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Lesson 1

We will finish reading the play and prepare for participation in a Socratic Seminar. We will also read a modern text that ties thematically to Antigone.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I make predictions using characteristics of genre in Antigone?

  • Can I discuss and write about the explicit or implicit meanings in Antigone?

  • Can I analyze how thematic ideas are developed through characterization and plot in the play?

  • Can I analyze how Sophocles develops complex yet believable characters through cultural settings and events?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Antigone, Sophocles (translated by Robert Fagles), Penguin Books, 1984

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will read the Section Diagnostic and begin to think about our roles in this task.

Step 1

Access the Section 4 Diagnostic Checklist, which states the following:

Participate in a whole-class Socratic Seminar to deepen your knowledge of themes and topics in Antigone by considering the question below:

  1. How does Antigone explore the idea of unintended consequences?

Use evidence from the play and other texts you have read throughout the unit to pose new questions, support your responses to your classmates’ questions, and develop a more critical understanding of the play.

In preparation for, and while participating in, the seminar, you will do the following:

  • Form a central claim in response to the question.

  • Gather and organize strong and relevant evidence from the text.

  • Present and explain specific references or quotations during the discussion.

  • Use academic language to demonstrate your understanding of argumentation, claims and rhetoric and the text.

  • Ask questions and respond to others’ ideas in a respectful manner.

Conduct a think-pair-share with a partner. Use the following questions to guide your discussion:

  1. What do you know about a Socratic Seminar?

  2. Have you ever participated in one?

Step 2

A Socratic Seminar is a student-led dialogue in which participants use open-ended questions to gain a deeper and more robust understanding of the ideas and values in a text or the connections across multiple texts. The purpose of a seminar is not to argue for a particular view or interpretation, but to ask questions, posit your own thinking, listen to others' responses, and expand your views of the texts and topics. Each participant's voice is equal, and there are no experts.

Different perspectives and analyses of the texts are critical: they help all participants see multiple sides of complex ideas, issues, and topics, expanding everyone's understanding. During a seminar, it is important to pose questions that elicit discussion, not a simple right-or-wrong or yes-or-no answer.

As such, it is critical that questions in a Socratic Seminar are open-ended (they elicit multiple perspectives), thought-provoking (they challenge you to evaluate text and synthesize your ideas), and clear (they are easily understandable).

With your classmates, create norms for a Socratic Seminar. We will write these norms in a place that is easily accessible for all and revisit them as we continue to prepare for our Section Diagnostic.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will read lines 1090–1213 together as we meet a new character in this section of the play.

Step 1

Your teacher will provide a summary of Lines 1033-1090 of the play; this is a choral ode comparing Antigone to many Greek women and stories that are not familiar to modern readers in the play’s translation.

Step 2

We will read Lines 1090-1213 aloud together as we meet a new character, the blind prophet Tiresias. Consider what you know about the terms prophet and prophecy. Look up the term seer and write a sentence explaining what a prophet or seer is and what the role of such a character might be in this Greek play.

Step 3

Make a prediction about what might happen between Creon and the blind prophet, Tiresias.

Conduct a think-share-pair with a partner. Explain what prompted your prediction.

Step 4

Read and follow along as two characters will take part reading this exchange. Work with a partner and respond to the following questions in your Learning Log:

  1. What does Tiresisas accuse Creon of in Lines 1103-1130?

  2. Tiresias is very clear in his warning to Creon in Lines 1135-1140. What does he want Creon to do?

  3. What do we learn about Creon in Lines 1144-1160?

  4. In Lines 1170-1180, a brief exchange showcases the word profit from prophet. What is Creon accusing Tiresias of?

  5. What does Tiresias foretell? Is it justified? Why or why not?

  6. Think back on our Central Question: To whom or what do we owe our loyalty? What have you just learned about Creon’s answer to this question in his exchange with Tiresias? Make sure to use text evidence in your response.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will read lines 1213–1238 and discuss ideas and topics that have recurred during the play.

Step 1

Read aloud Lines 1213-1238 with a partner; one of you will read the role of the Leader, while one of you will read the role of Creon.

Mark the text when you find ideas and topics that have recurred throughout the play: gender roles, pride, burial rites, and the role of the gods.

Step 2

With your partner, conduct a think-pair-share about the following discussion questions:

  1. What makes Creon decide to yield to the advice of Tiresias?

  2. Were you surprised by this turn of events? Why or why not?

  3. What do you predict will happen now based on what you know about the rest of the play, Greek theater, and this turning point?

  4. How does this turn of events impact your understanding of the thematic ideas in the text? What messages might Sophocles be sending to his audience with this turn of events?

Activity 4: Read – Write

For homework, we will read the rest of the play and use our tools and graphic organizers to help us make sense of the characters and elements of argumentation that arise in this last and important portion of Antigone.

Step 1

Your teacher will summarize a choral song from the Chorus in Line 1239-1272.

Step 2

For homework, you will read Lines 1273-1470, the end of the play. As you read for homework, you will use your tools and graphic organizers to help support your reading. The tools available to you are the Rhetorical Appeals Handout, Vocabulary Journal, Character Argument Note-Taking Tool, and Learning Log.

Choose two tools from any of those that we have used during the reading of this play. Replicate one of them and complete it for Lines 1273-1470. Be prepared to share your ideas and text evidence with a partner.

In your Learning Log, explain how the tools have been useful for you to make meaning of the play and its elements.