This is in a slightly funky format, but this is an idea for a lesson plan. What do ya’ll think? I am leaving at 2 and I was wondering if anyone would be online between now and then to read it…

Theme/ Performance Standards
In this unit the students will examine the themes of good, evil, sin, redemption, and punishment and the students will determine how these themes are manifested in their lives. The entire unit will take five weeks and this specific activity will be ongoing throughout most of that time because the students have time to research before they present. This unit will allow for a great deal of repetition of concepts so that students are exposed to the same ideas in many different ways. This activity will allow for group and individual work and will incorporate a great deal of personal experiences. Students will have to use oral skills, reading skills, do cooperative group work, and ultimately in the unit the students will write a paper that will be supported by their research.
For this lesson the standards addressed will be:
(Reading) 2.4. Make warranted and reasonable assertions about the author’s arguments by using elements of the text to defend and clarify interpretations. 3.2 Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, using textual evidence to support the claim.
(Listening and Speaking) 2.3 Deliver oral responses to literature: a. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the significant ideas of literary works (e.g., make assertions about the text that are reasonable and supportable). c. Support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text or to other works.
This seems like quite a few standards to attempt to address in one activity, but in looking through the instructions it will become clear how these will all be managed.

Preparation
For this assignment the students will need the novel The Inferno by Dante Alighieri as well as extensive access to research facilities. The students will need drawing paper as well as markers/crayons/colored pencils. The teacher should be prepared to model the style of presentation that will be required of the students.

Building Background
In the course of this presentation students are going to be asked to examine their own personal code of morality/ethics and decide if they agree with the system that Dante has set up. They will be asked to compare his system to the religious structures they know of and decide where the mismatch is not in Dante’s favor. There is a huge amount of vocabulary inherent in this text. With each chapter there is going to be names and mythological references to cover as well as covering large blanket topics/vocabulary such as redemption, and purgatory. The teacher should be prepared to assist students in their research and suggest sources of information on some of the more obscure names and mythological points.

Instruction
Students will be assigned an individual Canto to present on, though the Cantos will be grouped together by larger divisions of the book, such as the level of Hell that they all address. The presentation on the Canto should include mentions of most significant names mentioned in that Canto and why they are significant and if names were not mentioned there should be a stated rationale for that as well. The student should be prepared to give background information on the myths that are referenced as well as some details of the political situations that are mentioned. In addition to the analysis of the book itself the student needs to be prepared to discuss the sin that is covered in the Canto and the students personal evaluation of that sin. Does the student agree or disagree with the punishment and why? The student should consider how they would choose to set up this circle of hell if they were going to redesign the system from scratch and include their ideas in their presentation. The students should also include a piece of art work. This art work can either depict the punishment that Dante believes is appropriate or be the punishment that the student believes is appropriate. The student needs to be prepared to explain this art work in detail and justify their decision to depict it. Students may take anywhere between five and twenty minutes for their presentation.

The ways in which this is modified for EL is largely in the method of presenting this assignment. Choose descriptive words that are not above your students heads. This is an extremely complex book yet it is accessible to anyone if they read it slowly and take the concepts apart in small pieces. Most of what makes this book difficult is the sheer scope of names and details that are mentioned. In having each student take apart one chapter at a time it makes those details much easier to absorb. Also, because students are presenting most of the material it is most likely that difficult words and concepts will be identified early in the research process and any confusion about them will be handled more easily on a one-on-one basis rather than trying to coach an entire group through a difficult concept. Also, most EL students come from countries with very different cultural and moral expectations of behavior. It is really important to allow students to examine the differences between this text and their own personal code of morality without telling them that Dante is correct. The large gap of permissible time is also an EL accommodation. This is a large presentation with an enormous scope. If a student has trouble speaking, then in five minutes they can cover the basics of information in a chapter and their reaction to it without feeling too much pressure to go on for a huge amount of time. Whereas students who are more language proficient find that they discover so much information that even twenty minutes can feel like it is not nearly enough time. The Cantos differ in the amount of information that they cover and their relative difficulty, and that will be considered when they are assigned.

Review/ Evaluation
The review of this information and the evaluation of students work is not simple on this project. It is very easy for a teacher to go through and evaluate which names and information is truly important for students to cover, and that can be done in advance and merely checked off as the student is presenting. The evaluation of the presentation is really simple. What is more difficult is making sure that the rest of the students were really paying attention. After each days presentations the teacher should do a review of the information covered emphasizing the most important concepts from the book. The teacher should emphasize which names and specific details need to be remembered for future tests. The later tests should be deliberately constructed so as to only require information that was covered in class.
Because so much of this presentation is highly personal, students tend to feel very satisfied with their accomplishment because what they are doing is arguing their beliefs.