Course Overview
Living Latin is a self-paced online course that offers a complete introduction to the Latin language. It features animated videos teaching Latin grammar, a graded reader which starts out in simple Latin and gradually increases in difficulty as students master grammar and vocabulary, and supplementary articles on the history and culture of the Latin language across the centuries. It is available for individual learners and for teachers, who can enroll their students in a class and access a reporting system, which allows them to keep track of their students’ progress.
Grammar Videos
Living Latin features one hundred fun, engaging videos teaching Latin grammar. These videos start with the basics of the language, like pronunciation, and proceed all the way through the most complex topics in Latin grammar necessary to read authentic Latin texts. All grammar videos are followed by written summaries of the main topics covered, as well as quizzes that check students’ comprehension.
Graded Reader
Living Latin also includes a graded reader of more than 80,000 Latin words. This reader tells the story of a group of students from around the world studying abroad in modern Rome. As the students adventure around Italy, they visit famous monuments from the past and read ancient, medieval, and Renaissance Latin texts associated with those monuments. Eventually, the story develops into a fast-paced mystery novel.
The graded reader’s early chapters are in extremely simple Latin, which are designed to be easy to understand for speakers of English. Over the course of 60 chapters, the Latin becomes increasingly challenging. By the end, students are encountering fully developed Latin prose similar to what one might find in Cicero or the Renaissance humanists.
The reader is currently available online in a custom-designed reading environment. The reading environment features illustrations, a built-in dictionary, Latin-Latin glosses to help students understand what they’re reading while staying immersed in Latin, drop-down morphology tables, and easy access to the grammar lessons that are relevant for each chapter.
The graded reader is currently only available online, though a print version is in production and will be available later this year.
History and Culture
In addition to the grammar videos and graded reader, each chapter of Living Latin includes a short article in English expanding on an aspect of the history or culture of the Latin language that comes up in the chapter. Since the scope of Living Latin is not limited to antiquity, these articles cover the history and culture of not only ancient Rome, but also Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.
Assessments
Quizzes follow each lesson to check student comprehension of the subject matter covered. Additionally, a broader assessment measuring student reading comprehension accompanies every chapter of the course. Every five chapters, a larger summative assessment in both English and Latin recapitulates and tests the learner’s command of the grammar introduced to them in previous chapters, ensuring a solid foundation before moving on.
Forum
All Living Latin users have access to a general Forum, an online message board where they can post questions and interact with other users. The forum is monitored by Paideia staff, who are available to answer questions.
Learning Analytics
Teachers whose students are using Living Latin gain access to the platform's customized reporting tools. These tools allow teachers to view student performance in the course, and filter by individual student or specific quiz or lesson elements.
