(Pre)reading exercises where they label words with their part of speech or 'chunk' the text into blocks of meaning can help students at this stage to see that translating and reading aren't the same. I usually assign this kind of reading for homework and save the translating for class.

Working on reading expectations in this way also means that, as Rob said, they need to know vocab first! But I always want to discourage them from thinking that knowing vocab = just knowing the English meaning of words instead of understanding the function and expectations of the word.

Like, when you see a preposition, what do you expect to follow after it? What kind of verbal ideas might prompt indirect discourse? Working through a passage looking for these kinds of context clues prompts them to start by doing something other than immediately translating into English.

Yes, all the things @thelgo.bsky.social said! I'd add that I like to focus on strategies for comprehending (and demonstrating comprehension) other than translating. There are a ton of ways to do this, but in a class where they're still getting grammar under them, I focus on reading expectations...

As Hoo-dith Butler always says, gender is perfor-molt-ive

Well, see, the lady owl is wearing a hairbow, that's how you know it's a girl.

Coming up, I'm giving some talks, including a free online talk about my newest project, which is focused on Greek sculpture and the place of disability within it, on Sunday, October 19 at 10am Central:

If you're in PA (or OH) and want to chat about Pitt's College in High School Latin program as an alternative (or addition) to AP, let me know!