This is a great exercise to get students to think about the relevance of history, especially when thinking about social change. This exercise can also be used in discussions about methods and the dangers of presentism.
Category: Assignments
Discussion Board: What do you think of sexual relationships and same sex marriage?
Photo by Monstera Production
- Premise from the textbook
- In 1973, more than three-fourths of U.S. adults expressed the opinion that sexual relations between two people of the same sex was wrong.
- By about 1990, however, this attitude began to change.
- By 2014, such disapproval was expressed by just 44% of the population.
- This dramatic change in public opinion about same-sex relations is a key reason for rapid expansion of same-sex marriage, which now has the support of a majority of U.S. adults and became the law of many states from 2015.
- Discussion Board
State your opinion and share your groupmates’ opinions
- The Same Sex relationship should be considered as
- a personal choice: Freedom of choice and fundamental Human Right
- a larger social responsibility: Issues of morality and cultural norm.
- You may combine both views into your opinion
- The Same Sex Marriage (legal bonding) should be considered as
- an individual legal right- our legal system (government and court) should protect individual rights such as health insurance, pension, inheritance, and child custardy.
- an excessive legal burden and too high in social cost
- You may combine both views into your opinion
- Who are your groupmates and what are their opinions?
- Choose a group leader
- She/ He should present briefly about group discussion
- Any group member can chime in
- Write your discussion board forum individually (minimum 200 words)
Podcast for WI: scaffolding assignment
“Danny Boy” and The Sociological Imagination
Dear Student,
After reading the first chapter of The Sociological Imagination by Charles Wright Mills (1959) in the classroom, we learned that it is important to be aware that we, as individuals, are part of a wider society in order to understand our behavior, feelings, and possibilities.
This short film tells the story of a guy who has something that makes him unique in his society, but also very unhappy and discriminated against.
How would you apply the sociological imagination to “Danny Boy”?
What is the tension between his individual abilities and societal expectations?
Would you consider this film’s ending a happy one?
Let’s discuss!!
Children’s Books as Agents of Socialization Activity
This is a fun in-class activity in which small groups of students analyze children’s books as agents of socialization. You can do this by bringing books into class or possibly by having students visit the library and find a children’s book there.
Childrens-books-as-agents-of-socialization-2Sociological Methods Exercise
This is a useful low-stakes small group exercise that can help students learn how to formulate research questions and how different sociological research methods might be used. You can give students any manageable research “topic” but I find something related to college/higher education to work well.
Methods-worsksheet-1
Sinking Ship Exercise
This is a fun, low-stakes exercise that helps students understand Moore and Davis’s functionalist theory of social stratification. For in-person classes, I put students into groups of 3-5 and ask them to together “save” 6 people; for online synchronous classes, I create a Google Form and ask students to individually select their 6 people and then we look together at who the class has “saved.”
Sinking-ship-1Rich and Poor (low-stakes writing assignment)
Faculty: This is a quick writing exercise that can get students thinking about social class divisions. I like to use this as a way into discussing sociological theories of social class division (Marx, Weber, and Moore and Davis’s functionalist theory). For in person classes, students can free write on paper; for online synchronous classes students can put their responses into a Google Doc or Google form.
Instructions for students: Free write for five minutes a response to this question.
Why are some people rich and some people poor?
Sociological Imagination Essay
This is an essay that I assign early in the semester to encourage students to start to use their sociological imagination by thinking about how a daily activity they do is influenced by society and history. The questions/prompts below the assignment can also be adapted for an in-class exercise for students to do in small groups.
Sociological-Imagination-EssayIce Breaker Bingo
This is a fun ice breaker I do with all my SOC 100 students on the first day of class. Each student must try to complete the bingo sheet by speaking to people in class. Students should find someone who fits the category, introduce themselves, and write their name in the square. They have to fill the whole board. The professor also plays the game. The first student to fill in the entire board wins a KitKat bar. I insist that all the students get up from their chairs and walk around the room to interact with their classmates.
The bingo game gently touches on many of the key themes of the course, such as race, class, gender, religion, the media, politics, economics, culture, family, criminal justice, and the environment. I have found that this bingo game is terrific in breaking the ice and helps establish a sense of connection and fun in the class on the very first day.
Ice-Breaker-Bingo