Declension
Teaching Latin when Kids don’t know
English
Why is there an instructional gap?
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Latin Instruction has not changed
greatly since Wheelock’s Latin was
introduced in the 1950’s
The curriculum presupposes a level
of student English competency that
is no longer realistic
The basics of Latin declensions
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Latin in an inflective language and
therefore uses declensions
Decline : to give in prescribed
order the grammatical forms of (a
noun, pronoun, or adjective )
Student Frustration
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English speaking students may have
profound difficulty with this concept,
as English relies on word order and
conjugation.
And to make matters worse:
Textbooks define declensions in
terms students will not understand
Example of a Declension Chart
Nominative
Subject
Genitive
dependant
Dative
Indirect Object
Accusative
Direct Object
Ablative
Prepositional Clause
Vocative
Speaking
What Words do you think 9th graders
will understand?
Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ablative
Vocative
Subject
dependant
Indirect Object
Direct Object
Prepositional Clause
Speaking
These charts are worse than useless for many children
who are completely overwhelmed by words they do not
understand.
Don’t blame the Children

English Instruction has changed.
Terms such as indirect object,
subject, object, and preposition are
not understood by most children
that enter your classroom
How you can help
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
You must change your instructional
materials to better fit your
children’s understanding
For example I have modified the
declension chart to make it easier to
understand
A simplified declension chart
Nominative
Ablative
The thing doing the
action of the verb
Ownership, like an ‘s in
English
A thing that is receiving
something, like “to”
The thing that the verb
is being done to
With, of, etc.
Vocative
Speaking
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Ways to Teach Declension Charts
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Children often struggle with the first
declension. They have two main
difficulties:
1) What case should each word be?
2) What are the case endings?
English Samples, Scaffolding

I teach declension by first having
the students work on English
sentences. They must circle the
verb and define the cases for the
remaining words
The girl gives the rose to the master’s slave.
Nominative
Accusative
Gen
Dative
Why do I need to teach kids English if I
am a Latin Teacher?
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This allows children to focus on what they
know. It prevents the “oh no this is LATIN
!” fear from materializing.
I give a test just on English sentences to
boost confidence and check for
understanding. Do not assume a child
knows the difference between a noun,
verb, and adjective.
Case Endings
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For case endings I pretend to be
drunk and rambling “ a, ae, ae,
am,a” Which is pronounced similar
to the phrase “ I, I, Am, A”.
The plurals are easy to remember “
Ae, arum, is, as is.” Which becomes
the drunkard phrase “ Aye, rum is
as is.”
Summary
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Students may not understand
traditional English terms used to
define declensions in Latin
You must modify your curriculum to
allow for this gap in knowledge
Build up English Comprehension
before forcing Latin translations