Assignment for Monday, 03-07-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

By Monday morning, March 7, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 11. Note any questions along the way:

• The indicative imperfect middle/passive (#71, pp. 63–65);
• Middle/passive infinitives and imperatives (#72–73, pp. 65–66); and
• Vocabulary for Lesson 11 (#77, p. 68)

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 (#78, pp. 68–69); and
• "An Ill-Fated Frog" (same section, p. 70).

DC

Assignment for Thursday, 03-03-16

Dear Hellenists,

By Thursday morning, March 3, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 11. Note any questions along the way:

• Indicative present middle/passive, and the future middle; ignore the imperfect tense forms for now (#71, pp. 63–65); and
• Special senses of the middle voice; prepositions and their cases (#75–76, p. 67).

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences 1, 3, and 10 only (#78, pp. 68–69); and
• "The Bear Tells All" (#70, p. 62).

DC

Assignment for Tuesday, 03-01-16

Dear Hellenists,

By Tuesday morning, March 1, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 10, on the imperfect tense (#65–67, pp. 57–58). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences 3, 7, 9, and 10 only (#70, pp. 60–61); and
• English-to-Greek sentences 3 and 4 only (same section, p. 61).

DC

Extra-Credit Assignment for Monday, 02-29-16

Dear Hellenists,

For Monday morning, February 29, you have the OPTION of doing the following:

(1) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• English-to-Greek sentences (#64, p. 55).

If you choose to complete this OPTIONAL assignment, it will count as extra credit in your individual assignment points, up to 30 extra points.

If, after preparing for the exam and completing your readings and peer reviews, you choose not to do the assignment, that's fine, too.

DC

Vocabulary for Week 6

Dear Hellenists,

Your vocabulary assignments for Week 6 are as follows:

(1) By 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, please complete at least three Quizlet Study/Play exercises for each of the following sets of flashcards (9 exercises total):

• ΑΩ 8: Vocabulary;
• ΑΩ 9: Vocabulary; and
• ΑΩ 10: Vocabulary.

(2) By 11:00 p.m. on Saturday,  March 5, please complete a Test exercise for each of the above sets (three tests total).

DC

Assignment for Saturday, 02-27-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists:

By 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 27, please do the following:

(1) Complete Section D (Reading aloud) of our first exam. Call my campus voicemail with your perfected reading of the midterm passage. Before you left the exam, I handed you a sheet with full instructions and a copy of the passage to mark up.

NOTE: There's a link to a YouTube video of me reading the practice midterm passage on our Resources page, if you'd like a high-end idea of what a reading might be.

(2) Complete a peer review form for each member of your team (not including yourself). Instructions and a link to the electronic peer review form are available on our course website.

NOTE: If you fail to submit any or all reviews, you will forfeit the chance to earn peer review points this time around.

NOTE: Peer reviews are anonymous. You will receive copies of the review forms that you have sent to me. I, in turn, will anonymize all of the data and send an individual report to each team.

Please let me know if you have questions.

DC

Exam on Thursday, 02-25-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

Our first midterm exam on Thursday, February 25, will have the following format.

(1) Declining nouns and adjectives:

I'll give you English noun-adjective pairs in the singular or plural, you give me the Greek forms in the four major cases. The adjectives must modify the nouns in case, number, and gender.

(2) Jump drills:

A series of relatively short sequences in which you "jump" (change) one attribute of a verb form at a time, either person, number, tense, or mood.

(3) Passage to translate:

A short passage of connected Greek prose, using vocabulary and grammar through chapter 9. Read it carefully and write out your translation.

(4) Reading out loud (take-home portion, due Saturday, February 27, 11:00 p.m.):

Practice reading the midterm passage out loud: use Groton's textbook to help you determine vowel/consonant sounds and place accents. When you have perfected your reading, call my campus voice mail and read me the Greek over the phone. 

