Activities

1. Set up a Theme Folder

Put together a folder to store all your notes and materials related to Justice. By adding to this folder regularly, you will build
up comprehensive resources to draw on when preparing for the SAC.
You will also be able to see how your ideas and point of view on the theme develop and expand. You might include:

notes from class discussions and your wider reading

articles and images from newspapers, magazines and websites related to the theme (e.g. news reporting and images
such as symbols that represent notions of justice)

useful and essential vocabulary for discussing and writing about the theme

summaries of key ideas and arguments about the theme that you draw from the set texts you are studying as well
as from supplementary readings

written responses to study questions on the texts

notes on the language and structural features of the set texts consider what the authors have written and how
they have written it (e.g. narrative voice, use of imagery, structure, language)

2. Vocabulary and Definitions Compile a Glossary

Collect useful vocabulary and expressions which you can add to and continue to refine throughout the year. Below
are some associated words and phrases. Start with these. Ask yourself: How do the following words and expressions
relate to one another, to the theme, and to the selected texts?

How many others words and phrases can you think of? Add these to your list.

Use a dictionary and thesaurus to define and expand on these words.

Find and include synonymous and antonymous words and phrases for these terms in the selected texts.

Actively use these words by incorporating them into meaningful sentences and work towards using them during
discussion and in your writings about the theme.

justice

victim

revenge

injustice

perpetrator

retribution

crime

bystander

punishment

honour

morals

fairness

shame

ethics

equality
the Law

guilt

good and evil

betrayal

restitution

rules and codes

3. Writing Activity
Write a description about a time when you were a victim of injustice OR when you were witness to an injustice.
The incident of injustice may have occurred within the school, home or local environment.
Your account should be in the form of a word sketch or a mini short story.
You may choose to write from a first or third person perspective.
The aim of this task is to explain the nature of the injustice and to bring to life the various emotions associated with the act of
injustice.
4. Debate
Hold a debate on the topic Creons actions are justifiable. The class could be divided into half and thus help the speakers
prepare their cases. After the debate, the audience could be encouraged to ask further questions of the speakers.
Debate any of the following topics:
Can justice ever be too costly?
Social justice is absolutely fundamental: individuals are unlikely to obtain justice within the framework of an unfair system.
Is it ever too late for justice to be done?
It is easy to see injustice when it occurs elsewhere, more difficult to spot it close to home.
Where prejudice is tolerated justice will be hard to find.
5. Think About Key Questions
1.

Drawing on your own experiences, and experiences represented in texts and your reading of current newspaper
articles compile a list of questions about the ideal and nature of justice.

2.

Discuss the following questions:

What is justice?
Is there a universal definition of justice?
How do we know when justice has been achieved?
What role do religions, laws and declarations etc. have in ensuring that justice is maintained?
Does the ideal and nature of justice vary over time, place and society?
What strategies have humans put into place to ensure justice for individuals and for society as a whole?
What are some of the structures, features and conventions of some of the texts about Justice you have studied,
and how do they shape the way their creators explore ideas about violence?

3.

Now explore the theme in depth by responding to the Key Questions (located on the Theme Study page) on the ideal
and nature of justice.

4.

Look at the wikipedia entry on justice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/justice and discuss the ideas raised in this entry.

6. Quotations

Other peoples viewpoints can stimulate and expand your thinking. Use books on famous quotations and the internet
to find relevant quotations on reality. To help you get started, you will find a few quotations on the Theme Study
page. These will help to expand your word bank and also the ideas that you associate with the theme. The
quotations can also be used as starting points for discussion or writing topics.

Find significant quotations from the set texts. List these and explain their significance both in terms of the authors
intended meaning and in relation to the theme.

7. Concept Map

Build up a concept map to list ideas relating to Justice. Click on the image to
download the template.

Begin by brainstorming definitions of the key words of the theme: ideal, nature
and justice .

Other suggestions include: natural justice, retributive justice, restorative justice,

distributive justice, utilitarian justice, libertarian justice?

8. Artwork and Graphics

Find images and symbols of justice and discuss what they suggest about justice.
Begin by looking at some images of classical depictions of justice such as those on the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice
www.symbols.net/justice/
http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/themis.html

9. Definitions of Justice

Based on your responses so far, come up with definitions of justice:

1. Collect examples of different texts (media, stories, film, documentaries, advertisements, etc.).
Study how the creators or authors explore some of the ideas or arguments associated with different notions of
justice.
Annotate these examples, identifying the ideas or arguments being explored.
2. Identify key aspects of language structures and features in these texts.
Annotate these examples, explaining why the creators or authors have chosen to use certain language structures
and features, and how effective their choices are.
10. Using the Texts for Ideas and Arguments
Explore and develop how the set texts and the additional supplementary tetxs deal with the theme. Record your ideas in your
Theme File.
For example, from your reading of Antigone, what ideas can you draw upon that show Sohocless views regarding justice?
For each text you read and/or study, ask yourself:
What does the text say about the theme?
How does the text show the theme?
Here is one suggested strategy to help you. For each text, draw up a table of four columns and do the following:
title column 1, Focus questions: use the Key Questions as your focus
title column 2, My ideas: write your responses
title column 3, What the texts suggest: write responses about what the set texts suggest e.g. justice ad morality, justice and
the law, justice and power, justice and injustice, etc.
title column 4, How the texts present ideas: e.g. look at characterisation, setting, actions, dialogue, conflict, mise-en-scene,
direct comment from the author or narrator, etc.

Focus questions

My ideas

What the text suggests

How the text presents ideas

11. Using the Texts for Understanding HOW Authors Create Texts
1.

Read Guy de Maupassants short story, A Vendetta and discuss the way in which de Maupassant represents the
idea of justice, and how he uses the conventions of the short story to explore his ideas. For example, how does the
narrator position the reader to view the mothers revenge?

2.

Collect examples of different texts (media, stories, film, documentaries, advertisements, etc.).
Find examples in the texts that clearly show how the creators or authors have explored some of the ideas or
arguments associated with different notions of justice.

3.

Identify key aspects of language structures and features in these examples.

4.

Annotate these examples, explaining why the creators or authors have chosen to use certain language structures
and features, and how effective their choices are.

5.

Try adopting these in your own writing.

12. Media texts

Use either hard copies of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers ( The Age , The Australian , Herald-Sun )or e-copies of
these daily papers.
www.theage.com.au/
www.news.com.au/heraldsun
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

Examine reports of news items from any section of the paper (local, national and/or world, business and/or sport)
and select two or three items which, in your opinion, have secured a place in the paper because the item concerns
an aspect of justice.

Similarly, you should look at the Opinions/Editorial section of the papers and select one opinion item written by a
member of the readership (in the Letters to the Editor section) and one opinion item written by an expert (this
might be a senior reporter, the Editor or an invited commentator). Each item should present a point of view about a
matter concerned with justice.

Complete the following chart and then write an evaluation that examines the nature of reporting of matters
concerning justice.

Read your selected newspaper item and then make notes about each item, using the table below:

Title of article, name of

paper and date of
publication

13

Text type (e.g. report,

Letter to the Editor,
opinion column,
editorial)

What aspect of justice

or injustice has been
noted in this item? (Use
dot points)

Which words in the text

have been chosen to
create an emotional
response in the reader?