Declension Mnemonics

[metrodorus]

Here is my page on declension Mnemonics
http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.uk/l ... nics1.html

[Einhard]

Salve metrodorus.

The booklet looks extensive and very well put together, but I really don't see the point in mnemonics on such a grand scale. Sure, I always remember the colours of the rainbow from good old Richard Of York Giving Battle In Vain, but that's a short and simple technique, and moreover one that is usefeul because I don't have that great of an interest in rainbows, and thus couldn't be bothered learning the specific colours.

Learning a language is different though, at least to me. First off, you have to learn the grammar. There's no getting around it. So the function of mnemonics in helping you remember things that you really don't need to remember (as with the rainbow), is diminished. They then become about providing an aid to remembering things that are vital to your particular undertaking. And anything that helps is of course to be welcomed. But surely it's easier just to learn the things off by heart? I don't mean to disparage your work or your method, but your booklet is 117 pages long. Would you not find it easier to dispense with mnemonics in such instances, and just learn the endings off by heart?

What I'm really trying to do here, I suppose, is get to an understanding of a study method which I don't use myself, and of which I fail to see the attraction. I'm sure people are aghast at my rote memorisation technique, and fail to see any method in the madness! I'd appreciate though if people would drops a few lines on what they find attractive about mnemonics. You never know, I might become convinced of the error of my ways and become a full blown covert!!

Thanks,

Einhard.

[metrodorus]

Have you read it? It is long, because it is a complete lesson, aimed at quite young children.

I know of teachers who are using with their interactive whiteboards to teach the declensions.

I don't understand your post, or your comment. It is long, many pages have only 1 word on them.

The method is about learning the endings, but using the fingers as loci for the endings, so they are structured.

[Einhard]

Well yes, I did read it all. But my comment wasn't directed at your booklet per se, but at the use of mnemonics as an aid to learning. And I am trying to find out what attracts people to it as a useful method, because I don't really get it. That's all.

[adrianus]

I'm sure people are aghast at my rote memorisation technique

Not at all, Einhard. For many, in any case, rote learning of the case endings often relies also on visual and aural memory.

I understand your post and your concern as well, Einhard. Worse, the language and images in the booklet are often confusing, Metrodorus, since you count the thumb as first finger (not fifth)—and the rest accordingly,—and include phrases such as this with no explanation.

So it is said, that its end falls ‘this way’ or ‘this way’.

Minimè, Einharde. Ut terminationes nominum memoriter discant, obiter, multes in memoriâ oculariâ auriculariâque confidunt.

Te intellego (et epistulam et curam), Einharde. Peius est, meâ sententiâ. Verba imaginesque tuae, Metrodore, saepè confundunt, non minus quia pollicem ut primus non quintus digitus numeras,—et itaquè caeteros,—et explicationes sententiarum sicut ita desunt.

Sic dictus, qvia finis ejus sic, vel sic, cadit.

[metrodorus]

re the method of loci - it only works with people who have a visual memory.

Using the hand however, also engages kinesthesis, so includes a wider range of learners. It is an adjunct to rote memorisation. Many people who memorise by rote are using it unconsciously. Other people memorise with sound.

Cicero used the method of loci, and if you google "memoria artificialis" in google books you will find a few authors who have something to say about it, in Latin. Other contemporaries didn't or couldn't use the method.

[adrianus]

This booklet illustrates the memory technique of loci only very weakly. Yes, it asks you to associate declensions with fingers on a hand, but requires each finger to store information on all the cases, which are then distinguished by words, not locations.

Vix hic libellus modum memorandi per locos illuminat. Is declinationes quidem ad digitos manûs proprios conjungi requirit. Idem autem digitus terminationes omnium casuum tenet quae tunc per verba non locos distinguuntur.

[nov.ialiste]

On some pages I cannot read all the words as black letters are on an almost black background. Some improvement in the visual presentation would be in order.

I haven't yet read through the whole thing but I intend to.

I would prefer texts which consistently mark long vowels with macrons. I feel this is very important for beginners.

On edit: it wasn't clear to me how to open the book. I was looking around for a link and then realised that clicking on the hand image might do it. A note saying "click on the image to read the book" might be helpful for some.

On edit again: I fund that the link just above the image opens the book. For the slow, like myself, "click here to start reading the book" would make it more obvious.

[metrodorus]

Hello...not sure where you are seeing black - the hands are blue on a white background, with red lettering for the words....
Does this affect other books on the tarheel reader website as well?
http://tarheelreader.org
?

[nov.ialiste]

Hello...not sure where you are seeing black - the hands are blue on a white background, with red lettering for the words....
Does this affect other books on the tarheel reader website as well?
http://tarheelreader.org
?

Sometimes there are words superimposed on photographs. This is where much of the text is illegible.

[metrodorus]

Interesting. What browser/os are you using? I'll alert the university department that runs the site, if you give me more specific information about the problem.

