New Resources in TRAILS: The Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology

Assignments

“In-Class Collaborative Book Reviews for Punished, The Tender Cut, and Hunger: Used in Juvenile Delinquency and Deviant Behavior.” Stephanie Medley-Rath. AREA: Deviant Behavior/Social Disorganization. Tying an assignment to course reading encourages reading compliance. However, more assignments lead to more time needed for grading. Group projects are often used to reduce grading volume. Students often resist group projects because they have trouble finding time outside of class to do group work. In this teaching artifact, I describe using in-class collaborative book reviews to address these three issues. By having students complete their collaborative book reviews during class time, students have time to complete the assignment as a group while reducing the grading burden on the instructor. Further, because they are present, the instructor can observe group dynamics (who is doing the work and who is not) and answer questions when they arise. Students are able to complete their assignment without spending additional time outside of class meeting with their group and are able to incorporate instructor feedback immediately because they are working near the instructor. This teaching artifact describes the collaborative book review as used in Juvenile Delinquency and Deviant Behavior.

“Giving Students the Floor.” Kate K O’Neill. AREA: Other. This assignment is designed for small, upper-level special topics courses for university undergraduates and graduate students. This assignment functions best in courses with regular assigned readings and requires that instructors cultivate a list of “recommended” or “companion” readings in parallel with assigned readings. Each student selects one reading from the syllabus (and, consequently, the date they will present). They then complete a two-part assignment on this reading. The first component of this assignment is the completion of a one- to two-page reading summary that will eventually be shared with students’ peers. The second component is an oral presentation on their selected reading, in which students will outline their reading and facilitate a class discussion on the special topics and issues introduced in this reading. The goals of this two-part assignment are to (1) practice writing on social science findings, (2) practice oral presentation and discussion facilitation, (3) situate a special topic within broader sociological literature, and (4) become an “expert” on their special topic/reading. This assignment increases the amount of published scholarship students are exposed to in the classroom without dramatically increasing students’ labor outside the classroom, encourages active learning, and allows students to build skills and abilities relevant to the development and presentation of sociological research. In addition, this assignment allows the instructor to draw attention to specialized and emerging work on the class topic that they may be otherwise unable to integrate into existing course material.

“Constructing Binary Sex.” Deeb Paul Kitchen. AREA: Sex and Gender. All of us participate in constructing the social world. Although we often reach high levels of agreement about which concepts and categories are appropriate across many parts of social life, other people could construct and utilize different ideas and therefore know and experience the world in different ways. These concepts are not real, as we frequently say, but they are consequential. One part of social life that we often experience as natural or given is our biological sex. This is so ingrained that I find students intensely struggle with and resist the assertion that being male or female is culturally specific and not universal. They struggle and resist this to a greater extent than they do race, gender, nationality, or other parts of social life that we typically invite students to see as social constructs. This class activity allows students to explore the ways concepts and categories shape the ways we think about the world, particularly our physical bodies. It allows them to create categories for physical (real) objects and compare these with categories they create when they are strictly limited to a binary classification system. Through class discussion and reflection, it illustrates the consequences and limitations of binary sex categories.

“Theory Application Assignment.” Candace K May. AREA: Theory. This simple assignment requires students to write a paragraph linking a theoretical concept to a current event. Students learn how to see theory in their everyday lives, how to apply and write about theory, how to discuss theory with their peers, and how to use ASA-style citations. I use this assignment in online courses but also as a complement to face-to-face classes, where it allows discussions to extend outside the classroom. Over the past few years, I have been using this assignment in the context of a land-grant university. Students have expressed enthusiasm and a feeling of empowerment for being able to see the everyday applicability of theory outside the classroom. The also enjoy readings and responding to each other’s assignments.

“Understanding Discrimination through Multimedia.” Ellen T. Meiser. AREA: Social Psychology. “Understanding Discrimination through Multimedia” is a short-essay activity that employs podcasts, YouTube videos, academic journal articles, and popular readings to help students understand how social structures influence discrimination within our society and what discrimination looks, feels, and sounds like. Students are offered to choose from four types of discrimination to explore independently: racial discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, weight and size discrimination, and housing discrimination. This activity is created for use in online courses.

