I will ask you to keep a journal of your progress as you read through the Latin assignments for the semester. For each class period that you prepare a Latin reading for, you are to create an entry in your journal that answers the following questions (even if the answers are “no”):
There is no minimum or maximum length for an entry, and you can format an entry in whatever way makes the most sense to you (full sentences / paragraphs, bullet points, etc.).
You can keep your journal in whatever way makes the most sense to you (a physical notebook, a Google Doc, etc.), but you will be required to submit your journal entry every class period, so take that into account when choosing a format.
Your journals will be graded on whether all entries are complete on time or not. You will not be penalized for not preparing assignments in full or not having long answers to each question for every entry.
About once per week over the weekend, you will complete a quiz aimed at analyzing the Latin readings that we discussed in class that week. You will choose a format for each quiz from choices that I will lay out for each. Possibilities include drawing a comic to illustrate events in the Latin, summarizing a letter in one Latin sentence, writing a guided response to a question relating to the readings (with requirements for citing and translating the Latin), or a video/audio reading demonstration. I will explain more about this in class. All quizzes will be open-note and open-resource, and there will be no time limit for any quiz.
There will be a midterm and a final in this class that will be aimed at synthesizing readings and understanding Pliny’s style and culture in more detail. The format of each exam will vary but inevitably will draw on your skills in understanding morphology and syntax and forming arguments from the evidence in Pliny’s letters.
There will be four projects throughout the semester, each designed to have you practice a specific skill relating to Latin. All projects will be graded on a specification basis, meaning that they will earn a grade of either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. A grade of satisfactory earns full credit. If you get a grade of unsatisfactory on any project, I will assign a provisional grade out of 100 points, and you can redo the project as many times as it takes to get the satisfactory. If you don’t get the satisfactory by the end of the semester, the provisional grade will stand and I will weight it appropriately into your semester grade.
The final grade will be calculated as a percentage out of 100; then, it will be converted to a letter grade according to the following scheme:
A = 96-100%; A- = 90-95%
B+ = 87-89%; B = 84-86%; B- = 80-83%
C+ = 77-79%; C = 74-76%; C- = 70-73%
D+ = 67-69%; D = 65-66%
F = 0-64%
Grades ending in .45 or greater will be rounded up to the nearest whole number; grades ending in .44 or less will be rounded down to the nearest whole number.
