Where Are Your Keys' Universal Speed Curriculum

[Ben Clark]

I have seen the Where Are Your Keys teaching method mentioned here a few times and I am planning to use it for an upcoming class. The WAYK website has a great demonstration video and resources for implementing the game (https://whereareyourkeys.org/resources/). One of the resources is the Universal Speed Curriculum that I am using as a general guide for my class preparations. Please critique the phrases for accuracy and effectiveness in playing WAYK. I am going to lay them out in the order I plan to introduce them.
Notes:
In the following, Craig's List = CL, a list of words that go together.
I plan to indicate questions by intonation unless there is a better way to communicate that.

τί ἐστιν τοῦτο; [What is that?]
τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [That is the cup.]
αὔτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή. [That is the letter.]
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος. [That is the small rock.]
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μέγας λίθος. [That is a big rock.]

CL Make Me Say Yes:
ναί, καλῶς, ἀληθός

τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον; ναί, τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [Is that the cup? Yes, that is the cup.]
repeat for other objects

CL Make Me Say No:
οὐχί, οὐ, μή, κακός

οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος; οὐχί, οὗτος οὐκ ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος. τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [Is that the small rock? No, that is not the small rock. That is the cup.]
repeat for other objects
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος;

CL Whose (Poke/Slap)
ἐγώ μοῦ, σύ σοῦ, αὐτός αὐτοῦ, αὐτή αὐτῆς

τίνος τὸ ποτήριον ἐστιν; τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ. [Whose is the cup? This is my cup.]
repeat for other objects

CL Want/Have/Give/Take
θέλω, ἔχω, δίδομι, λαμβάνω

τίς θέλει τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ; σύ θέλεις τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ; ἐγώ δίδομι σοί τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ. [Who wants my cup? You want my cup? I give you my cup.]
τίς θέλει τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ; ἐγώ θέλω τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ. αὐτός δίδοσι μοί τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ. [Who wants his letter? I want his letter. He gives me his letter.]

I am having a hard time both visualizing the transactions and being sure how to formulate the Greek for them. Any help would be most appreciated.
To be continued...

[Jonathan Robie]

I have used Where Are Your Keys happily and found it very effective, especially for the nominal system. In fact, I did it last week for my current group and am going to use it again tomorrow. I am a firm believer in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and you can do that with WAMK too by giving them a handout afterwards with the sentences in writing and some questions they can write answers to. Also, I think it's helpful to build up a little at a time and make sure they have grasped each part before moving on.

Your sentences generally look good to me, and I really appreciate your post. Nobody gets this all right without a second pair of eyes, and hashing this out in public is a useful way to help us all improve our teaching and our materials. I have probably made a mistake or two in my response to you, someone else will catch it, and together we improve.

I plan to indicate questions by intonation unless there is a better way to communicate that.

I also raise my hands and my eyebrows in an exaggerated way to make sure that they can't miss the fact that it's a question.

τί ἐστιν τοῦτο; [What is that?]
τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [That is the cup.]
αὔτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή. [That is the letter.]
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος. [That is the small rock.]
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μέγας λίθος. [That is a big rock.]

I like your choice of objects here. τοῦτ' ἐστιν, not τοῦτο ἐστιν.

ὁ μικρὸς λίθος, I think? But I also suspect ὁ λίθος μικρός / ὁ λίθος μέγας is a little better - phrases like σεισμὸς μέγας, λιμὸς μέγας, etc. come to mind.

Are you also introducing μέγας / μεγάλη / μέγα and μῑκρός / μῑκρᾱ́ / μῑκρόν?

CL Make Me Say Yes:
ναί, καλῶς, ἀληθός

τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον; ναί, τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [Is that the cup? Yes, that is the cup.]
repeat for other objects

CL Make Me Say No:
οὐχί, οὐ, μή, κακός

οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος; οὐχί, οὗτος οὐκ ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος. τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. [Is that the small rock? No, that is not the small rock. That is the cup.]
repeat for other objects
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ μικρός λίθος;

Again, I would probably put the adjective after the noun: οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος μικρός; οὐχί, οὗτος οὐκ ἐστιν ὁ λίθος μικρός.

CL Whose (Poke/Slap)
ἐγώ μοῦ, σύ σοῦ, αὐτός αὐτοῦ, αὐτή αὐτῆς

τίνος τὸ ποτήριον ἐστιν; τοῦτο ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ. [Whose is the cup? This is my cup.]
repeat for other objects

I'm not certain that your sentence is wrong, but my intuition is that either τίνος τὸ ποτήριον; (whose is the cup?) or τίνος ποτήριον ἐστιν (whose cup is it?) is more natural. But I think you are trying to use all the parts here - for that, τίνος ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο; would work. If your question does not include the word τοῦτο, I would not expect the answer to.

CL Want/Have/Give/Take
θέλω, ἔχω, δίδομι, λαμβάνω

τίς θέλει τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ; σύ θέλεις τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ; ἐγώ δίδομι σοί τὸ ποτήριον μοῦ. [Who wants my cup? You want my cup? I give you my cup.]
τίς θέλει τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ; ἐγώ θέλω τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ. αὐτός δίδοσι μοί τήν ἐπιστολήν αὐτοῦ. [Who wants his letter? I want his letter. He gives me his letter.]

I would probably use the less emphatic forms μοι and σοι here.

[Jonathan Robie]

I am having a hard time both visualizing the transactions and being sure how to formulate the Greek for them. Any help would be most appreciated.
To be continued...

