Stuff for your walls to help you teach and your kids learn

On the heels of my last post about the scary side of being a language student, it seems like a good time to share one of the ways I support my students' learning and my own teaching: stuff on the walls. All of the posters have both Latin and English. (editing to add: Tell me if any links are wrong or broken please!!)

How I use these:
tldr purposes:

1. Useful to point to when I want to use an adverb or something we haven't targeted yet
2. Scaffolds output activities with high frequency, very useful words.
3. Some kids use them to help with little words on assessments
4. More written Latin around the room means kids spend more time looking at written Latin.
5. Color and charm!

Most important are the Question Word posters. Many TPRS teachers use them. When circling, I point at the correct interrogative as I ask the class questions. Over time the kids mostly learn them without my directly targeting them.

The word posters generally are there partly for my own convenience and partly for the kids. It means I have more narrative freedom because a lot of the "little words" are available for me to point to when I'm telling a story. Sometimes you need a "therefore" that you didn't plan for and it's not worth fully targeting for this one time... so with these, it's provided. The kids also like them for doing free writes. I've also been complimented on my room by my department chair and principal, so that doesn't hurt either.

I heard somewhere that having lots of readable text just around increases literacy. That is a big part of why I made these. I don't know if it's true or what, but Latin Latin Everywhere seems good to me.

The good stuff is under the cut.


ALL DESCRIBED POSTERS CAN BE FOUND IN THIS FOLDER. And also some other stuff. Pardon the mess.

Assembly instructions:
I really really recommend using the PDFs rather than the .docx files, because the fonts and spacing will stay intact. I'm providing .docx files for people who want to edit and change things.

The Question Words posters are a single page each. For the others, each "poster" is a set of 8.5" x 11" landscape pages. Every other page is Latin or English, and you hang them up by matching the correct English page to each Latin page. I recommend making construction paper borders around each one. This is clumsy and I'd love to make real posters someday. Here's a picture to give you an idea:

Question Words
Words included: qui, quae (f), quae (n), quem, quid, quo, unde, ubi, cur, quomodo, qualis, cui, quid, quibus, quot, cuius, quando (Yes there are long marks on the real thing)
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
Mine are based originally around Bob Patrick's set that he shared with the Latin Best Practices list, but I redid the word art, added more colors, and found appropriately ancient images to liven them up. I think I might have added some words too. The color is worth it if you can manage it- the kids say they're much nicer than the black and white ones I had up last year.

Prepositions
Words included: a/ab, ex/e, cum, de, pro, sine, sub, in; ad, ante, per, post, trans, propter/ob, apud, praeter, inter, in.  (Yes there are long marks on the real thing)
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
I chose these prepositions from the Top 200 Most Frequent Latin Words list. The English definitions were based on most likely use and brevity. Ablative prepositions are first, then accusatives. In is listed twice on purpose.

Conjunctions
Words included: et/atque/ac, sed/at, aut/vel/an, quod / quia, priusquam, postquam, sī, nīsī, autem / tamen, dum, nam / enim, itaque, ubi, aut … aut, neque… nec, ergō, tum / tunc, ut, nē
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
Once again I chose these from the Top 200 Most Frequent Latin Words list. Not sure I would include so many synonyms if I made these again, but it affords me a lot of freedom in my speech.

Sweet Sixteen Verbs
Words included: capit, potest, venit, agit, facit, dat, (ad/ab) it, habet, est, scit, discedit, amat, ponit, dīcit / inquit, videt, vult
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
I will post soon about my reasoning for why these "Sedecim Suavia." They are based on the Sweet Sixteen in Spanish but do not all correspond directly. This is a great safety net for your highest frequency verbs. n.b. I did not put this up until the words in question were more or less learned. I also blocked it during their midterm. Its purpose is to jog memories on words they momentarily forget, and help those kids that take a lot longer to retain words than their peers might.

Exclamations
Words included: ēheu!, euge!, fūfae!, bobax!, babae!, ō dī immortālēs!, miserum!, ridiculum!, mīrābile!, aaha!, st!, prō Iūppiter!
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
I got these mostly from here. The kids' favorite is "fufae!" although "babae!" has its fans as well.

Similis vs Dissimilis
Words included: similēs sunt, dissimilēs sunt, magis…quam, minus…quam, nonnullī, nonnulla, omnēs, omnia, ambō, nēmo / nullī, nihil, tantum,
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
This one is not currently up in my room since I found it didn't include some things I wanted and it did include things I didn't seem to use. It's based on Martina Bex's basic set of scaffolding words though so you may find it useful.

Handy Words & Adverbs
Words included: nonnullī, nonnulla, omnēs, omnia, tantus, tam, sīcut, quoque, ambō, nēmo / nullī, nihil / nulla , tantum, posteā, anteā, hodiē, crās, heri, fortassē, numquam, semper, nonnumquam, saepe, rē verā, māne, nocte, sērius, mātūrius, tot, iam, nunc, deinde / tum, tandem, etiam, parum, magis, modo
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
I chose some of these from the top 200 word list, but most are based on what I thought would be useful in the classroom. n.b. in practice this is way too many words to work with on one poster. The following are separated versions of this with a few extra words here and there.

Quantity & Size & Etc. Words
Words included: nonnullī, nonnulla, omnēs, omnia, tantus, tam, sīcut, quoque, ambō, nēmo / nullī, nihil / nulla , tantum, rē verā, tot, etiam, parum, magis, modo, plures / plura, plurimi / plurima
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
A selection of words from Handy Words & Adverbs, give or take a few. Mostly to do with quantity or quality, plus some somewhat random ones. I do not know why I didn't include "fewer" and "less." Haven't really needed them yet I suppose.

Time Words
Words included: posteā, anteā, hodiē, crās, heri, fortassē, numquam, semper, nonnumquam, saepe, māne, nocte, sērius, mātūrius, iam, nunc, deinde / tum, tandem, modo, cotidie
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
A selection of words from Handy Words & Adverbs, give or take a few, which relate to time. This is gold once you start focusing on different tenses!

Not Wall Things:

Classroom Objects
Words included: mensa (table / desk), tabula (board), album (bulletin board... white board... whatever), scopa (broom), fenestra (window), liber (book), ursus (bear), ianua (door), sella (chair), tectum (ceiling), echeon (speaker), pavimentum (floor), horologium (clock), telephonum (telephone), codicillus (I think I meant "binder"), cuspidarium (sharpener), computatrum (computer), musculum (mouse), proiectorium (projector), carrulus (cart), uncinatrum (stapler), perforaculum (hole punch), impressorium (printer), tabula demonstrative (board again I think), graphis colorata (color pencil), series malleorum (keyboard), charta geographica (map), taenia adhaesiva (tape), cummis deletilis (eraser). (Yes there are long marks on the real thing)
click here for .docx
click here for .pdf
I cut these out and taped them to a bunch of objects and spaces around my room. I make no guarantees on Latinity. You could also do a poster with clipart of some of these things, but this way is cooler. The kids like these.

Desk Dictionaries
Please see this post.

Please feel free to take these and change them around to suit you. If you make your own versions and post them somewhere, I'd appreciate a link back. If your principal asks where you got them, you did all the hard work yourself! ;)