About the Latin readers

I hope you and your students enjoy my Latin readers and find them useful! Here is a quick overview of some of the features.

The selections for these readers are the ten extracts chosen as the "Companion Texts" for the IB Latin syllabus. These works were chosen to expose students to a variety of Latin authors, genres, and text types in preparation for Paper 1 of the IB Latin exam (unseen passages with a paper dictionary). 
 

Vocabulary

I have provided versions of the readers with and without facing vocabulary. I firmly believe that students working with Latin texts should be given as much help with vocabulary as possible. This is especially true if the text is well above their reading level, as Roman literature is for the vast majority of students. Thus, every word found in the extract is defined either on the opposite page or on the list of common words in the back of the reader. This list of common words includes both words that are common in the extract (occurring more than once) and words that are common in Latin literature in general (appearing in the top 250 of the Dickinson Core Latin Vocabulary).

There is also a version that does not include the vocabulary on the facing pages. This is designed for those teachers whose students will need dictionary skills for Paper 1 of the IB Latin exam. If you are an IB Latin teacher, I recommend using the version without the facing vocabulary. 

Notes

I made notes for the readings on linguistic and literary aspects of the texts, as well as historical and cultural details. There is a version without these notes, for those who do not want them. (For IB, I recommend the version with the notes.)

In my notes on the language, I try to limit my use of grammatical terms, and when I do use them, I often put them in terms of the meaning. For example, in the Aulus Gellius phrase "litterīs homō multīs praeditus," rather than just saying that litterīs multīs is an ablative of respect, I say that it is an "ablative of respect showing in what way Apion was praeditus."

Questions

Prose passages are accompanied by "Understandings," or details that students are meant to take away from the extract. Every passage also has a set of questions which can be used for classroom discussion or written responses. There are also questions in darkened rectangles that are meant to loosely connect to Theory of Knowledge, an IB core course. These courses are marked with the Greek word ἐπί ("on," "over") because these questions go over and above the text itself, and because Theory of Knowledge deals with epistemology, which has the Greek root ἐπί as its prefix. These questions are also good for discussions or written assignments.

If you have any suggestions, feedback, or corrigenda, please contact me!