Classical Greek in the Schools

Read or share Classical Greek teaching materials, such as lesson plans, teaching tips, pedagogical strategies, exercises, work sheets, sample quizzes and exams, projects, reviews of books, videos, and computer programs of use to Greek teachers, at Greek Teachers' Corner.

In Latin III I teach the Greek alphabet, prefixes, suffixes, and roots (I guess a mini-word-building class).

In AP Vergil (Latin IV) I provide short passages from the Iliad and the Odyssey.

It would be great if there were an ancillary Greek textbook that gave students an experience of reading Greek without the stress (!) of learning Greek. I would enjoy seeing emphasis on etymology, cultural highlights, pithy Greek sayings, short excerpts in Greek with lots of support.

(Gil, I am attaching stanza 1 of Sappho 31 as an example of what I used today in AP Catullus, alongside C #51. It went well. The students know the alphabet and can read the words, and their understanding of inflected language aids them in figuring out the morphology and translation of each word. Unfortunately, I am producing these unpolished pages during free periods so I don’t have a chance to revise and submit the whole poem to you.)

One period per day with a student who is keen, for two years (usually 11—12 grade). We do Athenaze I - II, then M. Balme, Greek Lyric Poetry.

Last year, with an unusual student, we translated from Greek verse into Latin verse of the same meter (forthcoming in Classical Outlook, author: Katherine Epstein).

I plan to begin Athenaze (we use Ecce and the format is similar) once familiarity is established with basic Latin declensions (3rd quarter) - probably once a week - I polled the students and they seemed excited by the prospect.

Text? Can’t say yes or no since I object already to the plethora of texts in Latin and Greek that make any standardization impossible (vocab, sequence, etc.). I believe Athenaze is the most felicitous blend of deductive and inductive methodology and have found it keeps the attention of younger students (and older, adult learners). For me, support materials to Athenaze are a desiderandum.

Our school actually offers a course in New Testament (koine) Greek, not Classical Greek, but we do incorporate some Classical Greek into that course.

As for a new Introduction to Greek text, I already know of several good grammar texts, so what might be most helpful is a collection of short stories or translations that would be a bridge from beginning Greek exercises to translating actual Greek texts.

Kevin J. Kile
Marian Catholic High School
700 Ashland Ave.
Chicago Heights, IL 60411

1. NO Not yet, at least. I have begun a Greek class for about 22 Latin II–IV students. I have chosen Hansen & Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, because I have found other texts too dry (e.g., Chase & Philips), too slow and boring (e.g., Athenaze), or too dense and lacking in form drills (Betts & Henry).

2. YES I have divided the 22 into two groups. Each group meets 3 times per week for 1 hour; one group meets before school, the other after school. It is entirely pro bono on my part, but the students are rewarded with bonus points on their Latin grades.

3. YES An ideal text would give the student as much grammar as quickly as is pedagogically expedient (Latin texts notoriously drag things out, and spend a lot of time doing very little). It would be based on real texts (like Pharr’s Homeric Grammar), advance a knowledge of Greek philosophy, history, and the great writers, while avoiding pedantic and banal “culture” sections. It would move the student to readiness to tackle real Greek as quickly as possible, while at the same time forming the students appreciation of prose style through composition exercises and analysis of prose passages from the “canonical” authors.

4. YES

Class	Number of students	Text
Greek I	11	JACT Reading Greek
Greek II	5	JACT Reading Greek
AP Greek III/IV	21	Tragedies

Class	Number of students	Text
Greek I	18	Reading Greek (JACT)
Greek II	5 (last year 13)	Reading Greek (JACT) plus Herodotus part of World of Heroes (JACT)
AP Greek III/IV	26	Alternating curriculum. One year: Greek Tragedy, using Oedipus section of World of Heroes + Medea section of The Intellectual Revolution (JACT). Other year: Homer, using Benner text.

I read your questionnaire in the newsletter for the Illinois Classical Conference and am writing because I teach a correspondence course and a summer school course in Latin through Northwestern University for academically talented youth (Center for Talent Development). They would be willing to sponsor a Greek course, but I am not satisfied with the elementary Greek texts that I have read for junior and senior high school students: Pharr, Chase and Phillips, the Oxford course. Currently I use the Wheelock (text, Workbook, and Latin Stories) for the correspondence students and the Oxford Latin Course for the summer program. The OLC seems especially satisfying to the students, and I would like to find something comparable in the Greek. Please let me know if you or your respondents have any suggestions.

