LATN 271-001: Introduction to Reading Latin Fall Semester 2024 Dr. Jacqueline Long MWF 9:20am-10:10am Crown 572

Policies and Assessment

Grades will be based on:

Letter-point conversions in the grade scale

A A-

100-90 89.9-86.7

B+ B B-

86.6-83.3 83.2-80 79.9-76.7

C+ C C-

76.6-73.3 73.2-70 69.9-66.7

D+ D F

66.6-63.3 63.2-60 59.9-0

Learning Outcomes (in addition to the pleasure of working together to learn):

• increase familiarity with vocabulary commonly used in ancient Latin, including both the words and how they change form to reflect different grammatical functions
• increase facility with Latin's principles for putting words together to convey ideas
• exercise knowledge of Latin words, their forms, and their combinations dynamically in the synthesis of reading, increasing fluency with practice
• learn, from reading Latin texts, about Roman culture and thought

Learning Activities - we will capitalize on the different learning-experiences and perspectives you each bring to our class through your active learning:

• read identified sections of Keller & Russell and ensure you are familiar with the concepts and patterns presented, or identify questions whose answers will enable you to master them; use the PowerPoint decks and Panopto videos in the Sakai site supplementally
• practice new and reviewed material: write out exercises from K&R's main text and Workbook as assigned for homework (most days); feed your strengths with additional exercises and by drilling vocabulary and forms
• ask questions in the appropriate Discussion Forum in the Sakai site - questions and answers are expected parts of your Participation score
• answer questions in the appropriate Discussion Forum in the Sakai site - questions and answers are expected parts of your Participation score
• come to class ready to confirm, extend, and polish your learning through discussing one another's further questions and answers, and carrying our practice further - questions and answers are expected parts of your Participation score
• write out homework as assigned: it demonstrates your learning and practice
• write out short quizzes as scheduled, usually at two-week intervals: they demonstrate your progress and consolidate your retention
• write out midterm and final exams: they confirm your progress and consolidate your retention at mid-semester and the end of term
• consult with your instructor as needed

Participation and other policies

• Class meetings
  • In connection with this course, we are partners in one another's learning. We each bring to this collaboration the wisdom of our own experience, both academic and otherwise. Foster a serious curiosity about Latin, about language, and about the philosophical, historical, and social ideas reflected literarily in the Somnium Scipionis. Engage. Share your insights, side-lights, and questions. Work together on deepening understanding for us all. Build a collegial common space. Exchange ideas supportively. Respect the differences between our world and the ancient Mediterranean. Recognize similarities. Extend grace to the complexities among us. All class-participants should feel safe to exercise their right to explore ideas and voice opinions without fear of dismissiveness, bias, harshness, or profanity.
  • Fluency grows when you practice. Your activity with Latin vests you with the real power of your knowledge: the momentum you build will carry you along. Success in this course will grow from
    • engaged, thoughtful participation in classroom, online, and private work
    • supportive, conscientious teamwork activating language's collaborative dynamism
    • steady preparation: you can never fore-know everything, but building your familiarity with words, forms, and syntactical principles holds them ready for you to put together and read and understand - our goal - to that end:
  • Please come to all course-work ready to focus, learn actively, and contribute to our shared endeavor. Always bring currently assigned texts with you to class meetings.
  • It is an expectation of this class that you will attend and contribute actively, collaboratively.
    • If illness or another non-avoidable crisis keeps you from attending any class-meeting in person, please get in touch as soon as possible to document the cause and check on any specifications for asynchronous contributions. Advance notice is helpful if the absence is subject to scheduling. (N.b.: Appointments should be scheduled for times other than when a class for which you are registered meets.)
    • If you can avoid missing class, don't miss class. Prepared is better than unprepared, and prompt is better than late, but even unprepared attendance or late arrival is better than missing out completely - just don't disrupt your fellow students.
    • If you do not find the opportunity to contribute positively to class discussion during any class-meeting in person, keep up your continuity by contributing substantively to the current class-material's Sakai Forum before 5:00pm Central Time of the same day.
    • It is an expectation of this class that each student will contribute substantively to Discussion Forums in the Sakai site (asynchronous participation) at least once a week, in addition to in-person continuity in class-meetings. Additional substantive, constructive contributions to the current Sakai Forum also are welcome.
  • Since your contributions to class are of value for all our learning, non-contributed class meetings shall be defined as excessive, as follows:
    • Each unexcused absence or non-contributed class whose continuity is not sustained by a current Forum contribution, beyone a total of three, excused or unexcused. That is, excused absences kill your budget of unexcused absences.
    • Repeated chronic lateness (more than 10 minutes) shall be counted as partial absences, as will early exits from class. Nevertheless, it is better to attend even part of a class, late, than to miss it entirely. Just don't disturb your colleagues.
    • Absences will be totalled over the whole semester.
  • Standards of contribution (in person and online) include:

