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| Title: | SAMS202: Intermediate Samskritam II |
| Placement: | Spring semester |
| Pre-Requisites: | SAMS201 |
| Course Website: | https://www.safl.org/ |
Course Overview:
SAMS202 is a distance learning course designed to enable students to further develop the Samskritam (aka Sanskrit) writing and reading skills gained in SAMS101, SAMS102 and SAMS201. The course will focus on developing narrative skills through periodic conversations and prose writing, as well as solidifying the student’s grasp of intermediate grammatical concepts. Students will be introduced to reading simple stanzas in verse. The course will build on topics covered in SAMS101, SAMS102 and SAMS201.
Course Objectives:
- Understand, recognize and use the last four cases of nouns in the singular, dual and plural forms of the masculine, feminine and neuter genders.
- Understand noun-adjective relationships of nouns in masculine, feminine, and neuter genders in singular, dual and plural forms.
- Use interrogative nouns.
- Fluently converse in Samskritam outside of the classroom.
Core Content – Topical Outline:
Part 1:
- Listening & Speaking
- Conjugation of active verbs
- Conversations related to daily routines
- Reading & Writing
- Reading short moral stories
- Conjugation and usage of the future tense in singular, dual and plural.
- Declensions of selected masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns and pronouns
- Adjective-noun agreement
- Ordinal and cardinal numerals
- Techniques for reading and understanding stanzas in verse
- Vocabulary: Colors, words related to land and water, adjectives
Part 2:
- Listening & Speaking
- Conjugation of middle verbs
- Listening short stories.
- Reading and Writing
- Reading short moral stories
- Usage of the past active participle in the singular, dual and plural.
- Introduction to the ten tenses of verbs
- Usage of the infinitive
- Usage of indeclinable
- Vocabulary: Colors, words related to land and water, adjectives
- Usage of adjectives
Grading Plan:
5% - Class Attendance
15% - Weekly Conversations
20% - Homework Assignments
20% - Midterm Exam
20% - Final Project
20% - Final Exam
Grading Scale:
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C= 70-79%
D= 60-69%
F= 59% and below
Course Assignments, Exams and Projects:
1. Class Attendance (5%):
This course includes a mandatory, once a week, 1.5 hour contact class by video conference. A Samskrita Bharati trained teacher will lead this session. The time will be used to practice conversational skills, introduce new topics, and answer any questions. The only excused absences are those due to sickness or family emergency. In such cases, an email from a parent of the student must be sent at least 24 hours before the start of the class in order to excuse the absence.
2. Weekly Conversations (15%):
Students are assigned a simple topic to speak about every week. These topics are intended to cover concepts taught in previous classes, and enable the students to put theoretical knowledge into practical use, by employing those concepts in simple Sanskrit sentences and conversations. Every student is expected to record his or her oration as an audio file and submit this through the website. Students who fail to do so will not only not receive credit for that week, but also miss out on a valuable opportunity to familiarize themselves with using Samskritam as a means of communication.
3. Homework Assignments (20%):
Homework is assigned as indicated in the weekly syllabus on the course website. Students are expected to complete the homework before the contact class of each week. All homework assignments are to be submitted via the course website. 5% per day late will be deducted from assignments submitted late. Extensions must be requested at least 24 hours before the deadline for any assignment.
4. Midterm Exam (20%):
The midterm exam will be administered during the eighth week of the class as indicated on the course calendar. The exam will include a written and oral portion. Both portions of the exam will be administered and proctored by the course instructor during class time. Students are to complete all exams without the aid of any textbooks, notes, or other people.
5. Final Project (20%):
This project allows students to demonstrate their reading, writing, and grammar skills. Students are expected to write a short story in two verb tenses of their choice. Students will record their own reading of the story in two tenses. The recordings will be submitted to the course website. Each recording must be at least two minutes long. There will be multiple deadlines throughout the semester to ensure that students are working throughout the semester on the project.
6. Final Exam (20%):
The final exam will be administered during the final week of classes as indicated on the course calendar. The exam will include a written and oral portion. Both portions of the exam will be administered and proctored by the course instructor during class time. Students are to complete all exams without the aid of any textbooks, notes, or other people.
Course Expectations:
Students are required to have access to a computer, scanner, webcam, microphone and the internet for this course. Teachers primarily use email to contact students and it is imperative that students respond in a timely manner.
Apart from the weekly class, students are expected to spend ample time studying the course material and completing the homework. Students are expected to honor academic integrity when completing all assignments and exams.
Required Texts and Materials:
The following texts and materials will be required for this course.
Second Year SAFL Text Book [Kusumam]