Oxford Latin
Stage I · Middle School
By middle school, I teach Latin through a narrative method that belongs to a real, and much newer, tradition than the grammar-first route. Grammar-translation dominated Latin instruction for a century, but by the mid-1900s a number of teachers had grown convinced that a student could learn the language's structure through continuous story just as well as through isolated drilling, and would enjoy it more in the process. Oxford Latin descends from that tradition: narrative first, grammar drawn out of it rather than imposed before it. It is open to any student starting from the seventh grade, no prior Latin required. The underlying course is an established one; the pace, the structure, and the rigor around it are mine.
How the Course Is Built
Oxford Latin runs six terms across two courses, moving through a single continuous narrative: one family's life, set against a real and turbulent stretch of Roman history, that carries a student all the way from a first Latin sentence to genuine, unadapted classical texts by the final term. Grammar is not abstracted from meaning and drilled in isolation; it is encountered first in the story that requires it, and explained afterward as a record of what the student has already met. The material itself is college-level Latin coursework, not a simplified high-school adaptation of it.
How a Session Runs
Each class opens the same way every Stage I course does: a spoken round of questions on morphology, vocabulary, and grammar, one student at a time, in the tradition of academic certamen. From there, the center of the class is prepared translation, working through the continuous narrative together, with questions on the forms and constructions as the story unfolds. Between sessions, if a construction has not quite settled, a student is not simply left waiting for the next class to ask about it. I record a short video made for that specific question, walking through the point directly. This has helped students for years now, in a way that changes what independent review actually feels like: not a stretch of time spent hoping you understood something correctly, but one where a real answer is available if you did not.
On Pace
We meet once a week, for two hours. Even so, Oxford Latin students move through the material faster than a standard school course, boarding schools included: the same celeritas that governs every course I teach.
Where This Leads
Every term is built with the AP Latin examination in view, alongside the IB Latin examination and the British A-Level, since the grammatical foundation these all require is the same one. Completing the full six terms brings a student to Stage II, Latin Literature, and from there, after at least two literature courses, to AP Latin Prose and Poetry, already able to read continuous Latin prose and poetry rather than merely parse it. Separate contest-prep courses run in the weeks before each competition, building directly on what is learned here.
On Credit and Standing
Emerson Latin operates on the Carnegie Unit standard used across American secondary education, and is a registered chapter sponsor of the National Latin Honor Society through the American Classical League. I am also pursuing accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). To date, every student who has needed to transfer high school credit for a course taken here has received it, based on our syllabus and transcript, at international schools across the Pacific.
One Honest Note
Oxford Latin sits between Natural Latin's immersion and Grammar Latin's direct approach: narrative enough to keep the language alive, direct enough that nothing is left to chance by the time the contests and the AP exam ask for precision.