#ClassicsTwitter, I feel like I (maybe we?) could use some pleasantness on the TL, so I'm writing a thread on my Latin Prose Comp class this semester. It was my first time teaching it, so I was pretty nervous, but I'm pleased to report it went really well! 1/

First, everybody had to get on board with the premise: we're composing Latin to create content for beginning Latin learners to read. This gets around one point of resistance to composing in Latin (namely, why are we doing this?) and gave us a clear goal and guidelines. 2/

So, after an initial free-writing composition, to feel out what was most fun/challenging/frustrating about composing in Latin, we started working our way through various topics/constructions in Wheelock-order (since that's the beginner textbook we use here). 3/

Each week, students wrote a paragraph or two (sometimes a continuous story, sometimes just whatever they were thinking about), trying to focus in on the constructions highlighted that week (perfect tense or passive verbs or relative pronouns, etc) & (mostly) shelter vocab. 4/

We consulted a variety of grammars, but often ended up with Bradley's Arnold, since students found it most useful. Although we mostly avoided the arcane sententiae, we did work through some of the examples, to get that real 19th cent. British schoolboy cosplay experience. 5/

Along the way, we read about linguistics & prescriptive grammar and welcomed some amazing guests: @jjstimson, whose work on Caesar was *so* great to think with, and @e_vanderpool, who has more Latin comp know-how in her pinky than I've got in my whole body. Thanks, y'all! 6/

We finished up with a unit on Latin prose style. Students researched 2 prose authors & taught the class about their chosen author's style, taking us through a little excerpt of their prose. It was a tour of their interests, from Macrobius to Suetonius, & I learned *so* much! 7/

Now, I'm reading their final compositions, and they're amazing. Another free-write, but this time in the authorial style of their choice. Y'all, you haven't read Latin until you've read 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' in the style of Pliny the Elder! 8/

And now I have all this material for my beginning Latin students to read. Created not just by me, but by fellow students, illustrating what students themselves can do with Latin, for real, if they keep it going. Now whose heart is growing three sizes?!? /end