This course fulfills the Writing Proficiency Requirement for first-year
undergraduate students. We use writing as a way to explore concepts,
theories, and empirical research in the sociology of childhood. In other
words, we rely on writing as a tool to improve our ability to read,
understand, evaluate, and synthesize sociological literature on children.
Students discover how to sharpen their sociological skills by
writing, revising, and giving feedback on critical review essays, a
research report, and a collaborative web site. This course pays close
attention to the linkages between writing -- as a process and a product --
and our ideas about children.
We pursue the aforementioned course goals by concentrating on the following broad themes: (1) social structure and its consequences for children's lives; (2) children's agency; and (3) the diversity of childhood experiences. A major premise of this course is that time and place shape children's experiences and the ways we think about children. Therefore, we examine the circumstances, meanings, and representations of childhood in different countries and time periods. Along the way, this course offers a framework for understanding the problems that children face and what might be done to solve them, and it will anchor our knowledge of childhood in the larger theoretical, conceptual, and methodological background of sociology.
Beyond conventional writing and content goals, this course also seeks to
spark students' virtual imaginations and to lay the foundation for a new
kind of literacy, that of web authoring. Working together in groups,
students create web sites that present their research findings on
children's lives in another country.
Requirements
Six Short Writing Assignments 30% Sole-Authored Annotated Bibliography 10% Sole-Authored Country Report 20% Collaborative Web Site 20% Class Participation (email, peer feedback, speaking) 10% Midterm Exam 10%