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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

TRAILS logo with gold star superimposed on the lower right corner. Logo is composed of four vertical bars in varying shades of blue.
Martha A. Easton
Norms, Deviance, and Social Control
November 15, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Social Control
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 200
Class Size(s):
Medium
Abstract:
There is a great pressure in our society to be normal, and this course looks at how ideas of normal are created and defined. This course also looks at how norms are enforced, and what happens to people who violate norms. We examine different theories of deviance,...
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Kathleen McKinney
Why I Teach Senior Experience (Capstone Course) as I Do
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Capstone Courses
Resource Type(s):
Essay, Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 400
Abstract:
The Senior Experience is a course designed to give you the opportunity to review major sociological theories and concepts, to experience additional professional socialization, and to engage in a full-scale sociological research project from start to finish. In this...
Cover Page Requires Subscription PDF
Amy J. Binder
Qualitative Research in Education
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Education
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 100
Abstract:
This course will provide experiences that will help you: •Understand the theoretical and methodological traditions that guide contemporary qualitative research in education •Learn how to frame a research question •Become better trained in qualitative fieldwork and...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Laura Fingerson
SOCIOLOGY OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Children and Youth
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 400
Abstract:
In this senior/graduate seminar, we will delve into sociological research and thinking on children and adolescents. A major goal of this course is to familiarize students with this exciting subfield in sociology and to develop students’ analytic and critical...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Roger W. Smith
Human Destructiveness and Politics
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Deviant Behavior/Social Disorganization
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 400
Abstract:
Genocide pervades the contemporary imagination, yet both the origins and the meaning of this form of human destructiveness are problematic. What is genocide? What is its history? How, if at all, is it related to specific forms of government? To types of economic...
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Jay Howard
ANALYSIS OF A RELIGIOUS GATHERING
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Religion
Resource Type(s):
Assignment
Class Level(s):
College 200
Abstract:
After your visit write a 3–4 page analysis of your observations. Indicate what gathering you visited and when. The objective of the paper is to get you thinking about the role of religion in the lives of individuals and in society. Focus on the questions that are...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Robert L. Lewis
Social Work - Appalachia
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Social Welfare/Social Work
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 200
Abstract:
This course is designed to provide students an understanding and appreciation of the unique cultural characteristics of Appalachians, with a focus on the impact of major social institutions, e.g., family, religion, social welfare, education, and economics. The...
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Timothy Patrick Moran
VERSIFYING YOUR READING LIST: USING POETRY TO TEACH INEQUALITY
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Stratification/Mobility
Resource Type(s):
Essay
Abstract:
Timothy Patrick Moran is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His inequality class is taught as an upper-level elective and usually enrolls between 40-60 undergraduates of various social science majors. In addition...
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EMILY S. KOLKER
WOMEN AND DISABILITY
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Disabilities
Resource Type(s):
Syllabus
Class Level(s):
College 300
Abstract:
This is intended to be an upper division, undergraduate Women Studies and/or Sociology course that would meet twice a week for four months. It is structured to examine, explore, and analyze the lives of women with disabilities as they intersect with race, class,...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC
Lisa K. Waldner
Outcomes of Poverty
April 26, 2010
Subject Area(s):
Demography
Resource Type(s):
Class Activity
Class Level(s):
College 300
Abstract:
This guide was compiled with your students in mind. The Demography Teaching Resources Guide presents course syllabi for undergraduate and graduate courses in demography as well as resources for data used in demographic analysis and classroom exercises. Several of the...
Cover Page Requires Subscription DOC

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