NOTE: Please prepare for and complete this portion of the exam on your own. I'll supply a copy of the passage for you to practice on and mark up. (No, you do not have to memorize the passage. Yes, you can read from the copy.)

*                    *                    *                    *                    *

For this exam, you'll be responsible for all concepts and vocabulary through ΑΩ Lesson 9.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

DC

Assignment for Tuesday, 02-23-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

By Tuesday morning, February 23, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 9, on first declension masculine nouns, substantives, and the genitive of possession (#58–63, pp. 51–54). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences (#64, p. 54).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-22-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

For Monday morning, February 22, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 8, on adjectives (#52–56, pp. 44–48). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• English-to-Greek sentences (#57, p. 48); and
• Read and translate "The Treasure Hunt" (same section, p. 49).

DC

(No) Vocabulary for Week 5

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

Just a reminder that there will be no formal vocabulary assignments next week. Rather, use the time you'd normally spend on vocab reviewing the words for ΑΩ 1 through 9, for which you'll be responsible on the first exam.

For convenience, here are the latest two lessons:

• ΑΩ 8: Vocabulary; and
• ΑΩ 9: Vocabulary

DC

Assignment for Thursday, 02-18-16

Dear Hellenists,

By Thursday morning, February 18, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 8, on second declension neuter nouns (#49–51, pp. 43–44). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.). Translate the following sentences into Greek:

a. Discover (sing.)  the gifts of the goddesses, O mankind!
b. Plants in the river will harm the mares. [Remember section 51, p. 44.]
c. We will no longer chase our sister out of the house and away from the markets.
d. Will you (pl.) hesitate to steal even the plants?
e. No longer be hastening (sing.) with pains into the tent.

DC

Team observations on Tuesday, 02-16-16

Dear Hellenists,,

On Tuesday, February 16, instructional team will be observing your teamwork during class.

During our observations, we'll take notes on how your team interacts. Specifically, we'll be focused on the following questions:

• Is everyone engaged?
• Are questions being addressed by the team, where appropriate?
• Are explanations being offered along with answers?
• Is the team working together and leaving no one behind?
• Is the team discussing the answer key and any mistakes that were made?

We would appreciate your team interacting as it normally does so that you and your peers can receive as honest an evaluation as possible. We also know that this is hard to do, but we want you to try.

The goal of this evaluation is twofold:

(1) We want to offer your team feedback so it can operate most effectively.

(2) With the first official peer review fast approaching, we want our feedback to enable any teams with potential problems to turn them around.

Note that the evaluation your team ultimately receives will be cast in general terms (that is, no names will be named) and no part of this evaluation will impact anyone's grade. There are no official points at stake here, only feedback from the instructional team.

If you have any questions about the upcoming peer review, please consult the following:

• The peer review section of our Policies web page; and
• The CG 110 peer review form, which you'll be filling out after the first exam.

Please let me know if you have questions.

DC

Assignment for Tuesday, 02-16-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

By Tuesday morning, February 16, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 7, on second declension masculine nouns, their articles, and the datives of means and manner (#42–47, pp. 37–39). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Read and translate "Old Habits Never Die" (#41, p. 35);
• English-to-Greek sentences (#48, p. 40).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-15-16

Dear Hellenists,

For Monday morning, February 15, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 6, on the future tense (#38–40, pp. 31–34). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences (#41, p. 34); and
• English-to-Greek sentences (same section, p. 34).

DC

Vocabulary for Week 4

Dear Hellenists,

Your vocabulary assignments for Week 4 are as follows:

(1) By 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 17, please complete at least three Quizlet Study/Play exercises for each of the following sets of flashcards (9 exercises total):

• ΑΩ 5a: Vocabulary
• ΑΩ 6: Vocabulary
• ΑΩ 7: Vocabulary

(2) By 11:00 p.m. on Saturday,  February 20, please complete a Test exercise for each of the above sets (three tests total). As noted on our Policies page and in the Using Quizlet video, each test should have the appropriate format.

