A central task of emancipatory sociology is to provide students with an interactionally 
rich and informationally diverse format in the learning process.  I want to suggest some ideas 
that have worked for me over the past 40 years or so and add some which I have yet to try.  
More about Interactionally Rich Syllabi at:

	http://www.tryoung.com/learningcircus/001gfclc.html

All this is in aid of transforming American Sociology to a more critical and more praxical 
knowledge tool for students...itself the original task of the Red Feather Institute.

A.  The Syllabus Menu.  Many teachers are bounded by classroom Lectures and textbook.  
A Teaching Menu offers Students a great variety of less bounded knowledge tools.  
I use variations of the Menu below: some Assignments are listed at:

	http://www.tryoung.com/radped/radped.html

	1.  A third week Quiz 20-25 points...so students can get to know testing format/difficulty.
	2.  six or eight field assignments; 20 pts each...limit 3 per student...limit 10 students
	3.  six or eight movie labs: 10 pts each...limit 3 per student: Limit
		20 students per Lab.  I give students a list of 10 concepts from
		the lecture/text and send them to church, work, sports events,
 		other classes and tell them to find the terms in the interactions
 		of the persons assembled.  They are to use any five. These are at:

			http://www.tryoung.com/movielabs/000movielabindex.html

	4.  Special Projects--designed by the student; approved by professor.
		20 pts each; limit 2 per student.  Special Projects in the past 
		have included a video of back-stage regions at Virginia Tech; a 
		Report on the Underlife at the Buick Factory in Flint, Michigan; an 
		ethnography of the Mardi Gras in New Orleans over Spring Break and
 		dozens more.
	5.  Undergraduate Teaching Assistants.  After the mid-term, I identity
		2 or 3 students who did very well and invite them to serve at
		teaching assistants...guidelines for T.A.'s are available.
	6.  Music Editor...I 'pay' students 5 points for bringing music
 		appropriate to the days lecture...they are to arrive 5 minutes
 		early and play the music until I signal the beginning of the lecture.
	7.  Soap Operas: I have five running soap operas which any student can
 		write, direct and act in...20 points per episode...they may 'hire'
 		up to five actors from the class paying them 5 points per episode.
  		The student director gets up to 15 minutes of the opening class
 		period to put on the opera.  Generally the Director selects five
		concepts from a given Chapter/Lecture and works them into the play.

		Soap Operas Include:
		a. Fun with Dick and Jane in which students focus on Gender socialization.
		b. Life with Bev and Jack: in which students focus on dating, courtship and marriage
			 problems; a bit like Felicity.
		c. Captain Science!!....in which a Dashing Sociologist Solves Personal Problems; 
			explains/illuminates the sociology found in everyday 
			life: Racism, gender politics, class advantage etc.
		d. The Boys in the Back: in which students mock, satirize and parody efforts
			 of the professor to bring sociology alive...students like these episodes
			...especially if they sit in the back of the room.
		e. On the Job: playlets which critique the world of work in which students must 
			survive as they juggle school, family, dating and financial problems...

	KEEPING SCORE: Keeping accurate records on all this takes time and care.  I use an Excel
	Spreadsheet with a separate column for each menu item...and record grades immediately
	they are recieved...so I have a complete record of every student and every lab, assignment,
	project and test score...

	I also give each student the record of their points left to spend on the Final and the total 
	points earned  score a week before the final so we have time to sort out discrepancies.

	I don't give any assignments other than the Final in the last two weeks...to clear the time
	for final review.

	The Final.  The final is designed so students can spend the odd number of points they
	may have left over...5, 10, 20, 40 or whatever...and all menu items are charged in multiples of 5.
	A student cannot have 9, 12, 17 or other such number of points left for the Final.

	Students do not have to take the Final if they have spent all their points...students like that.

B. Email Lists: Email lists help enrich the interactional structure of the classroom.  
I set up a List for every class.  Among the items I post on the List are:

	1. Notices of Movie Labs with invitation to sign up at once. Since there
		is a limit of 20 per movie lab, early birds get the tickets.
	2. Notices of Field Assignments to be passed out in the next class
 		meeting...with as many details as possible to give students time to
 		think about spending points on it.
	3. Lists of terms for movie labs; at least two days in advance so
 		students can prepare for the Worksheet.
	4. Review Sheets for all the examinations: Early Quiz, Mid-term, Final.
	5. Poems I think students would like.
	6. Lecture Notes for topics not found in the text.
	7. Invitations to create Special Projects around up-coming campus
 		events; Lectures by Distinguished Americans, Plays, Martin Luther
 		King Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan.

