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Introductory sociology courses encourage students to shift from understanding social relations and inequalities through an individualistic lens toward a more sociological one. It is difficult for students to know how far they have advanced toward a sociological perspective if they do not have a good sense of where they began. This paper describes an approach intended to assess a sociological shift over the course of a semester by combining various recursive techniques that take place at the beginning and end of the semester: letters to oneself, social opinion surveys, and recorded small discussion groups. Although the shift was often not dramatic, the approach proved to be useful not only to help students keep track of their own developing sociological perspective but also as a way to improve teaching and assess student learning outcomes. Although ideal for small classes or discussion sections, I discuss ways to also adapt it for larger classes.

In this paper, the authors reflect upon the challenges they faced in an international service-learning course offered to U.S. undergraduate students about the complexities of the U.S. relationship with Mexico. The goal was to provide students with a critically-informed service experience involving a fully collaborative social exchange among their student group, Mexican immigrants, and the home communities in Mexico. Despite its departure from the model service-learning experience, the authors conclude that the project was nonetheless meaningful and worthwhile. They liken this kind of work to the process of creating humus: a messy, undefined organic process, full of questions, mistakes, uncertainties and a lack of control for outcomes, yet essential for the fertility of the soil and for plant growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poem "POETRY BOOK" by Julie Whitaker is presented. First Line: A squashed daddy longlegs; Last Line: inside a book.