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Written by John Taylor
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The Journal of Classics Teaching 17, page 35
RUNNING VOCABULARIES: Homer Iliad 16, Lysias Against Eratosthenes (AS 2009 onwards) Terry Bird: £22 each
Τhe Latin equivalents of these Running Vocabularies (for Cicero and Ovid) were reviewed and justly praised by Frances Culver in JCT 16. B.’s lists date back to 1968 when a sample from Bacchae was typed up and copied (in the laborious way then necessary) for distribution to JACT members. Many readers will have used the hand-written vocabulary for that play which he did jointly with Bob Tatam in the early 1980s. The idea was copied by others, and perhaps influenced later volumes of the Reading Greek series to move from alphabetical to sequential vocabulary for each section. But it was only after B.’s 2001 JACT Review article that things really took off. As his website shows, this is cottage industry on a considerable scale. |
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Written by Frances Culver
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The Journal of Classics Teaching 16, page 40
RUNNING VOCABULARIES: Ovid Metamorphoses 8, Cicero In Catilinam 1 (AS 2009) Published by Terry Bird: £22 each.
B. introduced his Running Vocabularies in the JACT Review of Autumn 2001, and a new generation of Classics teachers may well be familiar with them from firsthand experience as students. If so, you will probably need no further encouragement to offer them to your own pupils.
The format of the RVs - which you can see if you visit the website - is very user-friendly: text on the left, in a clear font; vocabulary on the right; alongside the appropriate line; all well-spaced so as to allow for annotation. Service is excellent. The RVs are distributed via e-mail; they arrive promptly, can be stored on computer and as many copies as required can be printed off for your students - perhaps the only occasion when the greater your class, the less your expenditure! AS/A2 RVs cost £22 and include a copy of the prescribed text without vocabulary, printed out in close lines and ideal to copy for homework questions. |
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Written by Robert Tatam
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The following review appeared on pages 42-43 of the Journal of Classics Teaching (produced by the Joint Association of Classics Teachers) for Autumn 2006:
Terry Bird has been producing Running Vocabularies for Classical Texts for some time, in his distinguished teaching career and in his 'retirement'. He set out his philosophy behind these in a JACT Review article of Autumn 2001 (No. 30). He has now refined the process and product to a point where it is difficult to see how his aims could be achieved more effectively.
B's approach to RVs is entirely 'student-centred' (in the best sense). He is concerned that students can spend far too much time looking up vocabulary in their preparation of set texts. With his Vocabularies he is ensuring that the proportion of time spent on actual translation is increased and thereby the pleasure of reading becomes much more tangible. His RVs are distributed in electronic form. They can then be printed off and handed out to students or the electronic form can be distributed within a school (but not between schools), possibly with additional colour, personal comments etc from student or teacher.
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Reviews and testimonials 