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TRAILS Featured Resources
TRAILS Featured Resources
February 23, 2023

TRAILS, the Teaching Resources and Innovation Library for Sociology, provides a way for you to easily locate peer-reviewed teaching materials, showcase your teaching ideas, develop professionally, and join a community of scholarly teachers. You will find great assignments, syllabi, lectures, and other teaching ideas at TRAILS. Please also consider submitting your great ideas for teaching. The Featured Resources include some of the newest additions to our collection.

-Stephanie Medley-Rath
TRAILS Lead Editor

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JoEllen Pederson, Patrick McGrady, Hanna Jokinen-Gordon
Stepping into Inequality: An Activity to Prepare Students for Understanding an Unequal Education System
August 14, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Education
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 100
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Motivated by experiential learning strategies and critical self-reflection, this activity to introduce students to educational inequality and the effects of race, class, and gender within the education system. Doing the "Educational Steps" activity enables students...
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Gretchen Purser
"Diagramming the Argument" Activity
July 31, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Urban Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This activity fosters active learning and peer collaboration by asking students to diagram the argument of a text, using a set of instructor-provided concepts. This example relates to a book taught in an Urban Poverty course (Both Hands Tied: Welfare Reform and the...
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James A. Vela-McConnell
Friendship Diversity and the Sociological Imagination
July 2, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Race, Class and Gender
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity, PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
The purpose of this class activity is to acquaint students with the idea of the sociological imagination and demonstrate its relevance for their own personal lives by exploring their friendship patterns. Students discuss the friendship diversity scores they’ve...
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Hana Erin Brown
Public Sociology for Political Sociology: A Politics and Society Op-Ed Assignment
June 28, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Political Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
In lieu of a research paper, this assignment requires political sociology students to compose an op-ed piece modeled after those in the most widely respected U.S. and international newspapers. After selecting a particular issue related to politics and public policy,...
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DaShanne Stokes
Writing Empirical Research Papers
June 21, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Teaching and Learning in Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Writing is a common activity in academia for students and professionals alike. Below are a number of the considerations that many journal reviewers and professors have in mind when reviewing empirical manuscripts. This checklist is by no means comprehensive and is...
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Daniel Monroe Sullivan
EMBRACING THE LEARNER-CENTERED APPROACH: A NEIGHBORHOOD RESEARCH EXAMPLE
June 12, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Urban Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Essay
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
Teachers struggle with helping students learn complex content, on the one hand, and encouraging students to become more engaged at the beginning of the course, on the other. After nine years of teaching in a traditional way, I now employ a more learner-centered...
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Rodney D. Coates
Globalization, Social Justice and Human Rights
June 5, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Other
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 400
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This course focuses on the theories, issues, and debates related to promoting social justice and positive change. Students will analyze how current frameworks – including values, assumptions, and actions – maintain the economic, political, and cultural structures...
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Paul Walker Clarke, Carla Rose Corroto, Ph.D.
Public and private urban space
May 22, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Urban Sociology
Resource Type(s):
PowerPoint
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
This exercise with corresponding PowerPoint combines the application of concepts adopted from the now classic Jane Jacobs’ Death and Life of the Great American Cities with introductory urban sociological lessons. The key concepts for this session include:...
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Casey Brienza
Print Media and Modernity
May 17, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Cultural Sociology
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300
Class Size(s):
Small
Abstract:
This course explores the role of the printing press in the formation and development of modern societies. Beginning with the transition from orality to literacy and drawing upon an interdisciplinary range of readings consisting of both classics of the field and...
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Alexandra Marin
Article Comparison Assignment: Same Question, Different Methods
May 4, 2012
Subject Area(s):
Research Methods
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
Any Level
Class Size(s):
Any
Abstract:
Students write a short paper comparing two journal articles in which the authors use different research methods to address the same research question. This assignment is used in an introductory research methods course to encourage students to think about how research...
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