Assignments and Discussions

Assignment prompts are provided with this course for instructors to use at their discretion. Since they are openly licensed, instructors may use them as is or to adapt to better fit the class’s focus, time frame and learning outcomes.

Assignments may be delivered pre-populated in your LMS assignment tool in your LMS course shell, where you may modify or delete them as you wish. The recommended expectation for the discussion assignments is that students should do their initial post first before seeing replies from other students (This is generally an option faculty need to select once inside the LMS and looks like “Participants must create a thread in order to view other threads in this forum.” or “Users must post before seeing replies”).

We do NOT recommend assigning every discussion and assignment, as some are large and time-consuming or may not fit well with your course schedule. Some marked as “larger assignments” could be introduced in earlier modules or split into several parts.

If you would like to include your own assignments or have recommendations for additions or modifications, you are invited to contribute! If you would like to share your materials with other faculty and have them included in our list of options, please send them with an explanatory message to support@lumenlearning.com. Be sure to mention which course and learning outcome(s) they align with when you send a message.

Open Pedagogy Assignments
Social Movements and Social Change	Social Movement Amidst the Racial Reckoning of 2020
Module name	title of the assignment, linked
Module Name	title of the assignment, linked

	Discussion	Assignment
Foundations of Sociology	Discussion: Introduce Yourself	Assignment: Sociologist Player Trading Cards Create a playing card for a famous sociologist
Sociological Research	Discussion: Sociology Research Find a peer-reviewed article	Assignment: Utilizing Secondary Research Analyze census data
Culture	Discussion: Tattoos in Culture Analyze celebrity tattoos Discussion: Media and Culture Choose a movie and describe the significance of social media to its plot and development	Assignment: Tattoos and Culture Watch a documentary and discuss tattoos and social norms Assignment: Media and Technology Visit the American Academy of Pediatrics website and learn about the effect of social media on children
Socialization	Discussion: Socialization Discuss culture and socialization	Assignment: Agents of Socialization Case study about the agents of socialization
Society and Groups	Discussion: Society and Formal Organizations Analyze bureaucracies and meritocracy	Assignment: Society and Groups Explain a primary group, secondary group, in-group, out-group, and a reference group
Deviance, Crime, and Social Control	Discussion: Deviance Discuss formal deviance norms in the U.S.	Assignment: Deviance in the News Find a current event about deviance
Stratification and Inequality	Discussion: Stratification Look for conspicuous consumption	Assignment: Stratification Compare stratification in advertising
Race and Ethnicity	Discussion: The Race Card Project Write a six-word novel about race	Assignment: Race and Ethnicity Watch Chimananda Adiche’s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” and write about single stories
Gender, Sex, and Sexuality	Discussion: Gender Find gender-specific advertisements and utilize one of the main theoretical perspectives to analyze gender stereotypes	Assignment: Gender and Advertising Analyze gender stereotypes and the presentation of gender, sex, or sexuality
Marriage and Family	Discussion: Marriage and Family How does the increasing numbers of adults choosing to remain single impact the future role of family in society?	Assignment: Families in Media Analyze a t.v. or movie family through a sociological lens
Religion	Discussion: Religion Is society is becoming either more secularized or more fundamentalist?	Assignment: World Religions Write an essay or create an infographic about a world religion
Education	Discussion: Education Pick two questions to discuss issues related to education	Assignment: Education Infographic Create a poster or infographic that addresses the major sociological issues related to education equity at your school
Health and Medicine	Discussion: Health and Medicine Find and relate a news article on health or medicine and examine the social implications of the illness	Assignment: The Evolution of Health Issues Compare and contrast the health issues from previous decades with the same issue today
Aging and the Elderly	Discussion: Health, Aging, and the Elderly Discuss and research issues related to the elderly	Assignment: Aging and the Elderly Conduct an interview of a person 65+
Government and Politics	Discussion: Government and Politics Pick a question to discuss related to sociology and politics	Assignment: Politics and Sociology Find a current news event article about politics, voting, or political leadership
Work and the Economy	Discussion: Work and the Economy Visit the website to play the game “Spent”: http://playspent.org/ to facilitate a discussion	Assignment: Living in Poverty Create a practical budget for a family in poverty
Population, Urbanization, and the Environment	Discussion: Population and Urbanization Find a current event article related to population growth or decline, emigration, immigration, gentrification, or the brain drain	Assignment: Population and Urbanization Use census data to compare two American cities and write a letter to a friend about which city would be preferable
Social Movements and Social Change	Discussion: Social Movements Share completed posters from the social movement project for discussion	Assignment: Social Change Select a current social movement and complete research about its lifecycle

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