Roman Political Graffiti Gets Modernized

I seem to collaborate with Latin teachers a lot, which is funny because I don't know much about Latin. I mean, I know what my last name means, but that's about it.

I know more now, though. For example, I know that one should never Google "Roman Political Graffiti" because the results will be . . . bawdy. Very, very bawdy. Not that I made that mistake. Every Latin teacher who hears about this project IMMEDIATELY says, "DON'T Google Roman Political Graffiti." I think it's what they teach in Latin teacher educator classes on day 1.

The Project:
In honor of last month's elections, Mrs. Smith wanted her students to consider the relationship between current and past political rhetorics.

First, Mrs. Smith set up a Google Classroom for the class. Because the material would be too risqué for students to search for themselves, Mrs. Smith set up 3 Google Drawing templates that featured images of school-appropriate political graffiti and set it up as an assignment in Google Classroom.

In class, Mrs. Smith gave the students a mini-lesson about the role of graffiti in Roman Political life, from painting over someone else's words to challenging the status quo. She then connected that way of communicating publicly to digital ways of communicating publicly. She had them join the classroom (which took about 30 seconds . . . those 8th graders are getting very familiar with Google classroom) and start working.

Students considered ways to Latinize their names, what they stood for as candidates, and ways they could make the visual image evoke Roman stylings.

Because everything was saved in Google classroom, after students handed in their first draft, Mrs. Smith could comment on ways to improve vocabulary and grammar, ask students to resubmit, and accept their new submissions, all online without having to sift through papers.

And THEN . . . that project was such a success that Mrs. Smith replicated it with her 7th Graders (WITHOUT MY HELP!!!), this time focusing on the 7th graders' trip to Washington, DC and the Greek and Roman influences on the architecture of various memorials. Mrs. Smith again uploaded photos as a template; however, this time, some students used their own photos instead. Each image included a quote (often from the memorial's subject), a Latin saying, and a brief reflection on the experience. Beautiful. (And perfect for those digital portfolios that we're launching!)