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USING BOOKS AS A TEACHING TOOL:

The use of books in class is tricky. Most students don't/won't read them if there is a general assignment...and many faculty in one's department scoff; books are not 'scientific' enough; books are a cheap way to fill the hour; books are inefficient ways to cover the material...one would have to read twenty books to cover the 20 chapters in the text...and omit much material.

Yet books, poems, plays, movies and songs provide rich sources with which to develop the sociological imagination.

If the goal of a Intro class is just that, to develop a sociological imagination, these arguments against books fade and fail.

There are ways to incorporate books into the knowledge process which one may wish to consider...and which relocates most of the time spent/used outside the actual time/space of the class hour... and which sharpen the focus of responsibility while offering rewards commensurate with effort/results.

  1. Set a menu item for pts earned which include a given list of books...say ten.

    Set a limit of five-person teams per book.

    Set a point scale for the team leader who schedules meetings, writes scripts, moderates reports, leads discussions in team meetings. I set a point value at 10% of total grade for such producers/directors of the report.

    Set a point total of around 5% of total points available. say 5 pts per team member.

    Set a teaching/report time for the group to bring back ways in which the book illuminates the 'sociology of it all.' ...with each person in the group reporting/connecting the book to the concepts/ theories of given chapters/topics.

    I set the first 10/15 minutes of a class for reports/soaps/videos created by such teams.

    One can down-load a 'guide-sheet' for soaps which can be converted to book reports.

  2. Set a menu item for Sat. morning/Thursday evening discussion for some limited number of class members...say ten.

    The teacher, TA or ATA leads discussion of each chapter sequentially week by week.

    Two student-teams rotate responsibility for two chapters per week over, say a five week life for the discussion group.

    Set a 5% point value for attendance; 5% per report for a maximum of 10% of final grade per student per book.

    A TA, ATA, or teacher can run three such groups per year.

    I would invite students who have been through such a class to sign on as ATA the next semester and thus increase the number of books/groups available to students.

  3. Tie the use of books to special campus events. Last evening, Michael Parenti came to UVM to talk about mass media.

    I permitted ten persons in each of two classes to sign-on for a tutorial on two of his books and completion of a worksheet from notes taken at his presentation in Ira Allen Chapel. These opportunities are rare in smaller campuses but common in larger.

    I gave the tutorial an hour before he was scheduled to speak. I provided each of 20 students with a list of basic concepts/ideas on 'Inventing Reality' and upon 'Make-Believe Media.' The tutorial presented the basic idea behind each concept. The worksheet asked the student to report on how Parenti developed his concept. I set a limit of five concepts/ideas per student for a 10 pt. total [of 200 pts possible in the course].

    Parenti was at his best and, as I suspected, worked with concepts developed in the book. This might not always be the case.

    In my menus, I set a 50% limit for point total for menu items. The other 50% of point total must be earned on objective tests over course/text content. I set a limit of three sign-on's for any given student for any given menu item. Students must select among a variety of menu items for out-class work.

    Such menu items are interactively rich; permit choice among diverse interests found in any class; relocates the knowledge process from class/text to work team/books. And...they diffuse criticism from those faculty who scoff at such use.

TR Young