Latin Novellas - Beginner to Low Intermediate
Core Code Alignment
Foreign Language
Latin
03100000035: Latin third year- Honors
Latin
03100000035: Latin third year- Honors
Recommendation
Recommended Limited
Evaluation
Lance Piantaggini's 26 Latin Novellas, available through the StoryLabs digital subscription platform, may be an appropriate source of supplemental readings for an introductory or intermediate Latin class. The collection includes stories written for students of varied proficiencies, from introductory students to intermediate-advanced. However, they lack a defined scope and sequence, do not provide any grammatical instruction or specific cultural-historical context, and therefore should not be used as a primary framework for language instruction. In conjunction with another textbook, however, the novellas may be used to increase reading fluency.
Because StoryLabs is an online-only platform, consideration should be made of the technical requirements prior to implementation. Device and internet access are required to use the StoryLabs app. Additionally, because the app collects personal identifying information from students, it will be necessary to obtain a Data Privacy Agreement with StoryLabs before requiring students to sign up.
Educators Using These Materials
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Rubric : Generic
Content
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alignment | The content of this resource aligns with appropriate grade-level core standards and is current, well-researched and referenced from reliable sources. | The content of this resource aligns with most grade-level core standards but will need supplementary materials to ensure coverage of all the objectives for this course. | The content of this resource aligns with a few grade-level core standards for a portion of the course. | The content of this resource does not align with standards and objectives for this course. | ||
| The stories included in the collection could be implemented as supplemental readings for beginning to intermediate Latin courses, but provide neither sufficient historical or cultural context nor adequate grammatical instruction or practice to function as the primary curriculum of a class. Depending on the scope and sequence of the primary curriculum, these novellas could be integrated into a first, second, or third-year Latin class. However, each novella would require prior evaluation by the instructor to ensure that the grammatical concepts in the story aligned with and supported the learning objectives of the primary curriculum. | ||||||
| Scaffolding | Scaffolding supports for these materials are complex and challenging, engage learners from various skill levels, assist all students in enhancing conceptual understanding, and offer opportunities for students to share evidence and research. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels and assist students in enhancing conceptual understanding. | Scaffolding supports for these materials engage learners from various skill levels. | Scaffolding supports for these materials do not engage learners. | ||
| The novellas are written to engage Latin students of a wide variety of skill-levels. Some exclusively utilize the present active indicative and the most basic case uses, and are therefore appropriate for introductory-level students, while others employ indirect statement, participles, the subjunctive, and other more advanced concepts. In many (though not all) of the novellas, the grammatical concepts advance as the reader moves through the story. Additionally, each novella includes a comprehensive Index Verbōrum, where the words appear in each of their inflected forms. This ensures easy access to any unfamiliar vocabulary, and does not require students to identify unfamiliar lemmas. However, there is no reading guide, index, or table of contents to indicate which grammatical concepts will appear in a given story. The grammatical skills and vocabulary are repetitive, even across multiple novellas, with the result that some concepts are practiced extensively, while others are neglected. For example, the present tense of esse and the predicate nominative are utilized in virtually every novella, whereas non-prepositional uses of the ablative are only used sparingly. The novellas provide the opportunity for reading practice, but do not guarantee exposure to any grammatical concepts beyond the most fundamental. | ||||||
| Navigation | Students can navigate the material independently. Instructions are clear and understandable. | The material contains instructions that are understandable and easy to navigate. Students may need educator support to navigate material. | The material may be used with direct educator support but lacks clear instructions. | The instructions in this material are unclear, and navigation is difficult. | ||
| The StoryLabs novellas are housed within an app with a simple point-and-click interface. Users just scroll to the title they wish to read, click to open it, and can easily navigate throughout the text. A clearly-labelled table of contents is displayed along the left-hand side of the navigation window, allowing users to navigate directly to a given section of the novella. All associated activities and audio-recordings are housed within the same navigation window as the text itself, providing easy access to all included content. | ||||||
Accessibility
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical Characteristics | The design of the material is ADA-compliant and can be utilized by all students. In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. The material contains modern, up-to-date, and relatable visuals, including diverse groups of people. | In physical terms, this material is durable, interactive, and provides high-quality audio-visual and tactile experiences for all users. | In physical terms, this material is fragile in construction, and provides limited tactile experiences for students. | In physical terms, this material is designed to be disposable and temporary. | ||
| The novellas are delivered via StoryLab's online app, similar to other browser-based reading apps. Users scroll through the story, look at the images, and read the text. Each story includes an audio recording, which allows students to listen and follow along. However, the app offers few opportunities for the students to interact with the text. Some of the novellas include a fill-in-the-blank sentences activity, but otherwise provide no additional activities beyond reading and listening. | ||||||
| Technical Standards | The material goes above and beyond meeting all the technical standards, ensures student data privacy is safeguarded, and can be easily installed or accessed without technical assistance. Licensing information is clearly stated in the description. | The material meets all the requirements of federal and state laws, along with the accepted technical standards (ISTE Standards and VPAT Compliance). Additional technical specifications and limitations, including hardware requirements, bandwidth demands, student data privacy, and software/ web access restrictions, are adequately noted in the description. The design of the material allows for error-free installation or access without purchasing additional components. | The material is limited by specifications requiring additional materials, technical assistance, hardware, software, or infrastructure. Student data privacy could be at risk. Resources within the material end after a trial period. | Student data privacy is at risk. | ||
