in Language, Pedagogy

Latin Mad Libs: fragmentary texts in the classroom

As you may guess between this and my last post I’m working on ways to liven up the classroom, and it has occurred to me how we might do Latin Mad Libs that are both fun and effective:

From Wikipedia.

…(ṃ)ad lib[itum]…

The name of the game should be formatted that way on the page, and students taught about the nature of fragmentary texts before they’ve ever been given a hint of the task. This is something that could be brought back again and again, sometimes as a game, sometimes as an assessment, now tied to the text, now entirely silly and free. It allows of a lot of variety, but the key that ties it together is the conceit of trying to emend a fragmentary text.

Students have to work closely with the text using prior knowledge, context clues, and their own best thoughts.

I can’t wait to try it myself next week.