TEACHING SOCIOLOGY

Support for socilogy teachers

AQA AS and A2 revision handouts

These form part of the revision pack I put together for students.  They include a checklist of topics (from the specification) and examples of all past questions up to the most recent summer exam (I hold back the January exams for mocks).

The AS guide is for Unit 1: Families and Households and Unit 2: Education with Research Methods
The A2 guide is for Unit 3: Mass Media and Unit 4: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods.

Please feel free to adapt and use.

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Interviews

For those wanting a more humorous way into discussing the weaknesses of interviews as a method of research, this letter by Mark Twain might prove useful.

Media and Image

This is a fantastic commentary of the images of women portrayed by the media, commenting on how they project an impossibly flawless ideal.  Jean Kilbourne argues, not just that this image leads to increasing eating disorders and mental health issues among teenage girls, but that the objectification of women’s bodies contributes to a growth in violence against women.

Watch the video and see if you agree.

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TED - videoed talks

TED is a fantastic resources of talks on a multitude of subjects.  Go and have a browse - you are sure to find something interesting / fun / challenging / useful / eye-opening… 

I like this selection on ‘what makes us happy?’

Evaluating Research methods

A simple evaluation template for research methods.
methods_evaluation.doc

GCSE quizzes and games

If anybody else is feeling like me at the moment, then it is a good time to (re)discover Chris Gardner’s excellent website: lots of quizzes, games and notes for GCSE Sociology, several of which I use profitably with AS level as well.
Link.

Sociology and Singing

I’m sure there might be plenty of people who will mock, but hey, if you are teaching gender issues, or culture and identity, or if you want to give students some idea of what pre-industrial or at least, early industrial society was like, why not make use of this film from BBC 4?  You’ll have to use the stop/start and the pause buttons judiciously, but the section on religion in Whitby and the story of the ‘gutting girls’, I think would be great vignettes and platforms for questions.  There’s geography, history, sociology, and economics on offer - its all there, you merely have to draw attention to it.

Classroom Resource -Theories

Here’s one I got from an EFL teacher the other day - well, I’ve adapted it.  See what you think.

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Urban Culture

Here’s a link to a ‘rival’ sociology blog.  Well, I use the word ‘rival’, but really, how could we have a rival? No seriously though, this is probably going to be a bit difficult for most A level students to grapple with. It’s also a bit political. But sociology is a political subject?  Anyway, I just thought it’s another resource which the teachers might like to have the option of dipping into occasionally.  Try it, urban culture

Teaching in the Information Age

This posting is primarily for the teachers.  Check out this link to Becta, for which I have to thank my friend Warren Kidd.  The Becta pdf on C21 Teaching Skills provides a few checklists to test out whether you are a C21 teacher and a few tips and links to help you if you want to start making more use of ICT.

Research Methods Resource

Here’s a little resource that I’ve made which I hope will be useful. Thanks to my colleague Lord Sutch on Business Studies T2U for the idea. We teachers are noted for our ability to pillage.

Teachers - there are a number of deliberate mistakes in this resource.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give this to your students and guide them through it.  From my recent exam marking experience, many students get confused about quantitative and qualitative methods, and validity and reliability.  The idea of this resource is to get it ‘hard-wired’ into their brains. Hope it works.

Next week I will be away in the US on family business.  I will however try to do a few blogs for your delectation and delight.

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Quote for the Week

Tied up yesterday, so here’s a quote for the week to get things rolling. I’m feeling a bit cheeky, so here’s something which is a bit difficult - but hey, it’s good to think. It’s from Marshall Berman’s book - All that Is Solid Melts Into Air.

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Quiz - What Do You Know about the UK (Part Two)

Part Two of our interactive quiz on UK society

Launch interactive version of quiz

Download printable pdf version

Download SCORM-VLE Import file

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