| Purchase of a subscription gives a teacher and 180 students online access to the catalogue of novellas for one year. As a web-based application, it requires access to web-enabled devices and consistent internet access with sufficient bandwidth to support an entire class. Additionally, StoryLabs requires personal identifying information to create student accounts. As such, any LEA would be required to obtain a Data Privacy Agreement with StoryLabs before implementing the StoryLabs app in the classroom. | ||||||
| Adaptability | The material is currently relevant and adaptable for teacher and student use in individualized or group instructional settings across multiple content areas. The material can be customized for the needs of diverse learners. | The material is currently adaptable for a teacher or student to use in a limited instructional setting across a few content areas. The material can be utilized by diverse learners (not customizable). | The material has some features adaptable for students in at least one content area. The material has limited options to address the needs of diverse learners. | The material is not adaptable or easily incorporated into various educational settings or with various diverse learners. | ||
| The novellas are available in digital format only, requires an internet connection, and cannot be printed into a physical copy of the text. The subscription fee covers 1 year of access for the teacher and 180 students to the digital catalogue, including audio-recordings and any additional material included with the novellas. | ||||||
Pedagogy
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instructional Support | The material provides multiple examples and strong support to educators of ways to deliver instruction. These may include: -Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. Furthermore, this material has content that can be problem/project-based, with incorporated skills and concepts that are integrated with all disciplines equally to support student sense-making. (Transdisciplinary/ Interdisciplinary Content Integration) | The material provides some examples to educators of ways to deliver instruction. It contains a few of the following: Scaffolding Lesson Plans, Personalized/Differentiated Instruction, Experiential Learning, Concept Mapping, Questioning Techniques, or Family Involvement. | The material contains limited instructional support on using the material with diverse groups of students, various skill levels, and student needs. | The material does not provide instructional support or examples for the educator. | ||
| StoryLabs provides an easily accessible link to help teachers get students signed up, set up their classrooms, and track their students progress within the app. There are webinars available for teaching help, and there is an email address where teachers can send additional questions. However, there is virtually no pre-packaged content about how to evaluate whether a novella is appropriate for a given proficiency level, how to manage the pacing of the reading, or how to assess students' understanding of the text. | ||||||
| Supplemental Resources | The material provides a wide variety of supplemental resources that are evidence-based and are linked to real-world circumstances and current events. | The material references numerous available supplemental resources. | The material references some available supplemental resources. | The material does not refer to any supplemental resources. | ||
| Supplemental resources are minimal and primarily related to technical support with the StoryLabs app. There are no links to any additional study aids, language practices, assignments, or assessments. | ||||||
| Assessments | The material contains a variety of formative and summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards, Personalized Competency-Based Learning, and Universal Design for Learning. It provides appropriate intervention strategies that lead to observable performance and real-world experiences for students. The assessments are ADA-compliant. | The material contains summative assessments aligned with Utah Core Standards with few interventions and is ADA-compliant. | The material contains a limited number of assessments without intervention strategies but is ADA-compliant. | The material does not provide assessment materials. | ||
| All novellas include the readings themselves, as well as audio recordings of the text. Some of the novellas include some fill-in-the-blank practice, where the student must find the appropriate word from a bank to form complete sentences, but these are the only formative assessments included in the app. There are no summative assessments included with the novellas, and no links to any additional resources. | ||||||
Culture of Learning and Belonging
| Item | 3 - Extensive | 2 - Adequate | 1 - Inadequate | 0 - None | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bias Free | This material is free from bias and is in compliance with all relevant federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, as listed in the next “2-Adequate” section for this item. Furthermore, this material focuses on shared identity and includes the unique characteristics & cultural differences of students in Utah. (53E-4-204.1) This material supports civic and character education. (53G-10-204) | This material is neutral and is in compliance with the laws, rules, and regulations below: -It can be used by all students regardless of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or membership in any other protected class, such as ethnicity, or disability, as described in (R277-328). -This material supports educators to be in compliance with (53G-10-202.4), where they may not use their positions to endorse, promote, or disparage a particular religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheistic belief or viewpoint. -The material is free from discrimination and does not support stereotyping of character traits, including hard work ethic. (53G-10-206) -It is free from advertising, e-commerce, or political interest and is in compliance with the law and community standards. | This material may be interpreted as biased. Or promoting advertising, e-commerce, or political interest. Or maybe considered to regard or treat some groups unfairly. | This material does not comply with federal and state laws, rules, and regulations. This material is biased and favors a point of view that may be distracting to the educational experience of students. | ||
| The novellas included in the collection depict a wide range of characters from throughout the ancient Mediterranean, including Europe, Africa, and the Near East. Across the novellas, equal attention is given to male and female protagonists, all of whom are depicted with diverse interests, strengths, weaknesses, and goals. No discernible political or commercial biases are present in the material. | ||||||
| Cultural Awareness | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Inclusive Components | This item has not been graded. | |||||
| Shared Values and Character Traits | This item has not been graded. | |||||
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