Navigating the 5 C’s, part 3: Labores Herculi

John Singer Sargent painting of Hercules and the Hydra
John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

This post continues the series covering our 2012 ACTFL presentation; you may want to read the IntroductionPart 1, and Part 2 first.

This set of activities, like Part 1, has a mythological theme, illustrated with ancient and modern art, but is for students who are farther along. The slides linked below describe a sequence of three activities using review of the pluperfect passive indicative as a way to lead into practice with the ablative absolute.

If students are familiar with the “story” of Hercules, you can have them lay some groundwork by describing his lineage (which they should be able to do in Latin; see the introduction to the Olympians and family relationship terms in Part 1), the reason he had to perform the labors, etc.

Please note that this is not a complete, ready-to-use lesson plan, but rather an idea that you can build on and adapt. Please be sure to view the presenter notes for details.

Labores Herculis Keynote file with presenter notes, zipped Labores Herculis PDF with presenter notes