Sunny,
I'm buried in grading, but Robert's post reminded me that lots of
textbooks come w/ instructor's manuals with ideas for small group
activities. Yout might call some reps and see what they've got that
you can adapt.
I've got stacks of "little" group activities but don't have time to
pull them. Here are some old ones which don't reflect "beefing up"
over the years. I'm not sure of sources...some are original,others
come from friends/this group, etc. They may get some ideas flowing.
I bet others may have ideas to share, too.
Andi
1.
Titans
football is an
important cultural ritual here in Nashville. Using the concepts
from Chapters 1 and 4
(along with everything else we've discussed, please describe and
analyze a
Titans football game. Help us visualize it.
Who is there? What are the
norms? (Are they prescriptive or
proscriptive? Are they folkways, mores,
or laws?) The values? How
does the material culture relate to the
nonmaterial culture, etc? What functions
do these rituals provide for our society?
Think of all the players in these social dramas, not just the
players on
the field! Try to use at least 5-10
sociological concepts in your analysis.
Or, if football’s not your thing, describe and analyze your
child's
wiffleball/soccer/etc game, any holiday that you celebrate, your work
culture,
etc. What is the social function of these games/rituals (etc)? OR…analyze the norms of first
dates. In general, what happens—from
asking, planning, the date itself, the end of the date?
Who does what? What do you make of this?
- Consider your childhood when you were 10 – 12 years old. List
several television shows you frequently watched and describe the values
these programs might have taught you. Did you learn some of these
values, but not others? Did these programs portray values that
contradicted other values taught to you by your family? By your
religion? How did you respond to these conflicting messages given by
three different agents of socialization (family, religion, and
television)? Which values do you still maintain and why?
- Have students imagine a society in which credit and
credit cards do not exist. How would the norms and goals of this
society differ
from American society today? Is it possible that America
will ever return to a time when the credit card is not “the American
icon?”
- Talk about Ritzer (and Robin Leidner)...have them visit McDonalds
and analyze....
- Stage an incident in the classroom where students’
definition of the situation will be challenged. For example, have a
confederate
disrupt the classroom in some way. They could easily do so by noisily
leaving the room
while class is in session. Alternatively, have someone deliver
audiovisual
equipment, set it up and test it during your class session. Act as if
these
disruptions are a normal part of the classroom experience. After a few
minutts,
ask students what they thought about the disruption. Ask them why they
didn’t
do something to stop it. Ask what they thought when you didn’t stop it.
Discuss
how everyone in the classroom worked hard to preserve the shared
definition of
the situation just as people did in Garfinkel’s study.
- Discussion: Ask students if they have ever
participated
in an event that was covered by the news media. If they were, ask them
about
their perceptions as participants in the event versus the version of
the event
that was reported? How did they differ? Why did they differ? What are
their
impressions about journalism and the news given this experience?
<>- Look at some of the federal legislation which is
currently under consideration. Which groups (e.g. business
organizations,
industries, religious groups, political groups, public interest groups)
support
and oppose this legislation, and what resources do each of these groups
control? As a conflict theorist, what outcome do you expect from the
consideration process? Do you expect the bills to pass? Why or why not?
- Have
students photograph a cultural event that is a taken for
granted part of life in the United States. For
example, take photographs at homecoming, a
county fair, or a student mixer. How might people from another country
interpret
this event? What does this event say about our beliefs, values, and
norms?
- Have
your students go through one entire week
using the generic feminine in every conversation (e.g. use “she”
instead of
“he,” and “womankind” instead of “mankind” when speaking of all
humans). Ask
them to record and analyze their personal reactions and those of their
audience
during these conversations. Was this a norm violation? What does this
exercise
reveal about the impact of language on gender socialization, and about
the
gendered aspects of our language in general?
- Have
your students visit the children’s section
in a bookstore or library and review a sample of the stories. Ask
students to
write a report summarizing their findings regarding the genders of the
main
characters (child and adult), their activities, and their
personalities. Have
them interpret their findings in terms of the gender role socialization
which
children receive when they read these materials.
- Analyze
people's tattoos in the context of self-identity....(You could do this
with other things...clothing, hair, music)
-
Material
culture (i.e.,
the “stuff” of a society) is linked to nonmaterial culture (e.g.,
beliefs,
values, norms, etc). Pleasedescribe one object (e.g.,
the car, the microwave) that is significant in our society. Relate it to the relevant nonmaterial
culture. That is, how does the object
reflect the beliefs, values, and norms of society? (This activity may
take just
5-10 minutes.)
Assignment: (Note: Merchants is avail to watch
on pbs.com)
Wear logo-free clothing. If students don"t own any
logo-free clothing, they may turn t-shirts inside out or place masking
tape
over the logo. To increase the impact, make the day school-wide,
including
covering all corporate logos displayed in your school (including soda
machines,
scoreboards, bulletin boards, etc.). Use the resulting visual impact to
help
students reflect on the role of branding in their lives.
In a school-wide
initiative,
lessons can be integrated across the curriculum:
·
English: Ask students to write a
description of
the image conveyed by a logo they often wear.
·
Social Studies: Encourage students
to look more
closely at the "made in" labels in their clothing and compare the
realities of global production with the image of particular brands.
·
History: Explore the history of
clothes as
identity and how clothing has been used to reinforce class and caste
distinctions.
·
Math: Compare how much the addition
of a popular
logo adds to the purchase price of a pair of jeans or a shirt. Conduct
a
statistical survey of what brands are most popular in your class
compared with
the brands most frequently advertised on MTV.
To integrate the content of "The Merchants of
Cool" into a literature or social studies class, have students assume
the
role of "cool hunter" and focus their attention on literary
characters or historical figures they have studied. Who would they
choose as
"cool" and why? Have them design a marketing campaign to appeal to
that person. De-brief the activity by asking them to justify the
techniques
used in their campaign and what kinds of information they needed to
know about
their target audience to design an effective campaign. You might also
have
students assess whether the campaign(s) developed by the class were
ever
misleading or unethical. Wrap up by asking students to look for present
day
examples of "spin" that mirror the techniques they used.
Before viewing "The Merchants of Cool", ask
students to choose a favorite ad or music video and write a brief
analysis or
description. After viewing the film, have them re-write their analysis.
Discuss
what changed. You might use the "General Media Literacy Questions" at
the end of the "Teaching Media Literacy" section to prompt analysis,
or pose this trio:
What are the messages? Are the messages the same
as the
product(s)?
What techniques are used to convey the messages?
Who is the target audience and how do you know?
Robert Greene wrote:
Sunny, didn't I send you a copy of my sociology text, Sociology and You (Greene and Shepard, 2000) a few years ago? Lots of ideas in there, some that were already mentioned. The rationale behind the text was that HS sociology teachers would not have the training of professional sociologists but could use these innovative ideas to "introduce" sociology to HS students. I taught HS soc for 16 years so I appreciate your frustrations. My first few years my text was so old that most of the information was at least 10 years out of date.
If you don't have a copy, I will send you one.
--
Andi
Andi
Every object, every being,
Is a jar of delight.
Be a connoisseur.
~Rumi~
Life is raw material. We
are
artisans. We can sculpt our existence into
something beautiful, or debase it into ugliness. It's in our hands.
~Cathy Better~
Things which matter most
should
never be at the mercy of things which matter
least.
~Johann von
Goethe~
----------------
Dr. Andi Stepnick
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of
Sociology
314 Wheeler Humanities Building
Belmont University
1900 Belmont Blvd.
Nashville TN 37212-3757
Direct Line: (615)
460-6249
Office Manager: (615) 460-5505
Sociology Fax: (615)
460-6997
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