Jacqueline Carlon (University of Massachusetts, Boston)
The scene is a prestigious exam school, in a college prep class for the students’ third and final required year of Latin study, to the relief of virtually all of them. They have not thrived in the program, and yet this third-year curriculum will require a death march through Cicero’s First Catilinarian. Accurate translation is the goal – not reading. Indeed, these students have not been taught the skills necessary to read the text. Are they able to communicate with the text? How does word-for-word translation serve to grow their language skills? What’s the takeaway for them? Relief when their Latin requirement is completed? Cicero is not the problem; his works are incredibly engaging when part of a curriculum designed for students with advanced reading skills and extensive knowledge of the historical and cultural environment in which he wrote. Short selections from Cicero, offered with sufficient context, might work well with some students in their third year, but clearly not with these students nor with this pedagogical approach.
This paper will argue that the Latin classroom, whose focus is invariably on reading, must offer texts that both align with realistic goals for student learning and are of compelling interest to its students and that those texts should vary based on the background and interests of the particular students in each class. Relying on the research of Diane Musumeci and William Grabe, the paper will first briefly explore the long-standing disconnects between pedagogical theory, goals, and practice and their effect on Latin instruction and learning. Next it will offer some models for choosing texts that will serve the specific needs of students at various levels of study, citing in particular the exciting approach of Leni Ribiero Leite. It will suggest eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach and broadening the bookshelf to include all Latin texts from ancient to modern. Finally, it will consider the importance of setting both realistic and productive reading goals for our students, focusing on student engagement and (dare I say) joy in learning. The future of Latin instruction will depend on our ability to teach meaningful texts to an increasingly diverse student population, a goal that will require thoughtful and deliberate choice of the texts we make available to our students.