Living Latin

In many elementary classes that offer a secondary language, you will find students sitting in rows of desks, dutifully repeating vocabulary for body parts, colors, and greetings. “Verde, green; amarillo, yellow; roja, red; azul, blue,” they parrot.

Three times a week, the third graders at Holy Rosary Academy take part in a vastly different language class. To begin with, they are learning Latin. And yes, there are jokes aplenty about “dead languages,” but Holy Rosary students have found that learning Latin improves their vocabulary, enables them more easily to learn other Romance languages, and makes learning vocabulary in biology uncomplicated. Many of these benefits seem better suited to a high school student, however, rather than an eight or nine year old. So why introduce such a complex language at such a young age, rather than focusing on the fundamentals of English grammar and vocabulary?

Well, Holy Rosary students do both. This year at Holy Rosary Academy, we took the plunge and decided to treat our third grade students to Living Latin, a pilot program from the University of Dallas, K-12 Classical Curriculum Project. Many parents might approach Latin with trepidation, remembering their own struggles with learning the language: stacks of flash cards and late nights studying vocabulary and grammar, only to forget it all after the exam. In contrast, Living Latin makes even the most wary student willing to learn through music, movement, and mini-stories. Dr. Laura Eidt, the UD professor who developed this curriculum, declares that the theory behind Living Latin is that “Translation is not the goal: comprehending the Latin story in Latin is the goal.”

So what does this really look like?

 In my Latin class, third graders listen to and recite favorites that they have heard in English since they were infants: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and other favorites of Eric Carle such as Have You Seen My Cat?

 Another favorite is “Senex MacDonaldus” (“Old MacDonald Had a Farm”). Students use hand gestures and make animal sounds as they sing in Latin. Not only do they get the wiggles out, but the rhymes help them feel like part of the story’s structure. While the vocabulary and sentence structures in songs may be difficult, the tunes and content are familiar, so students learn them easily.

Their lesson doesn’t stop there! Artwork brings out natural responses in Latin.  At the beginning of the year, students would respond “Ita” (yes) or “Minime” (no) to questions about the setting or characters in a piece of art. Now that they are halfway through the third quarter, though, they have made tremendous progress in their comprehension and knowledge of vocabulary! They voluntarily add details, using correct grammar fluently: “Ursus in silva ambulat” (The bear walks in the forest) and “Apes urusm pugnant” (The bees fight the bear).

This vocabulary comes in handy during students’ favorite part of Latin class: the Gouin series. Students act out stories, using props, stuffed animals, and puppets.

As the class winds down, students gather around for story hour. It’s not uncommon in an HRA classroom to hear teachers reading aloud to students; this practice is proven to contribute to a love of literature and to an increased vocabulary, processing skills, and comprehension. You might be surprised, however, to walk into our class and see third graders gathered around to listen to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See; that is, until you realize that they are actually listening to Urse Fusce, Urse Fusce, Quid Tu Vides? Throughout the year, they will read multiple picture books and quite a few Latin fables.

Are they bored? Not at all. Living Latin allows children to learn joyfully and have a chance to move in our classroom.

But how will they learn Latin grammar? They absorb the grammar, without the rigidity of rules, through the constant repetition of key sentences. New vocabulary is added gradually, and is always accompanied with pictures to help students who are visual learners.

The children have already learned so much! In our first quarter, they understood the word for cow, but now in our third quarter, these students can create sentences without the tedium of translating Latin into English. They can tell you, in Latin, all about the cow - where he grazes, what he eats, where he lives, and what he looks like. 

No flash cards. No tears. No longer a dead language.

Not even one student needs to look in a dictionary to do their work, because the language is part of their active memory! They are truly living Latin: through story, song, and play.