TRAILS, a peer-reviewed digital teaching resources library developed by the American Sociological Association (ASA), is an innovative educational tool that provides sociology teachers with access to thousands of teaching resources. Launched on May 25, 2010, the website offers many useful features, such as a searchable database of peer-reviewed teaching resources and the ability to customize presented content based on the interests of the subscriber. The types of resources that can be found on TRAILS include syllabi, assignments, class activities, lectures, PowerPoint slides, and assessments. Resources published in TRAILS have been through a strong, two-stage process of peer review based in empirically proven best practices in pedagogy. Access is free for ASA members and available at a discounted price for nonmembers in Department Affiliate departments. Submission instructions for TRAILS can be found at http://trails.asanet.org/Pages/SubmissionDetails.aspx. Questions regarding TRAILS can be directed to the editor Julie Pelton, PhD, at jpelton@unomaha.edu.
Assignments
“A Sociological Look at Hate Groups.” Sharon Yee. AREA: Racial and Ethnic Relations. Students will learn about the social construction of hate, hate groups, and hate crimes, and will analyze how hate group members, hate groups, and hate crimes are perceived in American society using a range theoretical perspectives. This resource also allows students to practice content analyses skills, analyze trends among hate groups, engage in debate, and reflect on their assumptions and beliefs about various hate groups.
“Sociological Perspectives Active Learning Assignment.” Jennifer McSpadden. AREA: Intro-duction to Sociology/Social Problems. Teaching the three major sociological perspectives in an introductory course can be challenging because they can be difficult for students to understand. This active learning exercise gives students the opportunity to apply the perspectives to some familiar and interesting social phenomena, such as tattoos, death and dying, engagement rings, the Super Bowl, concerts, social media, and marijuana usage.
Class Activities
“Class School Board Debate Activity: Should Tracking Be Reformed?” Alanna Gillis. AREA: Education. This class activity introduces students to different perspectives about school tracking. Students will do the following: form groups, receive an assigned role, and present a short speech for the class arguing from their assigned perspective about the school tracking system. The students assigned to the school board will decide whether and how to reform the tracking system.
“Feminist History in Waves.” Tal Peretz. AREA: Collective Behavior/Social Movements. Students will research and share important moments in women’s history, create a timeline on the board, and work together to draw patterns out of the historical timeline. This process allows students to see history visually, place important events in context, and learn important themes in feminist theory.
“Flash Data Collection and Analysis: A First-day Activity.” Joanna S. Hunter. AREA: Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems. This new resource is a first-day activity for introductory sociology students. Students will participate in “flash data collection” by collecting data on another student’s attributes, thus introducing students to concepts such as correlation, causation, and the role of empirical data collection and analysis.
“Relativity of Deviance.” Amy Baumann Grau. AREA: Deviant Behavior/Social Disorganization. Students will be challenged to think about the relativity or degrees of deviance through the manipulation of the context in which the deviance occurs. Upon completion of this assignment, students should understand and be able to articulate the meaning of deviance being relative as well as comprehend the factors that impact the relativity of deviance.
“School Choice and Inequality: Choosing Schools Activity.” Alanna Gillis. AREA: Education. This activity is designed to demonstrate the way that school choice (i.e., charter schools and private schools) contributes to inequality based on social class and race. Students will form groups and receive a family profile with traits such as income, race, family structure, school zoning by neighborhood, and geographic distance from the schools. Students must select schools based on the school demographic profiles and participate in a role-playing discussion.
“Using The Office to Teach Goffman.” Karam Hwang. AREA: Theory. Contemporary students may find Erving Goffman’s theories of symbolic interaction confusing or old-fashioned. This new resource pushes students to analyze the comedic sitcom The Office, using Goffman’s concepts.
Activity/Lecture
“Migration Consultant Activity and Lecture.” Kenneth Chen and Gowoon Jung. AREA: Migration/Immigration. This lecture and group activity introduce students to theories of international migration, the motivations that cause people to migrate, the processes through which immigrants make decisions, and the local economic, cultural, and social contexts that shape the arrival of immigrants in the United States.
Syllabus
“Global Religious Diversity.” Philip Schwadel. AREA: Religion. Global Religious Diversity is an online course for upper-division undergraduate students that focuses on interactions between people and groups from different religions in the increasingly multicultural and interconnected global society. The course provides a variety of methods of assessment, including quizzes, prepared essays, exams, learning modules from the Association of Religion Data Archives, and weekly discussions.
“Youth, Activism, and Social Movements.” Jennifer Earl, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliot. AREA: Collective Behavior/Social Movements. Young people are the backbone of most social movements from the civil rights and anti–Vietnam War movements to more contemporary examples, like Black Lives Matter, #Occupy, and the anti–gun violence movement. This course provides an undergraduate-level introduction to the study of youth political socialization, political participation, and their role in social movements.
