlates favorably with success in the course. Drills can be repeated as often as you like, whenever you go on-line.
• Re-read the Text often so as to strengthen your integration of vocabulary, forms, and syntax and to consolidate the Running Vocabulary in context.
• Written homework will be assigned most days, to be collected at the next class meeting.
  • It is not desirable to miss class, but if illness or anything keeps you unavoidably away, do be sure to get the homework assignments so that you do not fall behind.
  • When homework or quizzes are handed back, review all corrections and make sure you understand what needed to be done differently for a perfect score - feedback offers the greatest value of class work, but only if you take it up and use it.
• Micro-quizzes most class meetings will reinforce recent vocabulary and forms.
• Short summary quizzes will consolidate recent reading, syntax, forms, and vocabulary, roughly every two weeks. Dates to watch out for:

M 1/17	Martin Luther King Day: no classes Guide to pronunciation of Classical Latin Concepts relevant to the study of Classical Latin
T 1/18	First day of classes, though not yet ours.
W 1/19	We begin!
F 1/28	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
F 2/11	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
F 2/25	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
F 3/4	Midterm examination.
M-Sa 3/7-12	Spring Break: no classes.
F 3/25	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
F 4/8	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
Th 4/21, 4:15pm - M 4/25, 4:15pm	Easter Break: no classes.
W 4/27	Short quiz as well as ongoing classwork.
F 4/29	Last day of class.
W 5/4	Study Day: no classes or exams till 4:15 PM.
Sa 5/7 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM	Final examination. See Loyola's Final Exam Schedule.

Attendance and other policies

Language skills grow by practice. If you miss work, you lose momentum, and lost momentum blocks your growth. Class is a forum both for getting help from your colleagues and instructor and for giving help on problems you have mastered, as well as for sharing ideas and insights. Even your questions help us all to find our way through problems in an alien language. Be there. Prepared is better than unprepared, and prompt is better than late, but even unprepared attendance or late arrival is better than missing out completely - just don't disrupt your fellow students.

Since unregulated self-interest, as set forth above, doesn't always motivate quite enough, a penalty for excessive absences has been instituted. Absences shall be defined as excessive, as follows:

• Each unexcused absence beyone a total of three absences, excused or unexcused. That is, excused absences kill your budget of unexcused absences.
• Repeated chronic lateness (more than 10 minutes) shall be counted as partial absences. Nevertheless, it is better to attend even part of a class, late, than to miss it entirely. Just don't disturb your colleagues.
• Absences will be totalled over the whole semester.

Written homework is due at the beginning of class.

Quizzes and exams can be rescheduled only for truly dire reasons - and they must be officially documented. Bring clean, lined paper and pens that don't smear.

Write legibly and spell correctly. Thanks!

Additional University resources

• Loyola's Office of Academic Advising and Support Services, on the Web and in the Sullivan Center for Student Services on the Lakeshore Campus, offers packages of advice called Academic Success Tools about things like strategies for active learning, time management, tests, reading, and note-taking. The also schedule workshops in these areas and other concerns like financial planning and picking a major. The Sullivan Center also helps provide Services for Students with Disabilities.
• The Tutoring Center (physically in the Sullivan Center; peer-counselors) and the Writing Centers (sponsored by the Department of English: graduate students with expertise in writing pedagogy; main location at Klarchek Information Commons 221, annexes in the Sullivan Center, Suite 206A, and on the Water Tower Campus, 25 East Pearson 605) both offer consultation services.

Academic honesty, a.k.a. the life's blood of the intellect:

• Any practice of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, obstructing the work of other students, etc.) perpetrated in this course will result in failure of the course. Do not do it.
• For basic principles and definitions, see the subsection on "Academic Integrity" in the General Academic Standards and Regulations and the College of Arts and Sciences' Academic Integrity Statement. The Department of Classical Studies' Policy on Academic Integrity incorporates these documents. We also recommend you consult the helpful discussion of The Use and Misuse of Source Materials, provided by Loyola's Writing Center.
• Loyola University requires that all instances of academic dishonesty must be reported to the chairperson of the department involved and to the academic Dean of the student's College.
• Learning is wholly personal: it only happens if you do it yourself. Your University record should be certifying only what has really happened.

Revised 3 February 2011 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/