Seeing Sociology v. 2

This resource was originally published in TRAILS, which is an online database of peer-reviewed teaching resources supported by the American Sociological Association.

This is an updated and revised version of Seeing Sociology (Medley-Rath 2013). In this update, I have revised the instructions so that they are better organized with greater clarification to increase ease of use by instructors and students. In this update, I have changed the assignment to a group project as opposed to an individual assignment and include an option for sharing the photos/captions with the class. The grading rubric has also undergone substantial revision and includes options for peer and self-assessment. The instructor’s notes include more tips based on several years of using the previous version of the assignment and this revision. The assignment uses visual pedagogy and now includes a lengthy reference section of other examples of visual pedagogy in sociology and beyond the field.

Seeing Sociology v. 2 (Updated 2017) requires students to work in groups of four and make 20 photos with Tweetable captions illustrating concepts from the course. The assignment is suitable for Introduction to Sociology and Social Problems, but could also work in other sociology courses. Major goals of the assignment include getting students to see sociology in their everyday lives and to improve sociological
communication and visual literacy among students.