[nov.ialiste]

Interesting. What browser/os are you using? I'll alert the university department that runs the site, if you give me more specific information about the problem.

Firefox 3.0.12
Windows XP

Like I said photographs appear on some pages, for example, "magister" is a suit of armour if I remember right, "regina" is a woman from behind her back with her face turned towards the camera.

Page 55:



The text overlaying that image says "Part of a queen" (which I could only read by highlighting it with the mouse).

[adrianus]

This image is supposed to communicate the idea of "part of a queen" to "quite young children"! It's too silly for words.

Trial and error as approaches to writing and design in education may, in the long-term, bear fruit, but it is often advisable first to serve apprenticeship to someone with a little talent at least before foisting products on the inexperienced and unsuspecting.

Sed ut hoc signum notionem partis reginae liberis paucorum annorum communicet! Tàm ineptum est quàm verba non manent.

Aleam adire et per errores aptare est unus modus scribendi et deformandi in arte educandi, qui demùm fructus ferre possit, sed saepè conducibilius est ut primùm sub aliquo ullius ingenii tyrocinia ponis antequam imperitis imprudentibusque operas suppedis.

[metrodorus]

Adrian,
1. The Tar Heel site is intended for adolescents with reading problems. As such, the images used are targetted at teenagers. The Latin readers are targetted at either teens, or children, and are rated accordingly.

2. There is a rating system on all books that have teenagery or sexy pictures, which is applied by the site mangers. They actively encourage such material, as it increases the liklihood of the reader reading the material.

3. There is nothing in this picture that cannot be seen on an average billboard in the street, or on TV, even during children's programming time. Not sure what planet you're on.

4. If you read the book, you'll see the previous poster has got both pictures and their associated text mixed up. As a result, your comments are not about anything real.

Nuff said.

[metrodorus]

*** CROSS POSTED AT LATIN TEACH & Latin-best-practices: please forward to anyone you think would be interested in participating in this project - including any other English or foreign language teachers, too ***

Hi everybody, I thought I would send an update about the Tar Heel Reader project, since we have now passed the 250 reader milestone!

You can browse through the readers in my Delicious bookmarks here:
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelrea ... gsort=freq

You can view a reader at random using this link:
http://delicious.com/tag/tarheelreader+ ... n?random=1

Readers have been contributed by teachers and students from several continents! Here are just a few of the authors who have created multiple readers:
Anita Wasdahl
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelreader+anitawasdahl
Andrew Gollan
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelrea ... stergollan
Anthony Gibbins
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelrea ... onygibbins

I've tried to keep track of various types of readers, such as readers marked with macrons (over 50 of those!), bilingual readers (over 40 of those!) and so on:
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelreader+macrons
http://delicious.com/aesopus/tarheelreader+bilingual
(You can use the Delicious tag listing to the right to search for other tags, combinations of tags, etc.)

My own collection of Aesop's fables for beginners is here:
http://tarheelreader.org/tag/aesop+beginner+basic/
Each of those Aesop readers in turn comes in a variety of formats: with macrons, a bilingual version, and a "repetite!" exercise - for example:
http://tarheelreader.org/tag/perry572/

You can also use the search feature at Tar Heel to look for how the authors themselves have tagged their readers, such as these readers specifically designed for Oerberg's Lingua Latina - but potentially useful to any beginning students!
http://tarheelreader.org/?s=oerberg

If people have questions, suggestions or requests about this project, please let me know. I've been trying to collect notes and tips at the Libelli Latini blog here:
http://libellilatini.blogspot.com/
Each reader has its own page at the blog where you can leave comments, notes about typos or anything that you think needs correcting, suggestions about using the reader for teaching, ec. etc.

I'm hoping that people will want to contribute new readers as the new school year gets started - Tar Heel is a fun and easy way to create materials for your students which can then benefit Latin teachers and students all over the world - for free!

Most importantly: THANKS to everybody for their contributions and help in getting this project off to such a great start this summer - and I'm looking forward to lots of Tar Heel Reader fun this fall!

Laura

[adrianus]

1. The Tar Heel site is intended for adolescents with reading problems.

All the more reason to avoid careless, sloppy writing. And you yourself said above only that you targetted "quite young children".
Quod formulas solutas atque neglegentes non excusat. Tu ipse suprá te liberis paucorum annorum scripsisse dixisti.

2 & 3. I left it to readers to judge the appropriateness of a sexy image. "Silly" doesn't describe that. What I said was it was too silly for words as an illustration of "part of a queen". The connection is very confused, for young children especially, or anyone, for that matter.
Lectoribus arbitris rem demisi utrum imago nimìs sexualis sit. Eo casu, "ineptum" ut adjectivum non aptum sit. Immò, ineptam paginam cum hâc imagine esse clamavi, quià nexus inter photographiam et partem reginae valdè confusus est, liberis certé, quibuscunque, vera dicere.