I teach a full schedule of Latin, levels I–V, with IV/V alternating the two A.P. syllabi. We are the third largest language behind Spanish and French at a public high school of over 3000 students on the north side of Indianapolis, where we also offer German, Japanese, and Hebrew.

There is no regular Greek course, but the fourth quarter of the second year class is devoted to providing the students with a background in things Hellenic.

We start with Internet research on six components of Greek culture: architecture, sculpture, pottery, philosophy, drama, and army. This provides background for us then to explore one Greek tragedy in translation (Alcestis), and parts of two Platonic dialogues (Republic and Theaetetus), also in translation.

We then move into the language phase, which involves learning the alphabet and simple vocabulary. For grammar, students learn the cases of the o-stems and a-stems and the forms of the first aorist active for verbs. From this they transliterate and translate simple sentences of my composition, along with trying to figure out authentic sentences relating to something we have already studied, such as the “anthropos metron” doctrine of Protagoras, which ties in to the Theaetetus they have read. The vocabulary list includes Latin equivalents of all the words (“dux” for “strategos,” for example), so we have some fun translating sentences back and forth from Latin to Greek.

Finally, we end with selections from the Curtius Rufus account of Alexander. This is also punctuated with authentic Greek statements about the general, which the students are able to decipher with some glosses.

I do not use a textbook for this, but prepare my own materials. Crosby and Schaeffer is the text to which I would refer them for further study, should they ask.

Within the scope of a Latin program, I doubt I would do more, and therefore a new introductory book and National Greek Exam would not be of direct use to me in the classroom. Being somewhat familiar with Athenaze and the Cambridge series, however, I do think a new book would be helpful for those interested in a full-fledged course, whether in a lunch-hour or traditional classroom setting. For my personal pedagogical approach, I would like to see a meeting of Crosby and Schaeffer with Latin for Americans. Strong grammar, with all the colored pictures, etc., that everyone seems to want.

You may feel free to disseminate our information to other interested parties, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

My school offers Greek 1A, 1B, and 2A. This three-year cycle begins every other year. Each course meets during one of our elective periods (either Tuesday and Thursday, or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) for 45 or 50 minutes. Students receive a half credit for each course. Greek 1A is open to sophomores and juniors who have completed at least two years of Latin. Students in Greek must continue their study of Latin.

Elementary grammar is covered in Greek 1A and 1B. We will be using Hansen and Quinn’s Greek: An Intensive Course. We have been using Chase and Phillips.

Greek 1C is devoted to reading and a review of grammar. We have been using Freeman and Lowe’s A Greek Reader for Schools, but I plan to switch to one of the CANE readers. We were also doing every third exercise in Hillard and Botting’s Elementary Greek Exercises, but I will probably not use that again, although the students enjoyed it. I will begin using Peach and Millard’s The Greeks and other cultural materials as I become more comfortable teaching Greek grammar. (My last Greek course was over twenty years ago.)

I have just taken my first group of students through the three-year cycle. During the last year, we had five students in Greek 1A and two in 2A. Next year, I will have five students in Greek 1B. The program is generating interest and support, much as Latin did when we started a program fifteen years ago.

I try to make a responsible use of the grammar-translation method in my teaching. I know this is out of fashion nationally, but it works well at my very traditional school where students come to my classes with a strong background in English grammar.

I would like a new textbook written for high school students and employing the grammar-translation method, but I know that this would not suit most of the teachers answering your survey. I could use some good cultural materials written for high school students.

I hope this information is helpful. Thank you for all that you do to support teaching at the secondary level, and thank you especially for taking an interest in the revival of Greek in high schools.

1. Last year Academia Sancta Maria, a traditional Roman-Catholic High School, having two separate schools, one for boys and one for girls, offered only Latin (four years) and Greek for those who had a higher interest in Classics. I taught Greek for 20 girls (twice a week in the afternoon) and they participated together with 10 boys, for the first time, in the National Greek Exam.

This year Father Ramón Anglés, a wonderful supporter of Classics, has approved a class of Greek for boys in XI and XII Grades (an elective course), which I am teaching for 11 boys.

Also I am teaching Latin for IX, X, XI, XII grade girls, and during the Latin classes (every day, 5 a week) I am teaching also Greek for the grades X, XI, XII. Also both boys and girls XII grade have the II semester Greek instead of Latin. Also Wednesday afternoon I have one hour of Greek with about 20 girls.

