I’ve been teaching sociology for three years, now, and almost immediately, I stumbled upon Introsocsite. It’s a fantastic resource for any sociology teacher.
I credit Introsocsite not only for the organization of my course, but also for some fun and highly useful games.
Last week, when we were studying a unit on social organization, we needed to discuss the difference between competitive and cooperative societies. Introsocsite linked me to a fantastic idea–using musical chairs to illustrate the concept.
In the first round of musical chairs, students played in the traditional way. It was highly competitive, and of course, there was only one winner.
The second way involved taking away a chair each time as usual, but students had to figure out a way to keep everybody in the game. They rose to the occasion. They sat in laps, stood on chairs, and formed pyramids. It was interesting that leaders emerged, directing everyone into positions so that nobody would “be out.”
Introsocsite has directed me to several hand-on, creative “game” activities. Here are my students putting together puzzles in the first unit to illustrate sociological theories:
Here they are in the unit on social inequalities playing Life Happens–a game that gives each group a different income, and asks them to create a budget for the year. As they are struggling to make the budget work, the teacher drops “Life Happens” cards on their table. The cards present various real-life situations, like the need for a doctor’s visit, or the expense of new tires for the car.
Of course, I create products for sociology. I’ve made a highly engaging complete sociology curriculum, but I still turn to Introsocsite!
Have you found a web resource for you classroom that you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below.
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