Department of Classics

The University of Arizona - Department of Classics

VI. EMPHASIS IN LATIN PEDAGOGY

Matter in Section VI pertains only to those students emphasizing Latin with Secondary School Teaching Certification.

Basic Requirements

The degree requires 33 units of graduate-level work (5XX), distributed as follows:

1. All entering graduate students must enroll in CLAS 510A, the basic proseminar in philological, archaeological, and pedagogical methods.

2. Students must complete a minimum 18 units of Latin at the 5xx level including LAT 586.

3. Students must take a minimum of one seminar (CLAS 596).

4. 6 units may be taken from GRK, LAT, ARCH, HIST/CLAS at the 5xx level.

5. 23 (undergraduate) units in the College of Education.

6. 12 units of student teaching.

7. 3 units--and no more than 3 units--of CLAS 910 must be counted toward the basic 33 units.

Before enrolling in a CLAS 596 seminar, students must have demonstrated research proficiency in a modern foreign language, following the procedures specified below. Students in the pedagogy emphasis may substitute 3 units of CLAS 596 for 3 units of either GRK 500-589 or LAT 500-589 (excluding LAT 586) if significant amounts of Greek and/or Latin texts are to be read in the seminar. Students wishing to do so must submit a petition briefly stating their intent, along with a course syllabus, to the Classics Department Curriculum Committee before the end of the first week of the semester for approval.

Before earning permission to undertake the M.A. thesis, students must pass the Modern Language, Qualifying, and Comprehensive Examinations.

Modern Language

This requirement is identical for students emphasizing ancient history, archaeology, philology, or pedagogy. Research proficiency in French, German, or Italian is required for the M.A. degree. Modern language examinations will be administered by the Department of Classics and will follow a uniform format. Students will be given a passage from a scholarly work in the field of classical studies and asked to translate it within one hour. Dictionaries are allowed.

Students can also satisfy the requirement by completing German 500 with a grade of B or higher (and thus need not take the departmental exam). Students who do not fulfill the modern language examination requirement by the end of the first year of study will not be allowed to continue to take graduate courses in the program and will be ineligible for financial support.

Qualifying Examination

1. One session will be devoted to translation from Latin (1.5 hours). This is a translation exam, based entirely on the Reading List in Appendix D. Students will be required to demonstrate sufficient command of the Latin language at the M.A. level in order to continue in the program. The examination will include four selections to be translated, two of poetry and two of prose. The use of a dictionary will be permitted.

2. There is a choice of one of the following for the second examination:

A. One session will be devoted to Roman archaeology (1.5 hours). Students are required to demonstrate their familiarity with key monuments of classical Roman archaeology in a written examination (1.5 hours). They will be expected to identify 20 monuments, providing such details as the name of the monument, the date, the artist, the location for architecture, architectural sculpture, and other immovables and, where pertinent, the country, and briefly to discuss the significance of that data.

B. One session will be devoted to translation from Greek (1.5 hours). This is a translation exam, based entirely on the Reading List in Appendix D. Students will be required to demonstrate sufficient command of the Greek language at the M.A. level in order to continue in the program. The examination will include four selections to be translated, two of poetry and two of prose. The use of a dictionary will be permitted.

Grading of the Qualifying Examination

Grading is on the basis of High Pass, Pass, and No Pass. At least two members of the Department of Classics faculty will grade the examinations; in the event of a disagreement about an examination, the Director of Graduate Studies will ask a third faculty member to arbitrate. The exams will be graded and the results reported to students within two weeks of the examination date.

If failed, either exam may be retaken in the sixth week of the following semester. Students must pass the examination by their third semester of residence after they have begun taking courses in Latin and either Greek or Roman Archaeology for graduate credit. Students who do not pass the Qualifying Exam within the prescribed timeline may not continue in the M.A.program.

Comprehensive Examinations

Comprehensive Examinations are normally taken in the semester immediately after the Qualifying Examination has been passed. They will be administered only in the fall and spring semesters, not at any time during the summer. Students must have previously passed the Modern Language and Qualifying Examinations in order to attempt the Comprehensive Examination.

