Forward to the Past
CHAPTER 8: Abaduction
in Stories of Ancient Rome
Chapter 8 alerts learners to a real life
danger - that of being kidnapped. It introduces a topic which
links the past with the present because of the universal feelings
of fear, sorrow and uneasiness that are triggered by the idea
of abduction. A kick-off exercise allows learners to think of
ways to avoid dangerous situations for children to be in (p.
71) while simultaneously exercising a sentence construction that
could be used in even wider contexts; 'Beware of talking to strangers'
etc.
Pagina 72
Almost all the exercises in this chapter involve aspects of story-telling.
Learners are first encouraged individually to tell any story
involving an abduction (p. 72) while emphasis is also given to
the importance of the 'main points' of a story. Teachers are
encouraged to point out that the word 'steal' is used more often
in informal speech situations than the word 'abduct'.
Pagina 72
Another exercise (p. 72) ask learners to complete a controlled
dialogue which focuses their attention on perspective as well
as informal register. Reference to 'aquiline nose' in the control
dialogue picks up a derivative learned earlier (aquila = hawk).
The dialogue could be repeated each time with a different feature
being 'recognised', such as 'corpulence' (deriving from 'corpus'
= body), 'binoculars' (deriving from 'oculus' = eye), nasal voice
(deriving from 'nasus' = nose) etc.
Pagina 73
The retelling of stories learned earlier in the course namely
the story of the abduction of the Sabine woman and the story
of Julius Caesar
abducted by pirates forms the next activity (p. 73). Another
two stories are listened to while the teacher either reads or
tells the stories of the abduction of Helen
and the abduction of Proserpina. The telling of and listening
to stories could initiate some extra writing or speaking exercises,
such as comparing the stories either with each other or with
modern/real stories.
Pagina 74
The reading exercise on page 74 (The schoolmaster of Falerii)
asks for reflection on the motives behind characters' actions.
Learners are again asked to consider the 'main ideas' of the
story and the Latin origin for the word 'abduction' is introduced.
The story of 'The schoolmaster of Falerii' allows also for revision
of chapter 4 ('The Roman army') which informs the learners of
the military side of Roman rule in classical times.
An important aspect of this story is its
reflection on the concept 'common humanity'. (In the story the
Roman dictator Camillus criticises the treacherous teacher from
the enemy's side who leads the town's school boys right into
Roman's hands. In his words: 'Our fight is not against children'.)
Depending on their competence, learners could be asked to do
research work on 'laws of war' over the ages (e.g. the more recent
Geneva Conventions of 1864, governing the status of wounded,
and Geneva Protocol of 1925 against use of poison gas and bacteria
in war). They could also be asked to compare Camillus's steadfastness
concerning the 'laws of war' with the transgression of such laws
by other historical and modern dictators.
The following (timeless) Latin expressions,
quoted from Cicero's speeches, are relevant here and could be
taught to the learners:
For extra oral or written exercises, learners
could discuss the fact that only boys were allowed to go to school
in ancient times or they could be asked to reflect on how much
of this story should be regarded as myth and how much as history.
Pagina 75-79
The remaining section of the chapter (pp. 75-79) deals with English
words deriving from the Latin root -duc in compounds with revised
prefixes (prefixes revised on page 75). Learners should be encouraged
to use the dictionary in order to check their answers.
Page 76
On page 76 learners are encouraged to build up their own vocabulary
from known parts. The exercises on pp. 76-78 ask not only for
root and prefix awareness, but also for awareness about the function
of the words in sentences. The exercise on p. 77 exercises not
only usage of new words, but also revises the main points of
the story 'The schoolmaster of Falerii.'
