Students who enroll in Latin 108 may have had one semester of Latin at a university or may have taken one year of high school Latin. They may have used a variety of textbooks. Because this course completes the survey of Latin grammar for people with different backgrounds, it seemed best to begin with a quick review of the equivalent of Latin 104 (or first-year high school work). The amount of review will vary with individuals, but I assume that second semester work will begin for most people at about lesson 7. Up to this point, you are not asked to translate the Practice and Review sentences, nor to do all the Sententiae Antiquae in each chapter. Starting with lesson 7, however, you can expect to have more written work to send in. So if you need to estimate the time required for the course, plan on working through the first six assignments quite rapidly, but allow more time for the remainder.
Wheelock, Frederic M. Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductoy Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors. Rev. by R. A. LaFleur. 6th edition. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
The course is divided into sixteen lessons, most of which cover two or more chapters in your text. Although you may not be told specifically to read the chapters for a particular lesson, it is understood that you will do so. The lessons themselves are divided into reading and writing assignments, each of which is composed of several parts. After reading #1 of the reading assignment, for example, look at the writing assignment section to see if there is a corresponding #1 in this section. If there is, please complete that part of the writing assignment before going on to read other parts of the reading assignment. Follow this procedure throughout the course.
It is important that you submit and be graded on your first writing assignment before proceeding with additional ones. Your instructor's response to this first submission will provide you with helpful guidelines beyond those contained in the study guide. After your first assignment is returned, you may submit assignments without waiting for previous ones to be returned, but no batches of assignments, please. You may submit no more than two in a seven-day period. Be sure to include an Independent Study cover sheet with every assignment that you submit.
There will be two exams, both supervised: one after the tenth assignment and one at the end of the course. Send in your applications to take these exams as directed. You will be allowed one hour for the midcourse exam and two hours for the final. You may not apply for the final exam until you have received a grade for your midcourse exam and all your assignments have been graded and returned to you. Both exams will consist entirely of Latin passages to translate. They will reflect the main aim of this course: to help you to learn to read Latin prose and poetry with some ease and, I hope, some pleasure. You must pass the final in order to pass the course.
Your final grade will be determined according to the following formula:
Writing Assignments = 50%
Midcourse Exam = 20%
Final Exam = 30%
Use the chart found at the end of this study guide to record your progress through the course.
My degrees are a B.A. from the University of Witwatersvand, Johannesburg, South Africa (1962); a B.A. honors in classics from the University of Exeter, England (1964); a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Texas (1971); and a B.Ed. from the University of Kansas (1984). I have taught Latin at the University of Texas and the University of Kansas, and both English and Latin in high schools in Johannesburg, London, and Lawrence.
My main interest is in Latin and Greek literature, both in the original and in translation. So, though I think that the final test in a course like this is "how well does the student read Latin?" I also hope that you will read some Latin and Greek poetry or prose in English. This would make the course more enjoyable, and would make it easier to treat Latin literature as literature, not just as a scrambled version of English, and a bundle of grammatical terms. By making the same demands on Latin as one does on English literature--that is, by questioning the values and moral standpoint of the work, the choice and handling of the subject, and the author's style--you can see why we should still be reading ancient authors. Even in elementary Latin, the passages for translation are often simplified versions of classical authors, and it would be much more interesting if these were supplemented with readings in translations. Questions on this matter are welcome. Other interests of mine include English literature; the theater; art; very leisurely gardening on occasion; and, rather more frequently, food.
I hope you will enjoy the course.