Daily Rituals

I am finding that there are some daily rituals that can be very helpful to us in a CI classroom both with comprehensible input and with classroom management.  I will suggest just a few–some for me are tried and true, and one is brand new!

1. Salutatio:  when the classroom bell rings signaling that class has started, I teach students that I will greet them (salvete!) and that I expect their enthusiastic response (Salve!).  If I get a weak response, I just keep doing it until everyone is on board.  Always–I deliver with a smile. That’s a required part of the ritual. Mine may be the only smile someone in the class sees all day, which would be sad, but it would be sadder if I missed the opportunity to the that one!  In the beginning with brand new students to me and certainly with Latin 1 students, I explain that this is a social greeting.  It does not mean “hello” but like “hello” is a social exchange for greeting others.  I explain that it means something like “Be well, safe, healthy!”  It is a wish for good health, and that’s a great way to greet others.  At the end of class, of course, we do the opposite: Valete!  Vale! (which I have explained, is also a wish–for wellness and strength).
2. Telephona: After the Salutatio, I go through the following with gestures.  The first few days, I explain each piece of it along with the expectation that I do this as a fun reminder, that they are welcome to say it along with me (most do), and that by the end of this little ritual, I expect all cell phones to be silenced and in their bookbags.
   Magister: Discipuli, ubi sunt telephona?
   Discipuli: In saccelis!  (I point to a book bag)
   Magister:  Non in manibus (waving my hands near my shoulders); non in gremio (sort of sitting poster and hands in my lap); non in fundis (hand into my pocket), non sub clunibus (lift up a leg and tap under the top of my leg–I tell them this means–“not under my butt” which they think is hysterical).  Telephona tacita in saccellis sunt!
3. Nomina: Especially with students who are new to me, I always do a formal roll call until I know all of their names and faces.  I make a big deal of pronouncing their names correctly and calling the name they like to be called.  But, I begin with this ritual, which I explain the first few days so that they know what we are all saying.  I keep it on the board for about a week.
   Magister: Nomina vocabo.  Respondete “adsum.” Then, I call names.  I also teach them to say “abest” for anyone not present.  If someone is absent, I respond “eheu, _____ abest!”
4. CI Reminders: For students beyond the beginning point, this is a new ritual I am trying.  It’s what I otherwise will remind Latin 1 students (and really all levels) of the first week in English.  It goes like this.
   Magister:  Discipuli, commemoremus:  Cum vobis dico, respondeatis tamquam si mirabile sit–fortasse ooooooooooooooh.  Cum vos aliquid interrogo, detis mihi responsum!  Cum unum discipulum interrogo, quis respondeat?  Ille discipulus vel illa discipula mihi respondeat.  Incipiamus!

When introducing any ritual, we have to provide full understanding up front about what every word means.  Every student in the room HAS to know what every word means.  No exceptions. Then, over time, the ritual begins to feel comfortable and expected.  It becomes part of what we do together every day, and anything like that which invites us into the language, feels comfortable and is understood helps us with classroom management issues.  Used together, these little rituals: provide social greetings, take care of phone issues, account for student presence/absence and establish how we go about things in our CI classrooms.