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 Kordsmeier, at gkordsme@ius.edu.
Assignments
“Rule Making, Rule Breaking, and Power Assignment.” DaShanne Stokes. AREA: Political Sociology. Laws have a profound and complex impact on our lives and those around us. In this assignment, students work with a fellow classmate to write a short, collaborative paper in which they will evaluate their experiences or perspectives with a law of their choosing in light of content presented in an assigned reading. Students pick a law that has had an impact on their life and use sociological concepts and perspectives to identify power and dynamics at play in the law. An illustrative grading rubric is included in the resource.
“Quantitative Research Project for Students with Little Research Experience.” Anjel Stough-Hunter. AREA: Research Methods. This resource is a step-by-step outline for a quantitative project completed in a semester-long research methods course by junior-level sociology and criminal justice students that have had little to no experience with research methods. The project is designed to assess students’ understanding of various aspects of the research process while simultaneously engaging in research. I provide suggestions for when to assign each step, guidelines for each step, and evaluation criteria.
Class Activities
“The Social Construction of Sex.” Deeb Paul Kitchen. AREA: Sexualities. This activity utilizes students’ terminology to demonstrate how power operates through shared discourse and shapes taken-for-granted understandings of the social world. Students have the opportunity to provide and analyze terms and expressions they know for having sex. Through these, students are able to see broadly shared ideas that influence them and their peers.
“Qualitative Coding with Children’s Literature: An Exercise Using the Three Little Pigs.” Janet Armitage. AREA: Qualitative Methodology. This qualitative coding and analysis resource is designed to provide a group hands-on learning opportunity for undergraduate students, primarily in the social sciences, to develop their skills for coding qualitative data and developing a qualitative data analysis and interpretation. The data come from a well-known children’s story, The Three Little Pigs, yet the title of the story remains concealed from students at the beginning of the exercise. The story is to be divided into chunks of text by the professor (i.e., small strips of paper with a chunk or line of the story on each individual piece of paper); all chunks are enclosed in a single legal-sized envelope distributed to the student groups. The exercise is scaffolded into a series of seven coding steps—identified as “Cs”—provided for students in a handout. The seven steps extend over two days to provide time to complete the assignment as well as to underscore the importance of maintaining a record of coding in a codebook and to provide time for class presentations and discussion.
“Social Movement and Institution Interactions.” Sarah Gaby. AREA: Collective Behavior/Social Movements. In this simulation, students act as either social movement actors or institutional representatives. Using the guidance provided on a role sheet, students acting on behalf of their assigned movement attempt to negotiate with various institutions to make gains. In speed-dating style interactions, students are given three minutes to make a case to an institution before rotating and doing so with each of the institutional representatives. Following these initial interactions, students are asked to form movement-institution pairs and develop more comprehensive formally negotiated agreements to present to the remainder of the class. This activity allows students to build connections between theories on how movements challenge, utilize, and engage with institutions and practice. In addition, students develop persuasive skills and gain exposure to various viewpoints.
“What Is Development? An Introduction to the Post/Decolonial Critique.” Juliana Morais de Goes. AREA: Development. This activity, based in experiences with popular education, is an introduction to the post/decolonial critiques to the concept of development. More specifically, it focuses on the following questions: What is development? Who defines what is a developed and a developing country? What is the criterion used to establish the above division? What are its consequences? To answer these questions, students will analyze two countries, the United States and Cuba, using statistics from the Human Development Reports for the United Nations Development Programme. The activity aims to challenge students’ stereotypes about both countries and especially about the idea of development. Finally, the activity is designed to introduce students to post/decolonialism theories, and it works better if the students had already been familiarized with the notions of imperialism and colonialism.
“What Test Do I Use? A Matching Game for Reinforcing Comprehension of Statistical Test Selection.” JoEllen Pederson. AREA: Statistics. The purpose of this in-class activity is to help students apply knowledge about what variables, types of measurement, can be used with independent samples t test, dependent samples t tests, chi-square tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests, repeated measures ANOVA tests, Pearson’s correlation tests, and linear regression.
“Using the Three Sociological Perspectives to Define the Relationship.” Jared Wagenknecht. AREA: High School Sociology. This lesson includes notes and a class activity where students learn about the three sociological perspectives and apply their learning by using the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interaction perspectives in analyzing romantic relationships. This activity was designed with high school level or “intro to sociology” undergraduate students in mind. The lesson ends with an informal assessment that can be used to gauge students’ understanding of each sociological perspective.
“Using Transgender Health Disparities to Understand Stigma.” Danielle Giffort. AREA: Medical Sociology. This in-class activity examines how stigma impacts health care access and treatment. Stigma is a multifaceted process that emerges from five interrelated components, including labeling human differences, associating differences with negative attributes, separating “us” from “them,” experiencing status loss and discrimination, and exercising power. Additionally, the occurrence and consequences of stigma take place at multiple levels, including individual, interpersonal, and structural. Medical sociologists have linked these stigma processes to adverse health experiences and outcomes. This in-class activity asks students to look at data on trans health to identify how these different levels of stigma impact trans people’s health care experiences and to develop potential solutions that take into account the multifaceted nature of stigma on health. The ultimate goal of this assignment is to help students apply fuzzy and abstract concepts, like stigma, to a real-world example.
“Chili con Questions: A Two-Part Lecture/Activity on Sampling and Related Statistics.” Judith A. Linneman. AREA: Research Methods. This engaging two-part lecture/activity uses the familiar process of cooking to reduce student fears and insecurities about learning sampling and related statistical concepts in research methods and statistics courses. Using inexpensive and readily available props to simulate preparing and entry for a chili cook-off contest and manipulating a common chili ingredient (beans), students explore basic sampling concepts and the estimation of sampling error.
Essay
“Misery in Methods: Moderating Negative Emotions of Both Students and Teachers in Quantitative Undergraduate Methods Classes.” Warren Waren. AREA: Statistics. Undergraduate quantitative methods courses can be miserable. In this piece, I offer some solutions from social psychology and my own experience that address the anxieties of both students and professors as they begin an undergraduate quantitative methods course. These are not solutions of syllabi or content or innovative teaching techniques. Instead, they get to the heart of the matter—emotions. How do we challenge negative emotions? How can we moderate intense emotions to become more productive? And how can we foster an association between constructive, positive attitudes and a quantitative methods class?
Bibliography
“Bibliography/Film Library for Race and Ethnic Relations.” Yvette A. Jean. AREA: Racial and Ethnic Relations. This Race and Ethnic Relations Bibliography/Film Library provides links to a wide range of videos, podcasts, and articles that are sure to boost your course materials and stimulate engaging class discussions. This resource contains 11 thematic modules that can be paired with an assigned text or with a collection of scholarly sociological materials on Race and Ethnic Relations. It has tremendous flexibility in that it can be assigned in online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses. Some of the themes include The Social Construction of Race, Negotiating Race and Multiracial Identity, and Immigration and Cultural Assimilation. Sample discussion prompts are provided to help students develop foundation-thinking skills (applying, understanding).