DC

Assignment for Thursday, 02-11-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

By Thursday morning, February 11, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 5, on additional first declension feminine nouns, and some nuances of the definite article (#34–36, pp. 27–29). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences (#37, p. 29).

DC

Assignment for Tuesday, 02-09-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

By Tuesday morning, February 9, please do the following:

(1) Reading: Groton, Lesson 4, on first declension feminine nouns, case endings, the definite article, and the indirect object (#29–32, pp. 23–26). Note any questions along the way.

(2) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Greek-to-English sentences (#33, p. 26).

DC

Assignment for Monday, 02-08-16

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

For Monday morning, February 8, please do the following:

(1) Vocabulary set-up:

• Review the Vocabulary guidelines on our Policies page. Note any questions along the way.
• On Quizlet either (a) create a new profile or (b) adjust your current profile. Either way, your username should resemble your real name. I can't give you credit if I can't .recognize you.
• Send me a request on Quizlet to join our class (if you haven;t already done so)
  
• Watch the Using Quizlet video, if necessary, to make sure you understand how to navigate around and to generate properly formatted vocabulary tests. (NOTE: The video was made for my Elementary Latin class, and Quizlet has changed a little since then, but the overall principles are exactly the same.)

(2) Reading A: Groton, Lesson 3, on infinitives and imperatives (#21–24, pp. 17–19). Note any questions along the way.

(3) Homework (due by 8:00 a.m.):

• Translate the English-to-Greek exercises (#25, p. 20) with proper accents and breathings.

(4) Reading B: Groton, Lesson 4, on nouns and case endings (#26–28, pp. 21–23). Again, note any questions along the way.

DC

Vocabulary for Week 3

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

Your first vocabulary assignments of the term, due during Week 3, are as follows:

(1) By 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 10, please complete at least three Quizlet Study/Play exercises for each of the following sets of flashcards (9 exercises total):

• ΑΩ 1: Lower-case letters and names
• ΑΩ 3: Vocabulary
• ΑΩ 4: Vocabulary

(2) By 11:00 p.m. on Saturday,  February 13, please complete a Test exercise for each of the above sets (three tests total). As noted on our Policies page and in the Using Quizlet video, each test should have the appropriate format:

• The question limit must be equal to the number of vocabulary items/flashcards (that is, 24 questions if 24 items; Quizlet defaults to 20 questions or less, so be prepared to adjust the total as needed).
  
• Only written questions are allowed, not other kinds (no matching, no multiple choice, no true/false — uncheck those boxes in the right-hand menu).
  
• Only English to Greek questions are allowed (check the "Start with: English" button).
  
• You may take a test as many times as you wish in order to maximize your score. Breathings and accents count, but not macrons.
  
• When you have completed a text, use the "Print test" button at the top of the page to make a PDF of your results; send me all three PDFs by email before 11:00 p.m.

Quizlet will keep track of your progress as you complete these assignments. NOTE: Be sure to complete each exercise in full, or Quizlet will only give you partial credit.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

DC

Getting ready for vocabulary

Dear Elementary Hellenists,

It's time to start incorporating weekly vocabulary exercises into our routine. Here's how we're going to do this.

(1) On Thursday, February 4, I'll review the Vocabulary section of our Policies page, and briefly introduce Quizlet (briefly, because many of you have used it before, either at Skidmore or in high school).

(2) As part of the homework on Monday, I'll ask you to review the Policies page, watch the Using Quizlet video (if necessary), and set up a Quizlet account. I'll be more specific about these steps in my blog post for Monday's assignment.

(3) The first vocabulary assignments will be due next Wednesday, February 10, and next Saturday, February 13. I'll say more about these assignments in my next post. The main point is, these Wednesday/Saturday assignments will be part of our standard operating procedure next week and every week in which we aren't on break or don't have an exam.

Stay tuned,

DC