Class Activities

“Beyond Loving: Discussion Guide.” Laura Krull. AREA: Family. This resource provides discussion questions for Beyond Loving: Intimate Racework in Lesbian, Gay, and Straight Interracial Relationships by Amy Steinbugler. In this discussion guide, I provide questions specific to each chapter as well as suggested activities. Beyond Loving prompts important conversations about race and sexuality in intimate relationships, and it is therefore appropriate for college classrooms, particularly those with high levels of discussion and student engagement. The suggested activities I include require students to think beyond the specifics of Steinbugler’s research to consider how her findings might extend to other concepts or to use evidence from the book to offer explanations for social phenomena. Finally, I offer one potential assessment technique, which primarily checks for students’ understanding and ability to think sociologically.

“Stigma and Reentry: Hiring Restaurant Staff.” Jennifer Stevens. AREA: Criminology/Delinquency. This exercise aims to demonstrate the power of stigma, as defined by Goffman, on the lives of those who have been convicted of felonies in the United States. Inspired by the work of Pager, students complete an in-class exercise to demonstrate the power of stigma on employment opportunities. Students are told that they are the manager of a fast-food restaurant and that they need to hire employees. They are given brief descriptions of potential applicants and a number of positions they are required to fill. Through the evaluation of applicants, some with criminal convictions, students learn the power of stigma on the ability of those with felony convictions to find work.

“Rejected Plates: Coding and Finding Themes in Qualitative Data.” Samantha Kay Ammons. AREA: Qualitative Methodology. The idea for this applied exercise emerged from a lighthearted story published in December 2017 by Cleveland, Ohio, reporter Dan DeRoos. To introduce the exercise, we briefly discuss how people personalize their vehicles (e.g., bumper stickers, family decals, and custom paint) and how these forms of personalization offer a glimpse into the values, beliefs, or various social roles and identities of the vehicle owners. In short, they provide a glimpse into culture and societal structures. I explain we will try to understand the 2017 rules governing unacceptable personalized license plate submissions in Ohio, or they will be doing this as low-stakes homework. Fifty minutes are allotted for coding. Since there is a lot of profane content in the “data” (curse words and insulting language), I warn students that submissions may be offensive in some way. They also may not know what certain submissions mean but should do their best to decipher and sort as many as they can in the time allotted. When assigned as a group activity, I use a “deck” of rejected submissions (each rejected submission is written on a 3-by-5-inch notecard and laminated, which then results in a deck of 303 cards). The data are more durable in laminated form, and groups can physically see and sort through their data in a more timely fashion. I encourage groups to spread out in the classroom so that they can each lay out and organize their cards on the floor or tables. I split the deck of cards among the different groups. In a class of 20, I typically have four groups of five students (approximately 75 pieces of data for each group). In a group format, all students earn the same number of points for the applied exercise. In a low-stakes individual assignment format, I grade students on the completeness of their assignment and comment on their decision-making strategies and coding process.

“Analyzing Crime Data.” Scott T Grether. AREA: Criminology/Delinquency. This is an inquiry-guided learning activity where students analyze longitudinal crime and imprisonment data and public opinion about crime. Specifically, students will analyze the violent crime, homicide, property crime, and imprisonment rates in the United States from 1960 to the present and Americans’ perceptions of crime from 1989 to the present.

Syllabi

“Environmental Sociology (300 Level).” Shiv Issar. AREA: Environmental Sociology. Why is it necessary to study environmental sociology? The world is still experiencing the shock of the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to see its various socioeconomic and psychosocial effects manifest over the next few years. Moreover, in the light of other problems—like climate change, the challenges faced by environmental justice movements, and the problematic ties between racial capitalism and the exploitation of ecosystems inhabited by indigenous peoples of various geographies—no one can possibly afford to ignore the vitality and importance of environmental sociology. The relationship between our societies and the natural environment ought to be scrutinized as well as it can be, with all the intermediaries and complexities that lay enmeshed within it. The course’s syllabus utilizes a combination of breadth and depth in order to explore the subject of environmental sociology. Through case studies, theoretical frameworks, and qualitative/quantitative papers that juxtapose various intersectional spaces against each other, the class will survey a broad array of critical essays and texts and collaboratively apply its learnings toward a semester-long research project.