Expanding Your Language Offerings

Posted on by Paul Drake

Language department chairs, looking to expand your language offerings and efficacy? Teachers, interested in professional development opportunities? This coaching call will explore opportunities for growth, professional development, teacher onboarding, preparing for new Latin students, etc.

Marcus Foster

Marcus Foster graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin, Germany for five years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed a M.Hum. in Classics/Theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth, TX) teaching Latin and chairing the languages department. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 15 years, blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.

Introducing Spoken Latin: A How-To for Beginners

Posted on by Paul Drake

This seminar will develop the theory and practice of introducing spoken Latin into the classroom. If you’ve ever wondered about the benefits of spoken Latin, your ability to implement it as a beginner or whether it will compromise the core content of your current course, then this session is for you. These questions will be addressed and the leaders’ own successes and failures will be shared, too. They’ll share spoken Latin resources, opportunities for training and highlights about how spoken Latin has made their classrooms more fun, multisensory, adaptive, challenging and rewarding. The seminar will conclude with a Q&A, with special emphasis on exploring other schools’ attempts at similar endeavors.

Marcus Foster

Marcus Foster graduated from Baylor University with a bachelor’s degree in classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin, Germany, for five years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed a master’s degree in classics and theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas, where he teaches Latin and chairs the languages department. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 15 years and have been blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.

Stephen Bryan

Stephen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Bryan College in 2012. He continued his education at Wheaton College, where he received a master’s degree in 2014 in the history of Christianity with a concentration in the Early Church. During his time at Wheaton, Stephen began studying Latin and quickly fell in love with the language and the world of classical Christian education. When he isn’t passing on his love of languages and history to his students at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas, Stephen likes to spend his free time playing guitar, reading classic literature and pretending to be a coffee connoisseur.

Stewarding Lateral Entries into Languages: Successes and Failures in Growth and Assimilation

Posted on by Paul Drake

This seminar will relate the success (and failures) of expanding the language program at Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth) over the past years. From adding Greek, to doubling class sizes and sections, to widening the capabilities of student support, this department
has seen more lateral entries nearly every year. Challenges abound, such as dealing with dyslexia and dysgraphia, adopting accommodations for student support plans, managing mid-term entries, re-thinking scope and sequence to make more entries possible, providing opportunities for remediation, not to mention how to assimilate students with little or no language exposure into the middle and latter years of a 10-year scope and sequence in a classical language. While much of the source material will stem from a program that offers Latin and Greek, the content will be applicable to other languages. The seminar will conclude with Q & A especially aimed at exploring other schools’ attempts at similar endeavors.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin for ve years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed an MHum in Classics/Theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth), teaching Latin and chairing the Languages department. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 15 years, blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.

Loving Language in the Youngest Years: Harnessing Movement, Music, Image and Memory for Good

Posted on by Paul Drake

This seminar will develop the theory, methods, mechanics, and materials for differentiating language instruction to younger students (4th and below), emphasizing kinesthetic, auditory (melodic, rhythmic, dynamic), and visual elements (using color, images, graphs, art, motions). While much of the source material will stem from Latin, the content will be applicable to other languages. The seminar will conclude with Q & A, especially aimed at exploring other schools’ attempts at similar endeavors.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin for ve years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed an MHum in Classics/Theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth), teaching Latin and chairing the Languages department. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 15 years, blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.

Triangulating Community Outreach, Parent Education, and Professional Development: The Great Conversations Series at Covenant Classical School as a Case Study

Posted on by Paul Drake

This seminar will develop the Great Conversations Series at Covenant Classical School as a case study. Speci cally, we will discuss how seminars, lectures, and reading groups hosted at CCS have attempted to draw parents, teachers, and even their friends beyond our immediate school community together in a positive experience of our school’s classical, Christian curriculum and pedagogy. Our hope is that our successes and failures would prove helpful to other schools endeavoring to (re)launch similar programs. The seminar will conclude with Q & A, especially aimed at exploring other schools’ attempts at similar programs.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin, Germany, for ve years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed an MHum in Classics/Theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School, teaching 7th–12th grade Latin. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 14 years, blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.

Growing into Greek: Benefits of Expanding Upper School Greek Offerings

Posted on by Paul Drake

The team-taught seminar will focus on the various ways that teaching Greek can bolster the rigor, moral and collaboration within a foreign language department-especially when offered as an alternative (or even an addition) to advanced Latin. Marcus Foster and Jeremy Sturdivant will discuss both the theoretical and practical issues of finding personnel, scheduling logistics, collaborating as team, motivating students of disparate abilites, capitalizing on a Latin foundation, and preparing families for electing competing language offerings in such a way that benefits both. The seminar will conclude with !&A as well as collaboration between participants.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin, Germany for five years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He received a Masters of Humanities from the University in Dallas in 2012. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus hopes to stir a love for language and literature in his students. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 10 years, and have three beautiful daughters.

Jeremy Sturdivant

Jeremy holds a B.B.A from Angelo State University and a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jeremy taught public school for five years, a er which he move to Fort Worth to a end seminary. Since then he has both taught and coached at Covenant, as well as served as an associate pastor for Carroll Baptist Church. A passionate follower of Christ and a life-long learner, Jeremy hopes to instill in all of his students both a love for the Lord and a love for learning that brings glory to God the Father, teaching 7th Old Testament & Logic, 8th New Testament & Logic, and 10-12 Classical & Koine Greek.

Getting from Grammar to Logic Latin

Posted on by Paul Drake

This team-taught seminar will focus on the transition from grammar-stage Latin to logic-stage Latin, specifically aiming to develop the ways in which this key transition can be anticipated, executed, and capitalized on in later grades. Marcus Foster and Brent Stevens will begin with the more theoretical topics of incarnational teaching, the prioritization of goals, and curricular alignment. This will be followed by a very practical discussion of the methodological shifts in both communicating and evaluating content specific to the respective pedagogical stages. The seminar will conclude with time for Q & A as well as collaboration between participants.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a B.A. in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin, Germany for ve years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He received a Masters of Humanities from the University in Dallas in 2012. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus hopes to stir a love for language and literature in his students. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 10 years, and have three beautiful daughters.

Brent Stevens

Brent graduated from The College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a B.A. in Humanities in 2010. Brent was introduced to classical education while a ending DBU for a brief time, and has wrestled to understand its meaning and implications for modern education ever since. He and his wife, Stephanie, are thrilled to be a part of the Covenant family.

Latin as Rhetoric

Posted on by Paul Drake

In this seminar I discuss the idea that the teaching of Latin is most effective in the rhetoric stage taught as primarily a Literature course rather than a language course. This method necessitates an intentional, prolonged, and reflective conversation with the students about genre, authorial intent, rhetorical devices, and cultural content that capitalizes both on the students’ (ongoing) mastery of Latin grammar as well as their ability to synthesize in an inter disciplinary manner. Some specifically practical approaches I include are Socratic dialogue, presentations, essays, memorization, and choice-within-stricture methods of evaluation. Finally, I conclude with a time of discussion specifically geared toward exchanging and collaborating readings, rubrics, prompts, etc. appropriate for the rhetoric stage.

Marcus Foster

Marcus graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Classics in 2000. He worked with youth in Berlin for ve years, part of which was also spent studying theology at Humboldt Universität. He completed an MHum in Classics/Theology from the University in Dallas in 2011. Heavily invested in languages, Marcus aims to stir a love for language and literature in his students at Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth), teaching Latin and chairing the Languages department. He and his wife, Julie, have been married for 15 years, blessed with three beautiful daughters and one strapping son.