    Positive: raises questions from study-materials that generate thoughtful discussion and build learning	in most meetings and posts	in some meetings and posts	in few meetings and posts
    Positive: guides discussion to employ sound methods and build learning	in most meetings and posts	in some meetings and posts	in few meetings and posts
    Positive: supplies pertinent information in discussion	in most meetings and posts	in some meetings and posts	in few meetings and posts
    Positive: makes insightful connections	in most meetings and posts	in some meetings and posts	in few meetings and posts
    Negative: disrupts discussions with distraction or disrespect	never	once or twice, with apology and remediation	with some regularity or wantonness

  • The right to attend class meetings
    • The section "Registration" in Loyola University's Undergraduate Academic Standards and Regulations provides that "No one is permitted to attend any class without first officially registering for that class."
    • Please be aware that not having satisfied a course's pre-requisites constitutes grounds for being withdrawn from that course at any time.
  • The deadline for submitting written homework, when it is to be collected in that form, will be announced in class when the assignment is made: generally no later than the start of the class-meeting the day the assigned work is due. All work must be submitted in legible form. (When assignments are set up to be submitted through Sakai, please use .docx files, which are also the easiest for me to work with and give you targeted feedback; .jpg and .pdf files transmit but are more awkward; other filetypes don't transmit). If you type (which may be a very good thing to do if your handwriting is challenging), watch out for spell-checkers: they can be sneaky and persistent, especially alarmingly while being wholly untrustworthy with Latin. Proofread and make sure what you submit is what you intend. Thanks!
  • Quizzes and exams can be rescheduled only for dire and documented reasons. Please get in touch as soon as possible if the need arises. And just like everything else, quizzes and exams need you to write legibly and spell correctly.
  • The section "Final Examinations" in Loyola University's Undergraduate Academic Standards and Regulations reflects the fact that instructors do not have authority to re-schedule final examinations. If your course-schedule results in your facing four (4) final exams on a single day, you may petition Assistant Dean Patricoski to have one (1) of the four re-scheduled on the authority of the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Collaborative work
  • Active cooperation is expected of all students in every phase of collaborative endeavors. Everybody has a busy schedule and many obligations to juggle. You owe it to one another to plan together well in advance and to carry out your responsibilities in your shared work.
  • It is not possible to make up in-class activities if you miss class that day, including collaborative exercises or presentations.
  • All principles regarding academic integrity apply to collaborative work just as they do to individual work.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Loyola University Chicago is committed to the recognition of and respect for variations in racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds and with regard to class, gender, age, physical and mental ability/disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. The website of the University’s Anti-Racisim Initiative details some efforts to address systemic inequities of our society and advance our community towards full inclusion and anti-racism. Our conduct with one another should support these endeavors.
  • Addressing one another at all times by using appropriate names and gender pronouns honors and affirms individuals of all gender identities and gender expressions. Misgendering and heteronormative language excludes the experiences of individuals whose identities may not fit the gender binary, and/or who may not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. In this course we strive to provide an affirming environment for all students with regard to their names and gender pronouns.
• Academic honesty, a.k.a. the life's blood of the intellect:
  • Learning is the core of universities' purpose. Complete academic integrity - absolute adherence to principles of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage in academic matters - is the foundation on which learning can be achieved. Breaches of academic integrity interfere with learning or falsify it: they violate the university's purpose, for the institution and for all the people in it, from innocent bystanders to the perpetrator. It matters. Consequently, needfully, any practice of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, any use of AI or other resources not specifically authorized by your instructor, obstructing the work of other students, etc.) perpetrated in this course will result in failure of the course. Do not do it.
  • For basic principles and definitions, see the subsection Academic Integrity (click the > sign to get the embedded text) in the Undergraduate Standards & Regulations in the 2024-25 Academic Catalog/Standards & Regulations. The College of Arts and Sciences endorses and upholds this policy, as does the Department of Classical Studies.
  • The University Libraries offer a Workshop page (titled Avoiding Plagiarism for First-Year Students because first year is where everybody starts, but really it's for everyone) defining plagiarism and offering advice and links to other resources that can help avoid it.
  • The Writing Program refers to the Council of Writing Program Administrators' detailed Statement of Best Practices for Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism.
  • Grammarly (also referred to by the Writing Program) offers concise tips How to Avoid Plagiarism: they emphasize repeatedly, it's crucial to acknowledge the sources from which you're drawing information or ideas, not only to avoid parroting words.
  • Loyola University Chicago requires that all instances of academic dishonesty must be reported to the chairperson of the department involved and to the academic Dean of the student's College.
• Copyright: Copyright law was designed to give rights to the creators of written work, artistic work, computer programs, and other creative materials. The Copyright Act requires that people who use or make reference to the work of others must follow a set of guidelines designed to protect authors’ rights. The complexities of copyright law in no way excuse users from following these rules. The safest practice is to refrain from distributing works used in class (whether distributed by the professor or used for research) because they are likely copyright-protected, and to cite any research or creative work you use in your classwork according to Turabian or other standard style-guide for the humanities. See further Loyola University Chicago copyright resources.
• Intellectual Property: All lectures, notes, homework templates, and other instructional materials in this class are the intellectual property of the professor. As a result, they may not be distributed or shared in any manner, either on paper or virtually, without my written permission. Lectures may not be recorded without my written consent; when consent is given, those recordings may be used for review only and may not be distributed. Recognizing that your work, too, is your intellectual property, I will not share or distribute your work without your written permission.
• Privacy Statement: Assuring privacy among faculty and students engaged in face-to-face and online instructional activities helps promote open and robust conversations and mitigates concerns that comments made within the context of the class will be shared beyond the classroom. Recordings of instructional activities may be used solely for internal class purposes by the faculty member and students registered for the course, and only during the period in which the course is offered. Students will be informed of such recordings by a statement in the syllabus for the course in which they will be recorded. Instructors who wish to make subsequent use of recordings that include student activity may do so only with informed written consent of the students involved or if all student activity is removed from the recording. Recordings including student activity that have been initiated by the instructor may be retained by the instructor only for individual use.
  • Pursuant to the above statement, I'll note I do not currently anticipate holding any class meetings by Zoom, and do not plan to record class meetings. Should needs arise during the semester, however, as a student in this class, your participation in live class discussions will be recorded. These recordings will be made available only to students enrolled in the class, to assist those who cannot attend the live session or to serve as a resource for those who would like to review content that was presented. All recordings will become unavailable to students in the class when the course has concluded. Students will be required to turn on their cameras at the start of class. Students who have a need to participate via audio only must reach out to me to request audio participation only without the video camera enabled. The use of all video recordings will be in keeping with the University Privacy Statement.

