Monday, December 21, 2009

Sociology of Education: Advanced Placement Tests

Know: What are the Advanced Placement tests?


Understand: The role of Advanced Placement in contemporary education


Be able to do: Socratic Circle on the role of Advanced Placement


Step 1: Should students be encouraged to take the AP exams?


Step 2: Does the growth in Advanced Placement courses serve students or schools well? Are there downsides to pushing many more students into taking these rigorous courses?
Read 2-4 different entries in at the following site and identify several quotes from the text to support each side.


Step 3: Using your reading, participate in a Socratic Circle discussion


Step 4: Evaluate the performance of the inner circle discussion


Step 5: Which AP courses would you enroll in if you could? Should courses be open to anybody?






Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sociology of Education: School Choice

Know: The reasons for school choice

Understand: The views of sociologists on school choice

Be able to do: Select a school from the Smart Choices website based on a score card

Homework:

Step 1: Graph of Students in Choice Schools

Step 2: Select a school using the Report Card on Handout 3 and the Smart Choice website

Step 3: Read the tab in the Sociology Text on School Choice

Step 4: Discuss the Issues of Choice and Public Schools

Homework:

Read pages 390 - 392 on School Choice in Sociology

Respond on the blog:


Should parents(and students) have the opportunity to choose which schools they attend?

Reference the section from Sociology

Friday, December 18, 2009

Sociology of Schools: Connecting Education and Poverty


Know: The factors that account for educational growth.
Understand: The relationships between poverty and education
Be able to do: Examine a poverty simulation and compare the game to issues in American education.

Step 1: Play the game Ayiti: the cost of life (focus on Education)

Step 2: Discuss with a neighbor the following questions:
  • What was the correlation between choices made, your respective outcomes, and the constraints faced within the game?
  •  How the did your own lives and situations compare and contrast with those of the family members in the game?
  • Did you have any gender bias when you assigned different activities to the family members?
  • What was the role of education in terms of prosperity? i.e. more education = more prosperity?






    Step 3: Compare the game to the American educational issues you found in your study of schools.

    Step 4: Watch the document called "College Summit"

    Step 5: Answer the question:

    Does education have the ability to overcome impoverished circumstances? Explain. (Refer to College Summit, our discussion, and ayiti)


    Thursday, December 17, 2009

    Sociology of Education: The purpose of schools

    Know: The goals of education

    Understand: Do the tests do a "good" job of measuring the goals of education?

    Be able to do: Compare two schools that you know about

    Step 1: Read the passage from Savage inequalities

    Step 2: Consider the Various Goals of Public Schools

    Pages 374 to 384

    Transmitting Culture
    Promoting Social and Political Integration
    Serving as an agent of change
    The Hidden Curriculum
    Credentialism
    Bestowal of Status
    Define gender roles
    Create varied/common expectations for people

    Step 4: Compare two local schools using the Great schools or Smart Choices website.

    Record your thoughts on Handout 3

    Step 5: Discuss whether these schools do a good job performing any of these goals?
    Can we evaluate all the schools using the site?
    What more information is necessary to know how the schools are doing?

    Step 6: View "College Summit"

    Step 7: Read one of the commentaries on the New York Times Room for Debate Site

    Answer the question:

    Do the standardize tests measure our goals for education? Explain.

    Sunday, December 13, 2009

    Gender Inequality Unit Test on Wednesday December 16, 2009

    1.Why do abortion rules vary across different states? Refer to the frontline site for precise information. (Alesha)








    2. How are women treated in the military? Refer to the PBS now site for precise information.(Emily and Colleen)

    3. Why are there gaps between what men and women earn? Refer to the Sociology textbook graphs.(Dijon) One pager



    4. How do the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives explain gender inequality? Refer to the Sociology textbook descriptions.(Latoya and Marina) One pager

    5. How is traditional marriage faring in the face of new same-sex marriages? Refer to the graphs about Oregon's marriages in 2004. (Tarik and Cheyanne)

    6. Which statement best explains gender inequality? Why? (Eric)


    A.    Women are subordinate to men in American society because of differences in wealth and power.
    B.      Women may be subordinate to men but they have distinct and special roles in society that help it to function.
    C.     Women face small, daily challenges to their status in society, but overcome those challenges in a variety of ways.




