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This set of instructional strategies and worksheets serves as a companion to my essay on the usefulness (and cautions) of using the television show South Park as an effective and engaging sociological teaching device. Below is a series of four episode-based exercises that instructors can use to teach the sociological concepts of inequality (episode: "Chickenpox"), socialization (episode: "Hooked on Monkey Fonics"), theories of self (episode: "Fishsticks"), and reification (episode: "Margaritaville"). Each exercise introduces the episode and sociological concept, and provides instructors with tips for how to facilitate "The After Discussion" following the screening of each episode. The final page provides a printable worksheet that instructors can distribute so that students can apply the concepts they just learned.
Submitted By: Jason Eastman, Coastal Carolina University
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In this assignment, students create a public sociology presentation in which they explore how to make sociological research and knowledge accessible to and integral in public (i.e., non-academic) discourse. Working in small groups, students locate a media news story that, in some way, overlooks some key aspect(s) of sociological knowledge. They then develop a PowerPoint presentation that critiques and reframes the story using sociological research and theory, making a case for why it's so important to consider the sociological perspective in the first place. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp, University of Maryland
In this assignment, students locate and analyze online video clips in a similar way that is presented on the Videos page of this website. Students post their video to a class blog where they summarize the video, define course concepts used in the video, and then explain how the video illustrates the concepts. In the process, students do the same analytical exercise that we instructors often do in the classroom. The learning outcomes are for students to 1) become familiar with using and applying sociological concepts; 2) use their sociological imagination to engage familiar content; 3) teach each other through the course blog; and 4) become more critical media consumers. For some additional comments on this assignment, refer to this blog post. Submitted By: Paul Dean, University of Maryland
In this assignment we ask students to write about what C.W. Mills calls the intersection of biography and history. Specifically, we ask them to write about the ways a social structure has had an impact in their own lives and to consider the broader impact the structure has had in society. Students can choose either Option A, which encourages them to draw more explicitly on the ideas of Karl Marx, or Option B, which encourages them to draw more explicitly on the ideas of Max Weber. Submitted By: Lester Andrist & Anya Galli, University of Maryland
In this assignment, we ask students to write a paper which articulates a new MPAA guideline that helps people identify racism, sexism, classism, and heteronormativity. For example, we ask students what type of content would merit an R rating for racism? What kind of sexism would merit a PG rating? After devising a new rating system, we ask students to write about the impact of positive and negative representations of people in film. Submitted By: Lester Andrist & Anya Galli, University of Maryland
Use this exercise to encourage your students to think about the norms they enact on a daily basis, the consequences of failing to enact them, and their function. Submitted By: James Noon, University of Maryland
I use this writing assignment in my Sociological Theory course, in the section on Classical Theory. For this assignment, students select a film of their choice and apply at least two theoretical concepts to interpret and explain social phenomena in the film. Submitted By: Paul Dean, University of Maryland
In this assignment, I ask students to work in groups and try their hands at subverting dominant meanings through practicing culture jamming. The assignment specifies two ways in which students can jam culture. In option A, I ask students to identify dominant cultural meanings they find problematic. An example would be the meanings associated with "masculinity" or "the nation." The students then find video clips online that seem to reinforce these problematic meanings, and they remix those clips or add content of their own in order to subvert the original message. Option B is very similar but allows students to use still images and subtitles instead of video editing software. In part II of the assignment, I ask students to deconstruct what they did by specifying the dominant meanings they sought to subvert, explaining why those meanings were problematic, and why their culture jam is political. Submitted By: Lester Andrist, University of Maryland
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