Manipulation Nouns & Adjectives
by Prof. Becky Harrison, Truman State University, MO
Introduction
This material consists of the patterns and instructions for a set of base and ending cards for working with nouns and adjectives. The inspiration came from a presentation by Barbara Hill and Kay Fluharty on their work with at risk students presented at the Illinois Classical Conference-National Louis University Latin Pedagogy Workshop in 1997.
Principles
The base and ending cards are cut like puzzle pieces such that only certain endings will fit on certain bases. (See the patterns.) The bases have the holes and the endings have the knobs. The pattern is made to fit 3x5 cards. For longer bases, you can cut strips from old manila file folders. For demonstrating for the class, I purchased one of the sentence pocket holders that I can hang. You can also use the cut-off bottoms of envelopes or manila folders stapled and taped to poster board.
Purposes
To provide students with a visual and kinesthetic approach to nouns and adjectives.
To enable students to grasp certain concepts:
- base and ending
- that each noun belongs to one and only one declension and can use only that set of endings
- that adjectives belong to certain types and can use only a certain set or sets of endings
- that adjectives agree with nouns in case, number and gender.
- that comparative and superlative suffixes may change the set of endings that adjectives use.
(Endings that "look" the same may not agree; endings that do not "look" the same may agree. With the color-coding, the same case endings will match in color; different endings that look the same will be different colors and thus not "match")
To enable students to practice independently and have immediate feedback on whether their answers are correct.
