Course: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Adeyemi
Module: Week 12 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 7 — Analyze the major social institutions (here, the family) using the three theoretical perspectives, and read social data on institutional change.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 12 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 12 meeting Tue Nov 17 and Thu Nov 19, and end-of-week work due Sunday Nov 22, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 12 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 12: Family & Marriage

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week we turn the sociological eye on the institution you know best from the inside: the family. Everyone has one (or has felt the absence of one), so everyone has strong intuitions about what a family should be. Sociology's first move is to loosen that grip — to show that what counts as "family" varies enormously across cultures and across time, and that the family is not a fixed natural thing but a social institution we build and rebuild. Then we do the signature move of the course: run the family through all three theoretical perspectives. And finally we read real Census data on the changing American household — and learn to tell the difference between a family that is "in decline" and one that is simply changing form.

The week's big question

"What counts as a 'family' — and is the family in decline, or just changing?"

By Sunday you'll define family in a way that holds across cultures, run the family through the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist lenses, and read Census household-composition data without sliding from a correlation to a cause.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Define family as a socially recognized unit (joined by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption) whose specific form varies across cultures and time, and distinguish the family of orientation (raised in) from the family of procreation (formed), and nuclear from extended families.
• [ ] Name marriage patterns — monogamy/polygamy, and endogamy (marry within a group) vs. exogamy (marry outside a group).
• [ ] Run the family through all three perspectives — functionalist (the family's functions: socialization, regulation, economic & emotional support), conflict (the family can reproduce inequality and patriarchy), and interactionist (meaning and roles built in everyday family interaction).
• [ ] Read the data on the changing household — interpret real Census figures (married-couple households a smaller share; one-person households a larger share; later first marriages) and explain why this is a change in family forms, not the disappearance of family — and why correlation ≠ causation in family trends.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work. This week chatbots love to invent a family statistic ("X% of marriages end in divorce"), misdate a Census figure, or slide from a trend to a verdict ("the family is failing"). Catching the model — and verifying every number at census.gov or pewresearch.org — is the whole skill the Workshops build.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. A family is just a socially recognized unit of care and kinship; endogamy/exogamy are just "marry in" vs. "marry out." The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize two tiny hooks. "Orientation orients you; procreation is the one you produce." And for the lenses: "Function (glue) · Conflict (power) · Interaction (meaning)."
• Hold the key distinction. "In decline" is not the same as "changing." The data show family forms shifting — fewer married-couple-with-kids households, more one-person and other households — not the family disappearing.
• Describe before you interpret. A Census figure describes a pattern. Whether you read it through a functionalist or conflict lens is the interpretation — and two trends moving together never, by itself, proves one caused the other.
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check every figure at the source (Census, Pew). That habit is the whole semester in miniature.

This is a week where your own experience is a resource and a trap — your family is one case of a much larger, varied pattern. Come to class ready to argue about whether the family is falling apart or just taking new shapes. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 12

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Nov 17, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Nov 17."

Subject: Welcome to Week 12 — is the family falling apart, or just changing shape? 👋

Hi everyone,

Quick warm-up before we start: when you hear that "fewer than half of U.S. households are married couples," does that sound like the family is collapsing — or just changing? Hold that thought. This week we treat the family the way we've treated every other institution: not as a fixed, natural thing, but as a social institution whose shape varies across cultures and shifts over time. And we'll read the actual Census numbers instead of arguing from our own kitchens.

This week — Family & Marriage — we tackle the big question: What counts as a "family," and is the family in decline or just changing? By Sunday you'll define family across cultures, run it through all three perspectives (functionalist, conflict, interactionist), and read real household-composition data without mistaking a trend for a cause.

Four things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 12 — work through defining family, the three lenses, and the changing-household data with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch its mistakes — this week it loves to invent a divorce statistic. Due Sun Nov 22.
2. Quiz 12, Discussion 12, and Assignment 12 also close Sun Nov 22 — the discussion ("In Decline, or Just Changing?") is a quick AI dialogue you summarize and post, so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Workshop 12 — "The Changing American Household" — this week's signature activity is a data workshop: you'll read real Census figures on household composition (and verify them at census.gov yourself), then fact-check an AI's reasoning. Due Sun Nov 22.
4. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One promise: we'll keep this evenhanded. "The family is changing" is not a political slogan in either direction — it's a description we'll ground in the data, weighing the competing interpretations fairly.

Bring your curiosity (and maybe a strong opinion about what makes a group of people "a family") to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Adeyemi