Land Acknowledgment: The Loyola University Chicago community acknowledges its location on the ancestral homelands of the Council of the Three Fires (the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes) and a place of trade with other tribes, including the Ho-Chunk, Miami, Menominee, Sauk, and Meskwaki. We recognize that descendants of these and other North American tribes continue to live and work on this land with us. We recognize the tragic legacy of colonization, genocide, and oppression that still impacts Native American lives today. As a Jesuit university, we affirm our commitment to issues of social responsibility and justice. We further recognize our responsibility to understand, teach, and respect the past and present realities of local Native Americans and their continued connection to this land.
See further resources compiled by the Law Library.

Labor Acknowledgment: The Society of Jesus participated in the institution of slavery in North America from the colonial era until the passage of the 13th Amendment. The involuntary labor of the people the Jesuits owned, rented, and borrowed helped establish, expand, and sustain Jesuit missionary efforts and educational institutions in colonial North America and, over time, across the United States. The Jesuits' use of enslaved labor is a legacy shared by all Jesuits and Jesuit institutions.
The Jesuits' Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project is committed to a transformative process of truth-telling, reconciliation, and healing that, in conversation with the descendants of people held in bondage, acknowledges historical harms, seeks to repair relationships, and works within our communities to address the legacies of slavery that persist in the form of racial inequities today.
The Project is motivated by a desire to uncover the truth of people's stories, to honor their memories and heal relationships. We hope that together, descendant communities, Jesuits, and Jesuit institutions can act in partnership to address the prejudice and structural racism that endure from slavery throughout the United States.

Revised 26 July 2024 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/depts/classics/