4. I had read the book (give me strength) and I did check it again. Not only is this page confused (http://tarheelreader.org/2009/06/27/declensions/55/) but so are these (among others!): /56/, /60/, /62/, /64/, /67/, /68/, /82/, /87/, /89/.
Certè librum legeram (quod depressit) et relegi (iterùm depressit)! Non solùm confusa est haec pagina (55) sed caeterùm multes aliae.

You can't use children and adolescents with reading problems as an excuse to pump out any old rubbish.
Liberis vel adolescentibus qui malè legunt scribere non excusat ut nugas scribas artis vacuas.

[adrianus]

Hi, Metrodorus.
I can't believe that you seem to have written an article about yourself for Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Millner)! That's hilarious! You clearly haven't read the fine print. What's even funnier is that there is no attempt to write it in Latin.
Salve, Metrodore.
Incredibile! Est anglicè capitulum autobiographicum in Wikipedia a te scriptum, ut videtur! Ridiculissimum! Clarè, sequentia non legisti. Quod latinae versionis vestigium in vicipaediâ non adparet etiam jocosius est.

Writing an autobiography on Wikipedia is strongly discouraged, unless your writing has been approved by other editors in the community. Editing a biography about yourself should only be done in clear-cut cases.
Wikipedia has gone through many prolonged disputes about the significance, factual accuracy, and neutrality of such articles.[1] Avoiding such editing keeps Wikipedia neutral and helps avoid pushing a particular point-of-view.
Writing autobiographies is discouraged because it is difficult to write a neutral, verifiable autobiography and there are many pitfalls.
...Creating an article about yourself is strongly discouraged.
...Note that anything you submit will be edited mercilessly by others. Many autobiographical articles have been a source of dismay to their original authors after a period of editing by the community, and in at least four instances have been listed for deletion by their original authors. In some cases the article is kept even if the original author requests otherwise.

[spiphany]

Um, I'm not trying to play mod here, but Adrianus, I don't suppose you could air whatever grudge you have against Evan somewhere else? I think a certain amount of critique of his methodology is in order -- and a bit more openness to other perspectives wouldn't come amiss -- however, there's absolutely no reason for personal attacks. Makes things rather unpleasant, you know?

[adrianus]

You're right, spiphany. Here is not the place to criticize Metrodorus's Wikipedia article, but the criticism of the piece (the subject of this thread) I stand by.
Rectè dicis, spiphany. Hîc non aptum est ut capitulum Metrodori in Wikipedia incuso, at criticam illius opusculi (quod subjectum huius fili est) defendo.

[nov.ialiste]

Adrian,4. If you read the book, you'll see the previous poster has got both pictures and their associated text mixed up. As a result, your comments are not about anything real.

I looked at another book by a different author (also in Latin) and it has the same problem with black text on dark photographs: much of the text is illegible unless I highlight it with the mouse.

Is this browser specific? Like I said I'm using Firefox.

This probably affects many, even most of these books. One solution would be to have the text always appear under the photo on a white background, so it would always be easy to read whatever colours are in the the photo.

[metrodorus]

m

[metrodorus]

There is a forum on the Tarheel reader site - post your problem there, and Gary Bishop at the computer center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill will be very quick to respond.
Tell him what browser you are using, and what o/s. I am sure the problem can be resolved.
It could also be because of the size you have your default typeface set to.

The Latin teaching community is responding very positively to the Tar Heel site - as Laura Gibbs correctly observes, in several years of trying to encourage Latin teachers to engage in projects, this is the first time a large number of teachers have jumped on board. From zero to over 250 readers in just on 2 months is AMAZING. The response of teachers has, almost without exception, been enthusiastic.

When the school year starts back, we will see even more, as at present teachers are away on holiday....the tar heel site allows teachers to introduce composition into their classes - those readers that do not make the grade are tagged quasilatin - if you search the tar heel site for this tag, you will see them.

What is amazing about these readers, is that they are available on an open shared bookshelf, so students searching for 'nature' or whatever, will stumble across books in Latin.

The digital nature of the project means wide distribution is possible. At the moment, Bolcharzy is considering releasing the rights to at least one of its textbooks, (Latin for the New Millenium) so that Latin teachers can create tar heel resource materials based directly on the textbook.

The Latin books are proof read for grammar by a University professor based in the States, those that get passed, get a gold kitemark badge.

[nov.ialiste]

I'm not posting elsewhere about this (which might require registration somewhere).

I was merely providing feedback.

Those who use this Tarheel Reader should be concerned to fix problems.

[nov.ialiste]

I'm not posting elsewhere about this (which might require registration somewhere).

I was merely providing feedback.

Those who use this Tarheel Reader should be concerned to fix problems.

! later realised that my problem was that I use an anti-script add-on facility with Firefox. When I relax the use of the anti-script the pages and texts all appear correctly.

Sorry if I generated concerns.