Our panel has a twofold concern: to encourage the integration of the study of Roman women into the Latin classroom by offering a rationale, strategies and resources, and to discuss the challenges and goals for teaching intermediate-level Latin, which is, for non-majors and/or non-honors students, usually their terminal course in the language. Each of the panelists has had the experience of teaching courses about women, but not all of us have taught courses on Roman women in Latin. One of our panelists this past spring incorporated readings from the reader The Worlds of Roman Women (Focus, 2005) into her third year high school Latin class (their main textbook was the Oxford Latin Course) as one way of educating for social diversity; she offers both classroom exercises and student feedback on her choice of topic and selections. Two of our members are co-authors of this first anthology of Latin text-commentaries on Roman women and of the On-Line Companion to this book (announced June, 2006), which offers additional glossed texts integrated with material culture and a host of aids and off-site links to support reading and research about Roman women. Another of our panelists, a reviewer of the print text, offers a rationale for adding Roman women to the Latin curriculum and demonstrates how reading language for gender teaches students new methods of analysis and increases their critical thinking skills. Among the issues that we intend to raise for participant discussion are: the “intensive reading in the original language” approach to building language skills in Intermediate Latin, a transitional stage of language learning fraught with special challenges for the teacher; the importance and benefits — and the practical difficulties — of integrating women and material culture into the language curriculum; creative strategies for using the new text and website in the Latin classroom.
Close this window after viewing.