For the past two weeks, students have been reading pieces of literature from the Middle ages and the Renaissance. Last week we have read pieces of Arthurian legends, Norse Mythology, the Nibelungenlied, Candide, and Don Quixote. This week we read excerpts from Dante‘s Inferno, both as a class and individually. Groups of students generated small picture books depicting the different levels they read about. As a culminating activity, a list of people from history was provided for each group and students were to select eight individuals and place each in a level of punishment according to their actions and Dante’s journey. The list below was generated for the activity.

• Isabella and Roger Mortimer:  Assassinated Edward II, King of England, in 1307
• VI Lenin: Convince the people of Russia to overthrow the Czar
• Mao Zedong : Put thousands of people in re-education camps (prison) for political beliefs
• Robespierre: Lead the Great Terror and claimed to be the God of Reason
• William Tweed: Stole millions of dollars from corruption and stock schemes in 1800’s
• Casanova: Cheated on lovers and gambled with their money
• Saladin and Frederick Barbarossa: Killed others during Crusades for religious and political reasons
• Homer: Believed in Greek myth and lived before Jesus
• Adolf Hitler: Led the Nazification of Europe and one of the Architects of the Holocaust
• Melissa Muller and/or Tonny Ahlers: Betrayed Anne Franks’s family to the Nazi’s for money.