UMass Boston

Course Overview

Description

Designed for repeat attendees at the summer Conventiculum Bostoniense, this course engages students in intensive study of a single classical or medieval Latin text, incorporating both traditional pedagogical approaches (grammar-translation method, study of relevant scholarship) and active learning methodologies (especially those that build competence in oral and written production of Latin, such as oral paraphrase, contextual discussion, Socratic questioning, written response and rephrasing). For a significant portion of class time, students work in small groups to compose and perform a play whose content accurately reflects the style, themes and literary, historical, and cultural contexts of the text studied in the course. This text varies each summer. Each student also completes an individual final paper, due six weeks after the last course session. The course provides a seven-day full-immersion living-Latin experience, with full-time residence required of all participants with the exception of some direct instruction in the text and relevant scholarship, students are required to communicate 24-7 in Latin.