UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
FULBRIGHT COLLEGE OF ARTS
AND SCIENCES
FALL, 2007
ELEMENTARY LATIN I:
PROFESSOR DANIEL B. LEVINE
Picture: Gold Coin of Septimius Severus (193-211
CE):
Ship loaded with wild animals for the games at Rome.
Note the great Latin motto: LAETITIA TEMPORUM
London, British Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus,
2001
WELCOME TO LATIN!
Welcome to Latin! This course will set you on your way
towards getting to know the language of the Romans: the language that has
given English half of its rich and colorful vocabulary. If you really want
to know English, and to write it well, you must know Latin.
You have made a good choice by signing up for this class.
Latin helps you to learn other languages, to think logically, and to understand
grammatical principles. It is the key to understanding Roman culture, and
is part of the traditional classical curriculum upon which the western world
has based education for over a thousand years. It is a language of history,
of lyric, epic, and philosophy. It is a language of comedy, tragedy, rhetoric,
and satire; of the novel and the epitaph, the epistle, the fable and the
Church. Latin helped to unite the ancient world, to bring civilization through
the Dark Ages, to spread the ideas of the Renaissance. It is the language
of the Law; it is the language of Medicine and the Sciences; it is the language
of the intellectual.
Latin is fundamental.
You will be glad to know it.
TEXTBOOK AND ASSIGNMENTS
Our textbook is a fine one: The Oxford Latin Course.
This program has proven itself in hundreds of classrooms all over the world.
In order to take full advantage of it, we will have daily reading assignments,
and written assignments to hand in for almost every class. Try to do your
homework somewhere where you can read aloud. Learning any foreign
language requires you to hear the sounds the words make.
See the Schedule of Assignments
for a list of daily assignments. Please note that daily quizzes may
not be made up.
In order to help students stay “caught up,” the
Magister will assign daily reading and homework exercises for almost
every class. Written homework assignments will seldom, if ever, be handed
in, but are vital to the learning process. Use them to guide your in-class
questions, and to prepare for your daily quizlets. Try to do your homework
somewhere where you can read aloud. Learning a foreign language requires
you to hear the sounds the words make. It is always a good idea to
look at upcoming assignments and see what the homework will be, so you can
be prepared and plan your time wisely. You might even want to work ahead.
Note that we have scheduled seven class sessions as reviews.
These are very important classes. In order to prepare for them, you will
need to go over exercises for all the chapters which each review session
covers, and try to read as much of the text from the chapters they concern
as you can. Bring Questions! There will be daily quizlets given on
review days.
GRADES
Student grades will be determined on the basis of:
- Daily Quizlets 40%
- Class Participation/Preparation 30%
- Final Examination: 30%
Students are expected to come to class prepared to read
aloud, to translate, to ask informed and thoughtful questions, and to show
that they have completed their homework.
The professor will attempt to assess each student’s preparation
in every class meeting. If a student is absent, the participation grade
is 0. If the student is present and very well prepared, the grade is 95.
If the student is present and less prepared, but shows good work, the grade
is 85. If the student shows mediocre preparation, the grade is 75. Poor
preparation earns 65. Students who come to class but are not prepared might
earn 50. The professor will inform students of their participation grades
at least three times during the semester.
The grading scale is as follows:
- A 90-100%
- B 80-89%
- C 70-79%
- D 60-69%
STUDY HINTS
When preparing for class, please
do not write out translations of the Latin you read. Please do not write
translation aids in your textbooks. Do your best to read the sentences and
make sense of the grammar without these aids.
1. Read the sentence aloud in Latin.
2. Read it again, trying to ascertain the grammatical
structure of the sentence (subject, verb, object, participles, prepositional
phrases, etc.)
3. Look up words you do not know. Write down the
definitions of the words, and note their forms.
4. Read the sentence again, putting grammar and
vocabulary together to make a literal meaning.
As I said above, try to do your homework somewhere where
you can read aloud. Learning a foreign language requires you to hear the
sounds the words make. It is always a good idea to look at upcoming assignments
and see what the homework will be, so you can be prepared and plan your
time wisely. You might even want to work ahead.
FINAL EXAMINATION
Students will take a final examination after the 15th week.
This examination will consist of translation from Latin into English, and
English into Latin, with grammar questions. The best way to prepare for
the final examination (and the daily quizzes) is to translate from Latin
to English for every class, to complete every homework assignment, and memorize
forms and vocabulary for each chapter. Students will be well advised to
spend time reading the explanations of grammar that accompany each set of
homework exercises, and to study the charts in the REFERENCE GRAMMAR the
back of the textbooks.
DAILY ‘QUIZLETS’
Daily Quizlets will also assess student progress. These
Quizlets will come mostly from the assigned homework, text readings, grammar
explanations and vocabulary charts in our textbook. These quizzes will assess
how well students are learning to translate, how well they are learning
new vocabulary, and how well they understand grammatical principles. The
quizzes will be short (10 minutes maximum). Students who miss class will
not be allowed to make up the daily quizzes, but at the end of the
semester, the Magister will drop the three lowest quiz grades and/or
the lowest three participation grades (total of six).
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Be honest. Cheating is NEFAS. Students will do their
own work. It is O.K. to study together, but the product of student work
must be individual. Don’t give your homework assignments to another student
to copy. Don’t ask for someone else’s work so that you can copy it. Students
who copy others’ work will suffer grade sanction. If you are not sure what
academic dishonesty is all about, please check with the Office
of Community Standards and Student Ethics. The professor will report
all students involved in incidents of academic dishonesty to this office.
INCLEMENT WEATHER POLICY
Students may make up work missed if they cannot come to
class because of inclement weather. If the University is open, we will hold
scheduled classes. Please do not call to find out if we will hold class;
if the University is open, class will go on.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
If you are registered with the Center
for Students with Disabilities for the purpose of accommodation, please
inform the professor before the semester begins, or in the first week of
class, and bring all relevant paperwork to his office in a timely fashion.
ERRATA
The Magister will very much appreciate the discipuli
who point out mistakes on the course web site. We strive to improve. Semper.
CONTACT THE MAGISTER
Daniel B. Levine
Professor, Classical Studies
Kimpel Hall 502 (office) 575-5937
Kimpel Hall 425 (Mailbox and Secretary) 575-2951
Fax: 479-575-6795
Email: dlevine@uark.edu
Office Hours:
MWF 1:30-2:20 pm, and by appointment.
MY JOB/YOUR JOB
My job is to help you to learn Latin, but you will
only accomplish this if, in addition to coming to every class, you work
hard, and ask good, serious, and specific questions. Give your studies the
time they need; it is a worthwhile investment.
SINT VOBIS OMNIA FAUSTA
FORTUNATAQUE!
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