    7. Why does John Gray say "Men are from Mrs, and Women are from Venus"? Refer to his introduction.
    (Christine) One pager





    Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

    Know: Men are from Mar's, Women are From Venus

    Understand: Gender Differences in Thinking

    Be able to do: Socratic Seminar
                          Distinguish Between Myth and Fact

    Homework: Prepare a presentation on one of the questions for the final test for the unit

    Step 1: Schema Activator: Evaluate the Statement: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

    Step 2: Read pages 1-4 from the Preview of Men are from Mars, women are from Venus

    Step 3: Make connections between your life and the text

    Step 4: Discuss in two Socratic Circles your thoughts on the Introduction to the book.

    Step 5: Respond on this blog:

    Evaluate the Statement: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

    Friday, December 11, 2009

    Essay Analysis

    Do you agree with the women's suffrage essay that the women's movement was able to "complete several of its major goals."?

    Explain.

    Wednesday, December 9, 2009

    Classwork for Thursday December 10, 2009

    Know: Data regarding gender gaps
    Understand: Gender Gaps in the Education, Science, and Professions
    Be able to do: Prepare a presentation about professional gender gaps.

    Step 1: Visit the sites at Sociology.

    Step 2: Research gender inequality in education, in the work place, or in politics. Then prepare a multimedia presentation using PowerPoint. The presentation should include thematic charts and graphs to illustrate the disparity between the genders, if such a gap exists. Give reasons in your presentation as to why the gap may exist and what can be done to close or narrow the gap.

    Step 3: Be prepared to share your findings on Friday.


    Extension Activity

    Know: Poverty in a Haitian Village
    Understand: The relationships between poverty, gender roles, and family
    Be able to do: Examine a poverty simulation and reflect on the game

    Step 1: Play the game Ayiti: the cost of life

    Step 2: Discuss with a neighbor the following questions:
    • What was the correlation between choices made, your respective outcomes, and the constraints faced within the game?
    •  How the did your own lives and situations compare and contrast with those of the family members in the game?
    • Did you have any gender bias when you assigned different activities to the family members?
    Step 3: Play the game again with a partner and try to be fair between male and female family members.

    Answer the following questions on the blog.


    1. What was it like playing the game?
    2. What was the game about and how would you describe it to a friend?
    3. Which primary objective did you select, and why? (Get several answers.)
    4. What types of decisions did you have to make about the family members while
    playing the game and trying to achieve your objective?
    5. What strategies did you use? For example, did you combine work and school, or
    did you send everyone to work? Which worked? Which did not?
    6. Why would parents choose to devote so much effort to sending their children
    to school?
    7. How many of you were able to keep the children in school?
    8. What obstacles did you face in trying to keep them in school?
    9. How do the situations and options in the game compare with those in your own
    community?
    10. Why might access to education be a challenge in another country?
    11. What factors would make it easier for the children in the game to gain access to
    education? What conditions could be changed and how?

     12. How did gender play into your decisions about the family?

    Friday, December 4, 2009

    The Battle Over Abortion

    Know: The laws about abortion
    Understand: Why the debate rages on in the U.S.
    Be able to do: Compare and Contrast the Abortion Rules Across Two States
    Debate whether the rules should be changed in the U.S. for abortion


    Step 1: Schema Map of the U.S. legal rules for abortion.


    Step 2: Discuss your views on abortion.


    Step 3: Compare and Contrast Two States' Abortion Rules Using this Map

    Step 4: Analyze the reasons for regional differences in use of the abortion

    Step 5: View Frontline: Last Abortion

    Step 6: Make your own rules for abortion on Handout 4

    Thursday, December 3, 2009

    Women and Work

    Know: The causes of the gender gap in pay

    Understand: Social Structures and gender roles

    Be able to do: Analyze four graphs
                          Design a political cartoon about women and work.


    Step 1: Quiz!

    What did the author mean this quote?

    "Gender is a category we construct to make sense of our worldand into which we are socialized" (page 96)

    Step 2: Schema: Political Cartoon

    Step 3: View the four graphs on Pages 292 -295 in Sociology.

    Determine the causes of the negative outcomes for women using the cause and effect handout.

    Step 3: Discuss why women earn less than men, and why it might be harder for women to find work.

    Step 4: View a segment of Women at Work from uChannel.

    Step 5: Create a political cartoon the issues of women and the workplace.

    You can take an idea from:

    Homework Reading: ":Lecture Notes"
    Graphs from Sociology
    The video clip from uChannel: Women and Work

    Wednesday, December 2, 2009

    Lesson Closure: Perspectives on Gender Stratification

    Which perspective best explains the phenomena of men holding doors for women? Explain.

    Use ideas from the textbook review to help formulate your response.