Have you seen these?

https://whereareyourkeys.files.wordpres ... iculum.pdf
https://whereareyourkeys.files.wordpres ... spanol.pdf

I think they give a idea of how to introduce things gradually, and what to do. Act things out vividly, be expressive. Practice ahead of time. Don't move faster than they are getting it.

[Jonathan Robie]

I decided to translate Part I of the Universal Speed Curriculum into Hellenistic Greek, working from this version. I'm sure I made some mistakes that others will help correct, but here's my first shot at it.

GREEK UNIVERSAL SPEED CURRICULUM
Part 1
“What is this?”

Justin: What is this?
τί ἐστιν τοῦτο;
Evan: This is the stone.
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.
Justin: Oh, this is the stone?
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος;
Evan: Yes, this is the stone.
ναί, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.

Justin: What is this?
τί ἐστιν τοῦτο;
Evan: This is the cup.
τοῦτ' ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον.
Justin: Oh, this is the cup?
τοῦτ ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον;
Evan: Yes, this is the cup.
ναί, τοῦτ' ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον.
Justin: Is this the cup?
ἐστιν τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον;
Evan: No this is not the cup, this is the stone.
οὐ, οὐκ ἐστιν τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.
Justin: Right, this is the stone. Is this the stone?
ὀρθός, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος. ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος;
Evan: No this is not the stone. This is the cup.
οὐ, οὐκ ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος. τοῦτ' ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον.
Justin: Oh right, this is the cup. Is this the stone?
ὀρθός, τοῦτ' ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον. ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος;

Evan: Yes this is the stone.
ναί, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.

Justin: Is this the cup?
ἐστιν τοῦτο τὸ ποτήριον;
Evan: Yes this is the cup.
ναί, τοῦτ' ἐστιν τὸ ποτήριον.

Let's also expand this a little, since Greek has more genders than Spanish and we want to account for all three.

Justin: What is this?
τί ἐστιν τοῦτο;
Evan: This is the letter.
αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή.
Justin: Oh, this is the letter?
αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή;
Evan: Yes, this is the letter.
ναί, αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή.

Justin: Is this the letter?
ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ ἐπιστολή;
Evan: No this is not the letter, this is the stone.
οὐ, οὐκ ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ ἐπιστολή, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.
Justin: Right, this is the stone. Is this the stone?
ὀρθός, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος. ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος;
Evan: No this is not the stone. This is the letter.
οὐ, οὐκ ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος. αὔτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή.
Justin: Oh right, this is the letter. Is this the stone?
ὀρθός, αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή. ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ λίθος;
Evan: Yes this is the stone.
ναί, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.
Justin: Is this the letter?
ἐστιν αὕτη ἡ ἐπιστολή;
Evan: Yes this is the letter.
ναί, αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιστολή.

Is this the kind of thing you are looking for? Personally, I don't use sign language when I do this, but I know some people feel strongly that it helps. (I actually know some sign language, too, but I don't use it here.)

Would it be useful to spend a little time getting Part I into a really good form, then move on to Part 2 - Part 9?

[Ben Clark]

Have you seen these?

https://whereareyourkeys.files.wordpres ... iculum.pdf
https://whereareyourkeys.files.wordpres ... spanol.pdf

I think they give a idea of how to introduce things gradually, and what to do. Act things out vividly, be expressive. Practice ahead of time. Don't move faster than they are getting it.

I had not seen those; thanks for the links. One question about them:

Are they demonstrated by two people that are familiar with the lesson/language? It seems like both Justin and Evan are introducing new language in the script.

[Jonathan Robie]

Are they demonstrated by two people that are familiar with the lesson/language? It seems like both Justin and Evan are introducing new language in the script.

I assumed that was the idea. I don't know for sure.

[Ben Clark]

Is this the kind of thing you are looking for? Personally, I don't use sign language when I do this, but I know some people feel strongly that it helps. (I actually know some sign language, too, but I don't use it here.)

Would it be useful to spend a little time getting Part I into a really good form, then move on to Part 2 - Part 9?

This is extremely helpful and yes, I would like to work a more detailed series in stages. I would only be introducing a few concepts each week and they will be used with students that have no prior experience with Greek (and no prior experience with WAYK, too).

[Jonathan Robie]

This is extremely helpful and yes, I would like to work a more detailed series in stages. I would only be introducing a few concepts each week and they will be used with students that have no prior experience with Greek (and no prior experience with WAYK, too).

Great - that's the kind of group I'm working with too, so we have a lot in common. Do you want to take a whack at Part 2? I imagine people will weigh in on Part 1 and we can adapt it as we go. At the end, let's write it all up and submit it to the WAYK people, and put a final copy out in some form in Greekland.

[Ben Clark]

GREEK UNIVERSAL SPEED CURRICULUM
Part 1
“What is this?”

Justin: What is this?
τί ἐστιν τοῦτο;
Evan: This is the stone.
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.
Justin: Oh, this is the stone?
οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος;
Evan: Yes, this is the stone.
ναί, οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ λίθος.

More of a question of style:

Is it more natural to talk about ὁ λίθος or λίθος if it is the only one on the table? Does that change if there are both λίθος μικρός and λίθος μέγας on the table?

[Stephen Hughes]

οὗτος ἐστιν

If you are doing this orally, your students will be benefitted in the long term by putting primary stress on the final syllable of οὗτος as in οὗτός ἐστιν.