Tag: Low-Stakes Assignment

“Danny Boy” and The Sociological Imagination

“Danny Boy” Dir: Marek Skrobecki / Poland & Switzerland / 2010

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!!

Readings on Culture

Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” — This is a classic article for SOC 100 students that helps to explain and understand ethnocentrism.

FacingtheFuture.org has also prepared a Nacirema lesson with a short excerpt from the full article that can be useful and turned into a low-stakes, in-class (or online in breakout rooms) assignment.

Martin Harris, “India’s Sacred Cow”

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.

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Childrens-books-as-agents-of-socialization-2

Sociological 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.

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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.”

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Sinking-ship-1

Rich 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?

Ice 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.

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Ice-Breaker-Bingo