	Things Students post on the List:

	1. Questions about lectures
	2. Requests for movie labs
	3. Proposals for Special Projects...I require this be done on email
		so I can save the final contract we work out for future reference.
		Since I have so much going, I need written notes on agreements.

C.  Market Dynamics.  I use a modified market system in class work evaluation.
  Students are 'given' 200 points to spend on the Menu above. I provide a 'profit' 
 on some items which require creativity (Soaps, Special Projects as well as the 
first showing of a Movie Lab.  If I want to encourage students to do a given field 
assignment, I 'charge' them 20 points and 'pay' them up to 25 points for a job well done.

D. Field Trips.  Field trips are difficult, time consuming and almost always entail loss
 of a few students who work or are ill...but they are great learning devices...as well as
 rare adventure for students and professors.

Among field trips I have offered:
	a. Visit to Women's Prison in Texas
	b. Visit to City Planner's Office in Toronto
	c. Guest lecture on Social Problems in Bombay (on Semester at Sea: Sponsored by U/Pittsburgh)
	d. Lecture on Stratification in the Faculty Lounge at Colo State. (I
		almost lost my job over that excursion)
	e. Overnight trip to Skid Row in Denver.
	f. Collection of funds for the Poor People's March in Denver.
	g. In addition, I usually invite students to take the final two weeks; or up to six
		class meetings all at once on a weekend at my place...generally my family
		and I serve coffee and rolls from 8-9 on a Saturday; I lecture for
		an hour; students give scheduled reports; break for lunch til 1:30
		two more sessions; break for games or hikes til dinner; a party
		Saturday Night...sleeping bags til 8am Sunday; Breakfast; two more
		class sessions; lunch and fond farewell...
		Students like to have the final week off from class.  
		I like to have students with me for the two days.
		I've done this with almost every class for almost 30 years.
		At least I did until my dear wife, Dorothy Grace Young died.
		Now, I just take the top 10% to a Farewell Dinner at a nice restaurant.

A Model for a Syllabus Menu for Introduction to Sociology can be found at:

	http://www.tryoung.com/learningcircus/syll001.htm

THINGS NOT YET TRIED OUT:

A. I tried, one semester, to create an adjunct computer lab where students could go to 
some of the sociology software one can buy and use them as part of the Point Menu above
...it did not work well...I didn't plan/execute it well enough...too busy with other things
...but I think it is a good idea.

B. Team Teaching.  I think I would like to try to team teach a course with another Sociologist 
in another country one year...we could use a joint email list for mini-lectures, field assignments, 
inter-class interactions and special joint research projects by paired students in India, Japan, 
England, New Zealand, Poland and Argentina...to mention a few countries where I have contacts.

C. There are a lot of websites for Marx, Durkheim, Weber, SSSI, Action Sociology which I have
 not yet explored and exploited for my students...you may want to do so.

D. There are a lot of government and semi-public data bases on the Internet which I have
 not yet integrated into the Point Menu.

E. Far and away the best teaching experience I have had was Semester at Sea; 
interactionally rich discourse with students all day, seven days a week for three or
more month...'twas wondrous...and we had some 66 field projects we could attend 
in 11 different countries around the world...talk about informationally diverse teaching/learning!!  

Each of the 22 faculty was required, as part of their contract, to set up three field projects.  I set
up one in China, Malaya and India..with contacts from other faculty at my home university; at the
time, Colorado State University.

If one can manager something similar for one's students...do it.

O. Other...let me know of some of the Interactionally Rich and/or Informationally Diverse
 techniques you use and I'll add them to this post...and put everything on the Radical Pedagogy 
Website of the Red Feather Institute.

FINALLY...All this is very hard work and requires tons of hours more than the interactionally 
sparse and informationally scarce format of lecture&text.  But it makes Sociology come alive; 
students learn more, retain more and value sociology more when they embody it in field 
assignments or special projects...even movie labs are better than lectures.

So get a life...a life of great teaching. So expand a life; expand the lives of your students in ways 
they've never known.  So make a friend.  Students who go with you on the adventure of learning
transform from student to friend; I have heard from students I've had in the 60's...they make 
a life for me.

										TR Young, teacher