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, Dr. Gregory T. Kordsmeier, at gkordsme@ius.edu.
Assignments
“Gender Socialization and Shopping: Data Collection in the Children’s Clothing, Décor, Greeting Card, and Toy Aisles.” Carla Corroto. AREA: Sex and Gender. In this assignment, students investigate gender socialization and consumption. Students collect data at major retailers looking for reification of, or challenges to, the gender binary in the following products: children’s clothing, décor, greeting cards, and toys. They practice taking field notes and looking for patterns in consumer culture. In addition, they compare and contrast online retailing to in-store marketing and to one retailer’s claim to be a label-free store. The assignment has students connect course content on socialization to their everyday environment. In a PechaKucha format (fast-paced presentation dominated by images), students present their central findings to the class.
Class Activities
“Four Social Situations: A Class Activity to Teach Goffman’s Impression Management through Inductive Learning.” Maria D. Duenas. AREA: Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems. The purpose of this activity is to help students inductively learn Goffman’s concept of impression management through examining how they behave in four social situations: in professional settings, with friends, on social media, and in important but personal settings. Students examine their own behavior in each of these settings, such as their word choice, style of dress, posture, and conversational topics. Through a class discussion, students learn Goffman’s theory of impression management.
“Exploring Neighborhood Inequality with Census Data.” Ellen M. Whitehead. AREA: Introduction to Sociology/Social Problems. This hands-on activity is designed to help students consider neighborhoods as a dimension of inequality, using census data to examine neighborhood characteristics. By selecting specific neighborhoods and variables of interest, developing hypotheses, and interpreting data, students enhance their understanding of how sociologists evaluate inequality quantitatively. In this activity, students compare and contrast the population characteristics of two different neighborhoods.
“The Perception versus the Reality of Crime in the United States.” Racheal E. Pesta. AREA: Criminology/Delinquency. This active learning exercise is designed to expose the differences that exist between the perception and the reality of crime. Students interview three to five students on campus about their perceptions of crime in the United States and then work together in small groups to compile the real picture of crime using two official sources of crime data: the Uniform Crime Report and the National Survey of Victimization. Finally, students reflect on the real-world implications of the disconnect between our perceptions and reality of crime in the United States.
Essay
“Creative Writing in the Teaching and Learning of Social Theory.” Natalia Ruiz-Junco. AREA: Theory. Most textbooks and other teaching resources approach the teaching and learning of sociological theory from the perspective of scientific argumentation. There is an alternative approach, which is based on using creative writing tools—such as poetry and prose—to learn theory. This essay provides a discussion of the two main modalities of creative theory assignments. It also offers considerations on learning goals and assessment techniques for such assignments.
