Page:Latin for beginners (1911).djvu/385

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TEACHERS' MANUAL
5

called on at least once, and work at the board as well as oral recitation should be the daily rule.

7. Memorizing. Insist on the thorough memorizing of paradigms, vocabularies, and rules. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. Without it progress is impossible. Forms must be known so well that they are recognized at once and without deliberation. Pupils should be able to give instantly the English for the Latin or the Latin for the English of the words in a vocabulary, and to recite rules accurately and without hesitation.

8. Learning the Forms. To learn the forms thoroughly incessant drill is necessary, both orally and by the use of the blackboard. The inflectional system must be mastered the first year, and requires far more practice than any textbook can provide.

When a noun is to be declined either orally or at the board, train pupils always to give the meaning, the gender, and the base before giving the declension. In the written work have them put a hyphen between the base and the case termination and have them mark the long vowels in the terminations. In the third declension the stem should be given as well as the base in order that consonant stems and i-stems may be clearly distinguished.

When declining an adjective follow the same method as with nouns.

When a verb is to be conjugated either in full or in part, always have its meaning, its principal parts, and its stems given first. It is far better for pupils to learn the verb by stems than by moods. Knowing the stems, tense signs, mood signs, and personal endings, and what stem to use for whatever form, the pupil is soon able to recognize any form at sight and to give instantly any form of any verb of which he knows the principal parts. He should be made to understand that until he can do this he does not know the verbs.

It is a good plan to write near the top of the blackboard before the recitation a number of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, one