Sociology

Course Level: College Preparatory

Credits: 2.5

Suggested Grade Level: 11 – 12

Prerequisite: None

NJ Course Code: 04-258-G

This course is designed to help students understand the relationship between sociology and other social sciences and to teach students that sociology is the formal study of society. It will explore the methodology of social scientists. Students will develop an understanding of their social environment by exploring the nature of human relationships in our complex society. Among the areas to be studied are cultural variations and values, group and individual needs, social class systems, social change, socialization, and modern day social problems. A great majority of the workload for this elective is focused in the classroom where the expectation for students is to come prepared to meet the goals of the days' lessons through active engagement, participation, and group/independent-thinking activities/assessments. Both primary and secondary texts and documents of rigor and challenge are used, including many documents found/retrieved by students independently in class via multiple forms of technology. Students will be exposed to a variety of orthodox and unorthodox theories with emphasis placed on critically thinking about one's and others' societal environments, evaluating pertinent and ancillary information, and the development of proper research, evaluation, and critical writing/synthesis.