Latin
Latin 1
Latin 2
| Unit | Description |
| Unit 1Dī immortālēs! – Oh Immortal Gods! | The first unit of Latin II will reacquaint the students with the grammar and vocabulary covered in Latin I, while also introducing the newest region of Roman occupation: Britannia. In this unit, students will reacquaint themselves with Latin, while doing their own investigative research into the Roman gods, culminating in narrative produced by the student about his or her god or goddess. Grammatically, students will also be able to use the verb possum, posse, potuī, (to be able) volō, velle, voluī (to want, wish), and nōlō, nōlle, nōluī (to not want, wish), complementary infinitives, and review conjugations. These will be used in the project to describe the realm of influence a Roman god has and what the god or goddess wants to achieve in his/her myth (e.g. Apollo ea futura praedicere poterat - Apollo was able to predict future things...). At the end of the unit, the students will be responsible for the information presented by the rest of the class. Students will revisit role-playing their gods through trimester 1. 21st Century Capacities: Product Creation |
| Unit 2Imperator non potest peccare - The emperor can do no harm | The original phrase, "Rex non potest peccare" literally means "The king can do no wrong" and was used in the courts to express the idea that kings had "soverign immunity". Changed to reflect the subject of the unit, the emperors, the phrase will guide the class as we view what the emperors themselves did during their reigns. Starting from the first imperator, Augustus, through Constantine the Great. The unit will cover the themes of imperialism, expansionism, sovereign immunity, and the lives of the Emperors. Students will have studied the Emperors through their busts so as to see how the opinions of the Romans evolved over time. Were Emperors given divine right to do as they willed, or must they also be held accountable for the actions committed in the name of Rome? Students will reprise their role as a god or goddess in order to put on trial the Emperors post mortem. When an Emperor died, it was thought that their anima became a god through apotheosis. The trial will be conducted in order to prove if the Emperor is deserving to be a god OR if his name should be committed to damnatio memoriae (damnation of memory). Concurrently, students will study in depth Rome's imperialization of Britannia through the Cambridge stories. Students will read Stages 14-16 and discover how Rome exacted its rule through the governors or kings. Grammar for the unit will include the remaining tenses (future, pluperfect, AND future perfect), Demonstrative Pronouns, Relative Pronouns, UNUSNAUTA Adjectives (the former three follow extremely similar paradigms), i-stem nouns and the rules which govern them. 21st Century Capacities: Alternate Perspectives, Synthesizing |
| Unit 3sī vīs pācem, parā bellum – If you want peace, prepare for war | Unit 3 of Latin II starts students in Ancient Alexandria. In the 1st Century CE, Alexandria was one of the central hubs of all trade, commerce, and civilization. Alexandria would never have attained this level of multi-culturalism had Alexander the Great not brought his Macedonian army all the way through South-Central Asia. By bringing war through the Ancient World, Alexander mixed up societies, languages, religions, and cultures. In this Unit, students will study the major wars of Rome, keeping in mind the positive and negative aspects of war. What changes does war bring? Why does war begin? What are the short-term and long-term outcomes to war? Which war was most influential to the development of Rome? Students will explore these themes through an in-depth study of three Romans wars, as well as seeing how historians use these wars to inform their own study into the past or present through Op-Eds that use Roman History. Roman wars covered: Punic Wars, Caesar's Gallic Wars, and the Dacian Wars. 21st Century Capacities: Engaging in Global Issues, Imagining |
| Unit 4Dum spīrō, spērō - While I breathe, I hope | The final unit of Latin II takes a departure from war and imperialism and introduces the Latin student to the Roman world of Medicine. Over the course of the unit, the student will see some of the more practical Latin they may see in future careers. In this case, students will be exposed to the common language used in the medical field with prescriptions and will learn the main body parts. As they finish Cambridge Unit 2, students will see one of the main characters suffer a nearly fatal attack and the medical responses used to counter death. The PBA will be broken into two parts: in the first, they must take on the role of a doctor and write a prescription and the rationale for the prescription based on what were common medical practices at the time (Decision Making). At that point, the student will take on the role of the patient, take a turn for the worse and begin to die. The second half of the unit will culminate in the students writing their last will and testament (Product Creation). During this unit, students will also explore other bases of knowledge in the ancient world, like mathematics and philosophy. 21st Century Capacities:Decision Making, Product Creation |
Latin 3 Honors
| Unit | Description |
