“Vox” (Voice) is an alternative class running outside of our Number Levels, focused on oral/aural Latin and Classical music. You might think of it as a “gap year” which can be taken at any point, to consolidate Latin skills before moving on.
This class will focus on oral skills, building knowledge of Latin through conversation. Rather than depending on a textbook, it will proceed like early Charlotte Mason language classes with listening, narration, and the equivalent of “Gouin series exercises.” Grammar teaching will be only implicit (i.e. little or no grammar terminology). It will still be appropriately rich for Upper School students, however, because it will examine in depth the Latin texts used in classical music (which are mostly religious and scriptural texts). Students will learn to understand these texts, memorize portions of them, and listen to them as songs.
This class will not be an “easy track.” Students at this age level are expected to commit and to do homework. Homework for this class will involve making audio/video recordings, and memorization. Classtime will be lively and interactive, full of games and spoken activities. We will use the online platform Canvas for homework to enable audio/visual exchange.
Scope and Sequence 2023-2024
Lesson Plans Folder 2023-2024
All Students must have a (free) Canvas account, and access to a computer or phone with recording capability!
Here is the link to our Canvas website. Before you can access it, you will need to send Heather your e-mail address.
Parents are welcome to have “Observer” accounts on Canvas with a separate email account.
Just let Heather know which emails are for a student and which are for a parent to use.
Homework
Homework will happen on the Canvas website. Each week there will be:
1. Listening Homework (a video of the song we are studying)
2. Speaking Homework, where you will leave a video comment of yourself speaking Latin. What you are asked to say will vary: sometimes you will recite the song text you are memorizing; at other times you will respond to the listening homework, or narrate a story told in class. We will give lots of help: suggestions, examples, etc.
3. Memory Homework – each week you should spend some time working on the song text we are studying (or on your lines for O Fortuna, if you are an actor). There may sometimes be games or activities in this category, too.