Before students meet Antigone and Creon, give them a chance to decide what they think about family loyalty, public order, conscience, community, and personal safety.

Students work through eight modern ethical scenarios, make a choice before discussion, record what mattered most, and return to those same decisions after reading Sophocles' Antigone.

FULL DESCRIPTION
Before students meet Antigone and Creon, give them a chance to decide what they think about family loyalty, public order, conscience, community, and personal safety.

Students work through eight short modern scenarios. Each one puts two or more responsibilities in conflict and asks students to make a choice before they hear what anyone else thinks. From there, students can compare answers, place selected cases on a justification continuum, and work in groups to write a rule for when disobedience can be defended.

After the play, students return to their original answers. That makes it possible to ask a more interesting question than simply "Was Antigone right?": Did knowing the characters and consequences change anything students believed before they began?

WHAT'S INCLUDED
• Teacher Quick Start
• Starting-point ranking: family, law, conscience, community, and safety
• 8 ethical scenarios across 4 student pages
• Decision Record
• "When Is Disobedience Justified?" continuum
• Council Table group activity
• After-reading reconsideration page
• Teacher Connection Guide linking each case to the play
• 8 discussion prompts
• 20-25 minute lesson option
• Full 42-minute lesson option

SCENARIO TOPICS
• Curfew and public order
• Protecting a family member who is wanted by authorities
• A banned public memorial
• Enforcing a rule you believe is wrong
• Whistleblowing and divided loyalties
• Aid for someone labeled an enemy
• Quiet resistance versus public defiance
• A public oath and an order you believe is unjust

FILES INCLUDED
• Editable PowerPoint
• Complete 15-page PDF
• Separate 9-page student handouts PDF
• Separate 5-page teacher guide PDF

BEST FOR
• Antigone pre-reading
• Greek tragedy / drama units
• Ethics and moral dilemma discussions
• Law vs. conscience
• Civil disobedience
• Whole-class discussion, stations, or small groups
• Before-and-after reading reflection

PLEASE NOTE
This activity does not teach the House of Thebes backstory, Greek theater, or burial customs. It is designed as a separate ethics/anticipation lesson and pairs well with an Antigone background lesson.

Want more pre-reading simulations like this one?

Antigone: Who Do You Owe? is also included in the Literature Pre-Reading Simulations Bundle, featuring six decision-based activities for major secondary texts.

Bundle:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literature-Pre-Reading-Simulations-Bundle-Critical-Thinking-Activities-17656452

RELATED ANTIGONE RESOURCES
Antigone Pre-Reading Background | Oedipus Family Tree, Context & Guided Notes

Antigone Teaching Resources Bundle | Greek Tragedy, Mythology, Context & Analysis

Antigone Tragic Hero Analysis | Antigone vs. Creon

Greek Theater & Tragedy Background PowerPoint, Guided Notes & Teacher Guide