| Unit 1Dulce et Utile - A Sweet and Useful thing | The Roman poet Horace once said in his work, Ars Poētica, that poetry needs to be a sweet and useful thing--that the poetry needs to be both pleasant to listen to and needs to instruct. The Latin III student's first foray into poetry will be through the poet Catullus. His poems are rather short, easy to comprehend primā faciē, but have so much more beneath the surface. The focus of this unit will be to read Catullus' poetry and attempt to find deeper meaning within his words. Catullus is considered a master of style for his many rhetorical devices and word choice in his poetry. The Latin in Catullus' poetry is authentic and moving, but at the same time easy enough for the common citizens of Rome to understand superficially. The first poem the new Latin III student will encounter is probably Catullus' most famous of his love poetry, 85 (Ōdī et amō - I hate and I love). From there, we will analyze how Catullus agonizes with love and loss and end with dedications written by Catullus. The unit will culminate in the Latin III student reciting and reimagining one of the poems read in class for a modern audience while utilizing some of the rhetorical devices Catullus uses. Questions for Investigation: How does a poet's style enhance meaning? How can I find deeper meaning in poetry? 21st Century Capacities: Analyzing, Innovation |
| Unit 2Vēnī, Vīdī, Scrīpsī (I came, I saw, I wrote) | Vēnī, Vīdī, Scrīpsī - I Came, I saw, I wrote, An adaptation of the famous phrase by Julius Caesar, "Vēnī, Vīdī, Vīcī" (I Came, I Saw, I Conquered) - Following the students introduction to Roman authors with Catullus, students will be launched into a a preview of Julius Caesar's de Bellō Gallicō (Commentaries about the Gallic War). Students will focus on book 1 of the Gallic Wars, an introduction to Caesar's work written by him to inform and persuade the Senators back in Rome to give them their support for Caesar's leadership. Students will be introduced to one of the most important grammatical constructions in Latin, the indirect statement, which is exceedingly common in Julius Caesar and in poetry. Since Julius Caesar is on the AP Curriculum, students will begin looking at him as an author through a more refined lens: through the themes of the AP curriculum. Unit I, on Catullus, focused on the theme Literary Genre and Style. While Unit 2--and every subsequent unit--will also focus on Literary Genre and Style, students will also be asked to consider more deeply the themes of Leadership and Views of Non-Romans . To that end, students will begin writing their own epics. In this unit, students will be asked to consider possible reasons for writing anything and to begin writing their own epic. Students will begin their epic in the middle of their story, where they will be asked to write about an enemy, the general nature of the people against whom they are fighting, and what qualities they bring to leading the army behind them, if they have an army. As the epic style will not be considered until Unit 3, the focus of this introduction to writing the epic will focus on purpose and message. The epic they create in this unit will be continued through units 3 and 4. 21st Century Capacities: Imagining,Alternate Perspectives |
| Unit 3Tālis, Quālis - Just as, such
| Unit 3 of Latin III will plunge students into one of the most famous examples of the Epic tradition: Ovid's Daedalus et Icārus. In the story, Ovid employs several metaphors to help describe the action or deeds within the story, such as the building of the Labyrinth and the comparison of the windiness between it and the living Meander river. Ancient authors use these similes to give the common reader a clearer image of what the author intends, typically by giving something that would be widely understood by the audience. The similes we will study in this unit compare either the gods to nature, or the deeds of human to nature. We will study similes used in Latin, but also English translations of similes used in the Iliad and the Odyssey. As students will be beginning reading epics, no new "grammar" will be taught, but students will need to learn how to read the meter of epic poetry, hendecasyllabic meter. Students will also be given a review on diagramming sentences and will be asked to recompose sentences into better English word order using that diagramming. 21st Century Capacities: Synthesizing |
| Unit 4Ex nihilō nihil fit - Nothing comes from nothing | The final unit of Latin 3 Honors will take the students through book 1 of Vergil's most influential work, the Aeneid. Vergil's Aeneid, being one of the most complete and well-crafted epics, will serve as a model to the students as they finish up their mock epics. Students will study how introductions to epics are structured using the Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Catullus 1, Homer's Iliad, and Homer's Odyssey. Students will also study about how authors utilize the gods in their writing. Are the gods benevolent beings or can they direct their ire against those who are supposed to worship them? What implications could there be to the mythos in choosing one god over another? Students will make educated decisions about these questions before finishing their epic. Students will also revise their work from units 2 and 3 and incorporate transitions in order to make their episodic writing cohesive. To prepare students for the summer reading of Aeneid Books 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12, students will also be reading Book 1 of the Aeneid in English, taking notes as they go along. Reading the Aeneid in English will help students to understand the Latin and vice versa. Students will be asked to consider the following:
21st Century Capacities: Decision Making, Reflection |