Desk Dictionary

One of the tenets of CI that I struggle with is giving a ton of non-targeted input. That is, ideally, you're supposed to spend 90% of class time in the target language. Although I know Latin very well, I have had little practice speaking it. Unlike a modern language, speaking is very rarely one of the goals in traditional Latin classes regardless of the level. Writing is occasionally emphasized, but those courses are few and far between, and they focus on writing in the rhetorical style of our most famous literary lights.

At any rate- one of my two big goals for this semester is to spend more time speaking Latin with my kids, and for them to start speaking more too. To that end, I've made them a "desk dictionary" (feel free to suggest a catchier term, ideally in Latin...). You can print or download it here. Please feel free to copy, edit, & share as you like. See below the cut for more.

May I go to the…	licetne mihi īre ad…	Please give me…	dā mihi …, quaesō
… bathroom?	… locum sēcrētum?	… a pencil.	…  graphium ...
… water fountain?	… fonticulum?	… a pen.	… calamum ...
… nurse?	… valētūdinārium?	… paper.	… chartam ...
… office?	… conclāve rectoris?	… my binder.	.... libellum meum ...
… Guidance?	… conclāve consultōrum?	I don’t know.	nesciō.
Please.	quaesō.	I don’t understand.	nōn intellegō.
Thank you.	gratiās tibi agō.	Please repeat.	dīc iterum, quaesō!
You’re welcome.	libenter.	English please!	anglicē quaesō!
No, thank you.	benignē.	Slower, please!	lentius, quaesō!
Excuse me.	ignosce mihi.	How do you say... ?	Quōmodo dīcitur…?
Help me!	adiuvā mē!	What does … mean?	Quid significat…?

Thanks to the Latin Teacher Idea Exchange group on Facebook for helping me add things and choose the right words! If you're a Latin teacher and not part of that group already, you should be. It's much less dramatic than it used to be.

This kind of TL phrasebook is something that modern language CI people do to scaffold kids' output. Usually I've heard of it being hung on the chair of the desk in front of them, but that's not feasible in my classroom, so I'll be putting it directly on the desk and covering it with packing tape. The idea for me at least is to give kids
(a) a safety net of phrases they can always use when we're speaking Latin, to cover most of their needs;
(b) a reference for important words like libellus, which I'm using for binder/notebook, so when I tell them to get 'em, they know what I mean;
(c) A handy dandy reference for ME to point to when I want to say, "so, comparative adverbs, like lentius on your desk..." or infinitives "like īre," etc.

I'll let you know how things go!