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LEARNING COMMUNITY CLASS: SOCIOLOGY-GOVERNMENT
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A FEW WORDS FROM ACC ABOUT LEARNING COMMUNITY CLASSES:

What Are Learning Communities?

Learning Communities center around a small group of students that registers for two (or three) classes that have been linked together. The classes usually meet in classrooms that are close to each other and they are offered at times that are convenient for the students.

The instructors of the linked classes meet and plan together so they can coordinate their instruction and assignments. It's like having a small, more personal college atmosphere but still having the advantages and resources available at a larger college.

How Do Learning Communities Benefit Students?

Students involved in learning communities are more likely to:

  • make friends with a diverse group of students,
  • get to know their instructors,
  • feel more confident about being in college,
  • stay in school,
  • earn higher grades,
  • become more involved and motivated,
  • finish college faster, and
  • become more intellectually mature and responsible for their own learning.

Who Should Join a Learning Community?

Any student who wants to:

  • build a support network with other students and instructors
  • make learning more interesting and fun
  • collaborate with other students
  • reach their intellectual potential

This includes:

  • New students
  • Returning students
  • Developmental students
  • Commuters

What Learning Communities Are Offered at ACC?

In the past ACC has offered these learning communities:

  • The Great American Experience:
    U.S. History & U.S. Government
  • Reading, Representation and Your Rights:
    Reading Skills II & U.S. Government
  • Write the Right Way:
    Writing Skills II & English Composition I & Basic Study Skills
  • Math Success:
    Basic Math & Basic Study Skills
  • Politics and the Human Mind:
    Intro to Psychology & U.S. Government
  • The Triangle Program:
    Reading Skills I & Writing Skills I & Vocabulary

How to register for a Learning Community:

1. Check with your advisor to make sure you have the prerequisites for the Learning Community you want to join.

2. Sign up the same way you would for any other course, but make sure you sign up for each and every course within the learning community you choose.

Click here to see what Learning Communities are offered this semester.

Or contact one of the following:

  • Julie Wauchope, Learning Communities Coordinator at 223-5155, Office 110 EVC (Portable Bldg)
  • Mary Hensley, AVP Instructional Support Services at 223-7618; Office 506 HBC

 
 
 

This is a Learning Community Class.  This is what it means to the students, who must enroll in both classes and literally go from one class directly to the other class.

Students register for these two classes and receive complementary information and education regarding Texas governmental and civic institutions, using a Governmental perspective and a Sociological perspective that complement each other. 

Using the themes, units, and topics required for Texas Government students, taught by Mr. Gregory Harrison, I will complement those lectures and materials with Sociological materials that show how Texas Govoernment is related to a number of other important social institutions and historical processes, such as the family, education, demography, race, gender, ethnicity, etc.

Students will register for these two classes:

SOCIOLOGY 1301-006 12890  CYP-1055  TTh  12:00PM-1:25PM

GOVERNMENT 2306-006  11365  CYP-1042  TTh  10:35AM-11:50AM

For the most part, Mr. Harrison's class and syllabus will remain the same as for a single and non-learning community class.  The usual topics and units will be covered.  Most of what I cover in my Sociology class will change, however. 

Instead of covering Sociological topics as they are described, discussed and critiqued using the United States institutions as the central units of analyses, in this Sociology-Texas Government class, I will be using the state of Texas and its various civic institutions as the central units of analyses. 

When we cover demographic changes, the economy, wealth and income distributions, racial, ethnic and gender relations, and so on, these topics will be described, explained, and critiqued using Texas as the central unit of analysis. 

The framework used in my portion of this learning community class will be primarily one utilizing a political economy sociological perspective.

In addition, Mr. Harrison and I will be using a number of common and unified class exercises and presentations, to be announced in class and in the syllabus the first day of class.

We are looking forward with great anticipation to working with our students in what we think will be a very unique and exciting learning community.  This will nicely complement Mr. Harrison's Governmental perspective in his coverage of Texas government institutions and processes.  A third and very important aspect of this learning community class will be a solid grounding in the particular historical period in which these events occurred and occur.  You cannot do good social science without a historical reference.