It is the students’ responsibility, prior to taking the Comprehensive Examinations, to prepare a Master's Degree Program of Study form, known as the "degree check," to submit it to the Director of Graduate Studies for his or her signature, and to see that it is routed to the Graduate School with the assistance of the departmental Administrative Assistant.

The Comprehensive Examinations are two in number for the pedagogy emphasis; the student teaching experience together with the production of a Teaching Portfolio will substitute for the third component of the Comprehensive Examination battery in the other three M.A. emphases. The exams will be administered over a period of two calendar days, during sessions of three hours each. The sequence and emphases of the examinations will be determined by the student in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Students should inform the Director of Graduate Studies of their intention to take the exams, preferably in the semester before the Comprehensive Examinations are to be taken, but no later than the end of the first week of the examination semester. At that time students will consult with the Director of Graduate Studies regarding five possible topics for the examinations in Greek and Roman literature. The Director of Graduate Studies will refer students to faculty members in accordance with their expertise regarding specific topics. Students planning to take the exam must then submit a written schedule of preparation for each particular topic, including dates of submission of preliminary and revised bibliographies, to the faculty members serving as consultants for the exam. Students must also supply the Director of Graduate Studies with a list of these topics and copies of the preparation schedule for each examination, preferably in the semester before the Comprehensive Examination is to be taken, but no later than the end of the first week of the examination semester.

The nature of the examinations is as follows:

1. One examination will be devoted to general knowledge of Latin literature (3 hours) and will address topics organized around genres, authors, works and/or themes. Using a standard history (e.g., G. B. Conte, Roman Literature: A History) and other secondary literature in addition to the relevant primary sources, students will prepare the five topics. The Director of Graduate Studies and involved faculty members, after further consultation with students, will compose individual exams including three essay questions based on the five prepared topics. The entire exam will be structured as follows:

Part I: short identifications chosen from the Latin and General lists in Appendix E (45 minutes).

Part II: 3 essays (45 minutes each), chosen from the five topics prepared in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies and faculty members.

2. There is a choice of one of the following for the second examination:

A. One examination will be devoted to general knowledge of Greek literature (3 hours) and will address topics organized around genres, authors, works and/or themes. Using a standard history (e.g., A. Lesky, History of Greek Literature) and other secondary literature in addition to the relevant primary sources, students will prepare the five topics. The Director of Graduate Studies and involved faculty members, after further consultation with students, will compose individual exams including three essay questions based on the five prepared topics. The entire exam will be structured as follows:

Part I: short identifications chosen from the Greek and General lists in Appendix E (45 minutes).

Part II: 3 essays (45 minutes each), chosen from the five topics prepared in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies and faculty members.

B. One examination will be devoted to Roman archaeology (3 hours). As the exam normally will cover all areas of Roman archaeology (i.e., Etruscan through late antique), students are strongly advised to take a broad range of graduate courses. The Comprehensive Examination in Roman archaeology will consist of five essay questions based on the list of five topics; students will choose to write on any three of these. The essays should include, if applicable, references to relevant primary (author and work) and secondary (author, date, title of work) sources.

C. One examination will be devoted to ancient history (3 hours). The ancient history exam will be based on the syllabus exactly as given in Appendix F.

Grading of the Comprehensive Examinations

Grading is on the basis of High Pass, Pass, and No Pass. At least two faculty members will grade the examinations; in the event of a disagreement about an examination, the Director of Graduate Studies will ask a third faculty member to arbitrate. The exams will be graded and the results reported to students within two weeks of the examination date.

Students must obtain at least a "Pass" in each section of the examination. Failure to pass one part of the exam will necessitate the retaking of the failed portion of the exam in that same semester (normally within two weeks of the failed exam) at a time to be determined in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. Students who fail both parts of the examination will retake the entire Comprehensive Examination in the sixth week of the following semester. A second failure on any part of the Comprehensive Examination will result in the student’s termination from the graduate program.

Nest: Satisfactory Academic Progress

INDEX

Preliminary Remarks

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Last modified: 18 January, 2008