Dante Seminar: National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar

Kelly Fast, Former SME English Teacher

• $2,500 — Underwrote instructor's expenses for six-week National Endowment for the Humanities instructional studies. SME instructor was one of 10 American teachers selected to participate in an NEH seminar on Dante's Commedia, Siena, Italy.
• This would impact all Sophomore Honors English students.
• Not only will students have another avenue to broaden their literary horizons, but they will also be exposed to the literature and ideas that will better prepare them for college and life.

Goals and Objectives:

• This six week seminar will focus on Dante’s Commedia and will take place summer 2005 in Siena, Italy. This work is a major part of the Sophomore Honors English curriculum and a work that I think is invaluable to all students. This work is so encompassing that it allows me to focus on the many different topics and issues that are important to my students. Through Inferno, we are able to discuss morality, politics, art, and love. Unlike most works, which make sense to some students but not others, I have had great success with Inferno at every curricular level. I hope to share the many different ideas that my many different students have expressed about Dante’s Inferno. I think my colleagues can greatly benefit, as I have, from their myriad points of view.
• This seminar is taught by Professors William Stephany and Ronald Herzman, two internationally acclaimed Dante scholars. The knowledge I gain from their expertise will allow me to deepen my understanding of this work and to creatively enhance my teaching of Dante’s Inferno. Not only will my honors students benefit from this knowledge, I will be able to teach this work to my fellow sophomore English colleagues, which will in turn benefit nearly 600 sophomore students a year. I firmly believe that every college-bound student should be exposed to this work.
• More significantly, as a long-term goal, I very much want to attend this seminar so that I can acquire the knowledge to transform the unit that I teach into an entire semester class. I feel that the English curriculum in the Shawnee Mission District lacks elective choices. Students who are gifted in English have few options outside of the required grade level course. The district occasionally updates the curriculum, and I feel that a semester class focused on classic literature, including Dante’s Commedia, would be a great benefit to the students at Shawnee Mission East. Not only will students have another avenue to broaden their literary horizons, but they will also be exposed to the literature and ideas that will better prepare them for college and life. It is an ambitious endeavor, but I feel so strongly about this work that I think that I will be able to make a convincing case. In order to do so, I need the necessary insight that I can gain from this seminar and fellow colleagues. I have attached detailed information about this seminar.

Plan of Action:

• I will attend the seminar this summer and share the information with my colleagues in the fall of the 2005-2006 school year. I, along with the other Sophomore Honors English teacher Michael Pulsinelli, will incorporate the new material into our existing Dante unit. I will act as a mentor to the other sophomore English teachers who want to implement Dante’s Inferno into their curriculum. In the long-term, I would like to add a new English elective to the curriculum.

Evaluation:

• In addition to measuring the increased enthusiasm and understanding that my students will have of this work, I will more specifically be able to evaluate the impact of this seminar by the number of sophomore English teachers that I can inspire to teach this work in the future.

Budget:

• In being selected to participate in this seminar, the NEH has given me a stipend of $4200.00. However, according to Lynn Kennison, the director of the program, this stipend will not be sufficient to cover all expenses. I am applying for this grant of $2500.00 to pay for the remainder of this program.

Estimated Budget:

Transportation to Siena (plane and train tickets): $2100.00

Housing: $3900.00

Seminar Expenses (city buses, museums, class materials): $300.00

Seminar Excursions: $530.00

Total: $6830.00

Grant awarded May 2005