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Vocabulary Cards for Wheelock's Latin

I use Wheelock with my high school students, and those kids who have bought the cards love them. They find the cards much like cell phones and laptop computers--time saving life-simplifying technology! As one of my sophomore boys put it: "It's, like, all done for you and everything, ya know?" I make a big pitch for them on parents' night because they really seem to be helping: no one with the flash-cards is doing poorly on the vocab quizzes. Go figure--behaviorism at its best! I might add that we emphasize Latin/English derivatives and vocabulary in general (as a sort of sequencing for AP). And, since the words in Wheelock are derived from authentic ancient texts, the students are in a really good position to approach author-level Latin when they get there. I'm a big fan of Wheelock's Latin vocabulary and a big fan of these flashcards.—Daniel DiCenso, Latin teacher, Seneca High School, Tabernacle, New Jersey http://www.lr.k12.nj.us/site/seneca/

Having studied Latin all throughout middle school and high  school, I know how difficult it would be for a college  student in the first year of learning Latin via the Wheelock  text to master not only conjugations and declensions, but  also an entirely new vocabulary. Before even starting to  think about which case and number is appropriate, the word  must be recalled. Then there is the problem of what gender the noun is, what conjugation the verb is, and what case  follows the conjunction. Often the result is that more time  is spent paging through a glossary or dictionary than  actually learning the words. 

The newly published Vocabulary Cards for Wheelock's Latin offers a convenient yet thorough answer to these student  woes. As a former list-maker myself, I would make two  columns  with each vocabulary word across from its definition, then  cover one while going down the other. Usually, though, I  ended up memorizing the words more by their order than their  meaning, so that during the test, I would have to try to  recall a word's position in the list in order to remember  its  definition. Flashcards are the perfect solution. For while  they still use repetition to coach the vocabulary words into  memory, the more flexible nature of flashcards encourages  more permanent learning at a faster pace.  Of course, I tried making my own flashcards before tests  too.  However, these homemade flashcards, unevenly cut and usually  scribbled out last-minute, would be thrown in an  indiscriminate pile after the quiz if I made them at all.  Generally, it took too long to find notecards and write out  all the words for it to be worth the time.

The Wheelock  cards, on the other hand, are labeled by chapter and come  with an easily assembled storage box so that they can be  stored for later review. Moreover, the cards are numbered to  correspond with an included alphabetical list, allowing for  greater flexibility in organization. They can be quickly  sorted alphabetically, by the reference numbers, or into  chapters depending on what type of review is needed.  The 877 Wheelock Vocabulary Cards in this set are also more  detailed than any flashcards I could have made or most  college students would make today. Including all principal  parts of verbs and the nominative and genitive forms for  nouns, the cards encourage total learning, which will  decrease time spent flipping through glossaries and  dictionaries. The English definitions are directly from  Wheelock, and list certain English derivatives as well.  Complete with every macron and accent mark, the cards  encourage pronunciation of the words, which adds another  dimension to facilitate memorization. For example, when I  memorized words visually only, it tended to be short- term;  saying and hearing the forms of a word prolonged my memory.  I would have loved to have had flashcards which corresponded  to the text I used to be available for my use, not only to  speed up memorization of vocabulary words, but also to  enrich  my knowledge of these forms.

I recommend Wheelock Vocabulary  Cards to any student who is beginning to learn Latin via the  Wheelock textbook. Convenient, flexible and most importantly, conducive to  being  stored for later use, the flashcards are a clear-cut means  of  maximizing study time and quality.—Michelle Wu, Latin student

A Comprehensive Guide to Wheelock's Latin

…while not every student will need the supplementary notes provided in this book, those that do will find that Grote creates a well-marked path over the unfamiliar territory of Latin Grammar. This book has been much-needed over the past five or ten years, and I am extremely pleased to see it available. —Kirk Ormand from the Foreword

A Comprehensive Guide to Wheelock’s Latin is an independent enterprise. Grote’s explanations of grammar are, if anything, even more user-friendly than LaFleur’s own. Each chapter concludes with useful remarks, on items in the vocabulary list. . .It could also serve as a sort of teacher’s manual for someone, especially a graduate student, using Wheelock for the first time. —Betty Rose Nagle, Indiana University, The Classical Outlook

38 Latin Stories

This little book of stories in Latin is designed to accompany [Wheelock's Latin]. However, it would be a pity to limit the use of such an excellent reader to Wheelock’s method alone; it deserves much wider application. Almost any introductory course of Latin, at High School or College level would benefit from its use.... By using this reader, the student will learn how classical Latin was really written, and become painlessly acquainted with the great Latin authors. The little book itself is pleasing in appearance, easy to handle, and possessed of that sober elegance characteristic of Bolchazy-Carducci publication. —Mary Machado Classics Chronicle Miami, FL

Each page is attractively laid-out, typefaces are varied and legible, and the whole is rather better advertisement for the new printing technology that some other recent production. Anyone looking for an easy reader to augment a conventional Latin course could well consider this book —Ian Pratt JACT, England

Excellent--made a great companion to Wheelock. It improved my students’ reading ability and also gave the opportunity to talk about Roman culture. —Prof. Robert Brown, Vassar College