We use The First Greek Book by Clearance Gleason & Caroline Atherton published by American Book Company, 1895.

I would have liked to use Athenaze I and II, but the illustrations with Dicaeopolis naked make the book improper for a Catholic school. Also I used partially An Introduction to Greek by Henry L. Crosby and John N. Schaeffer published by Allyn and Bacon, 1928, and of course the Greek New Testament.

3. I think any book is good with a good (and enthusiastic) teacher. Also I consider that the traditional approach remains the best proved, but there is also, always, the possibility of a better textbook that may contain a homogenous blending of etymology, grammar, literature (especially poetry that is best memorized), culture, religion, and pieces of the wonderful Greek philosophy.

I consider very much necessary a periodical for both teachers and students presenting short pieces of literature with commentary, problems of grammar, and what is new in the Greek World of Classics (something like the old French Humanitas).

4. An Introduction to National Greek Exam would be very useful and the issue of the compulsory vocabulary necessary for every level of the National Greek Exam.

Virginia Kehoe
Wichita Collegiate School
9115 East 13th Street
Wichita, KS 67206

I teach a short two week introduction to Greek during the 8th grade Latin course, at the time they are studying the Odyssey in English class. They learn the alphabet, do some word study, learn some phrases, and maybe read the first lesson of Athenaze. We also spend time on the first lines of the Odyssey.

I have also taught beginning Greek in our Upper School’s Interim period, for two weeks in January. I’ve done this for four years, but this year we are not having Interim.

If a new Introduction to Greek book were available I would certainly look into using it. As for the Introduction to Greek Exam, its existence would certainly encourage the study of Greek. At the present time, however, unless I can find more time for Greek, I don’t think I could have my students take it.

If there were a book which would be appropriate for the younger student (8th, 9th, 10th grade) and which introduced material at a pace like Ecce, I would try to find a place for it. My 8th graders really enjoy our short unit and every year some ask if they could continue somehow. So far I have not found a way, and materials is second to time for my reasons.

Attic Greek I - 5 of 11 juniors (AP Latin III) chose to meet once a week
Athenaze I
Meets once a week - students give up a study hall, I give up a free period. Students receive grades only at semester, but it does appear on their transcript.

Attic Greek II - 1 of 12 seniors (AP Latin IV) (5 of whom did Greek I) (no free periods due to AP Bio Lab)
Athenaze II
Meets once a week - sometimes after school, sometimes during an all-school tutoring period. We try to meet once a week and we get through as much of Athenaze II as we can.

At least one of every Greek II class I’ve graduated has gone on to study Greek in college. Some have felt OK in 200-level, others wanted more review.

Athenaze is a bit dry - it goes on with the war for so long, students lose interest in Philip’s regaining his sight. My students, having used Ecce Romani, are comfortable with Dicaeopolis, etc., but it takes over a year to find out if Philip gets his sight back. We don’t have time to do all the culture and extra readings, but we do finish all 16 chapters in Greek I.

Greek III, A Greek Reader for Schools, These Were the Greeks, The Cartoon History of the Universe, Vol. 5, 6, 7; Enrollment - 30

Greek IV, Euripides, Medea (Alan Elliott); Greek Tragedies, Vol. I (David Grene and Richmond Lattimore); Enrollment - 9

Inventory of Classical Greek Teaching in the Schools

2000/2001

1.	NO	Not yet, at least. I have begun a Greek class for about 22 Latin II–IV students. I have chosen Hansen & Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, because I have found other texts too dry (e.g., Chase & Philips), too slow and boring (e.g., Athenaze), or too dense and lacking in form drills (Betts & Henry).
2.	YES	I have divided the 22 into two groups. Each group meets 3 times per week for 1 hour; one group meets before school, the other after school. It is entirely pro bono on my part, but the students are rewarded with bonus points on their Latin grades.
3.	YES	An ideal text would give the student as much grammar as quickly as is pedagogically expedient (Latin texts notoriously drag things out, and spend a lot of time doing very little). It would be based on real texts (like Pharr’s Homeric Grammar), advance a knowledge of Greek philosophy, history, and the great writers, while avoiding pedantic and banal “culture” sections. It would move the student to readiness to tackle real Greek as quickly as possible, while at the same time forming the students appreciation of prose style through composition exercises and analysis of prose passages from the “canonical” authors.
4.	YES