The Impact of SmartBoards in the high school Latin Class:
A new approach for teaching Latin texts and culture

Robert Susel (Kent High School, OH)

Imagine having an endless chalkboard in your classroom that never needs to be erased, and from which there is never any dust. How many times have teachers written an amazing description, or had the “perfect” example, or a teachable moment with a student sample, only to see it get erased before getting a chance to use it again or to make note of it.. After sixteen years of teaching introductory and intermediate high school Latin, no single instructional tool has had more impact on my instructional design and my ability to promote student learning than the SmartBoard. It has become the most powerful tool in my classroom, offering me and my students a flexible and interesting way to organize and deliver instruction, both in and out of the classroom.

The ability to create or import graphic organizers and to use colors to highlight and create text is perhaps the most powerful feature of the SmartBoard. It allows students to see a text as dimensional and highly structured. A variety of colors, shapes, and design tools allows highlighting of various components and structures within the Latin sentence. Core concepts, such as identifying the various structures within a sentence, can easily be presented graphically with a variety of charts adapted specifically for presentation on the SmartBoard. Real-time text manipulation allows an instructor to model how to process/interpret the syntactic and morphological cues in a Latin sentence. Students can watch an instructor demonstrate how to predict what is likely to happen syntactically in a sentence or clause. Being able to hide and reveal portions of a sentence also helps students learn to build expectations about what is likely to happen in a Latin sentence, and what is not. This is an invaluable skill that they will need to develop as they encounter more complex sentences.

The gallery feature provided in the Smart software allows an instructor to insert items into a presentation with two taps on the SmartBoard. As a result, I can perform a quick review of previously presented material and items or enhance a previous presentation in seconds by bringing in others types of media (sound bytes, animations, etc.). The sky is the limit.

A teacher can pull internet resources into the SmartNotebook, via the import function, and use them for instruction. Once imported, objects can be easily manipulated by rotating, highlighting, resizing or cloning. Teachers can build a digital toolbox to create engaging units that are very accessible to students. The SmartNotebook can also import a “snapshot” of files created in other applications, which then become items that can be manipulated. Compatability with various software manufactured by companies, such as (but not limited to) Microsoft, allows for easy incorporation of graphical and text objects, spreadsheets or slideshows created outside the Smart environment.

The export feature allows teachers to quickly and easily upload their work to the internet or any intranet, making it accessible beyond the classroom. Student absences have less impact when they are able to literally see the work that was done in class during their absence. Students can review material as often as needed from outside the classroom, allowing for more student independence.

I have been using a SmartBoard daily for the past two years. I am very proficient in its use, but I have by no means tested all of its capabilities. The only limitation I have found is that of my own creativity.