D2.Soc.8.9-12: Identifying the Important Social Institutions in Society
In plain English: D2.Soc.8.9-12 is the C3 Framework sociology indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to identify important social institutions in society. Students learn what makes an institution, name the major ones (family, education, religion, the economy and government, with media and health care often added), tell an institution from a single organization, and see how institutions depend on one another.
Identify important social institutions in society.
C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Sociology · Social Structure: Culture, Institutions, and Society · Official standard
D2.Soc.8.9-12 asks students to identify important social institutions in society. A social institution is a lasting, organized pattern of roles, norms and organizations that a society builds around a basic need. The institutions most often named are the family (raising children, care, support), education (passing on knowledge and skills), religion (shared beliefs, rituals and community), the economy (producing and exchanging goods and services) and government (making and enforcing rules). Many sociologists add the media and health care. An institution is wider than any one organization: a high school is an organization; education is the institution.
Students meet three ways of identifying institutions: the six "main-trunk activities" Robert and Helen Lynd used in Middletown (1929), their study of a small Midwestern city they chose not to name; Joyce Hertzler's "pivotal institutional fields" from Social Institutions (1929); and a federal statistical history of the growth of high school graduation. An invented case about a town that loses its main employer shows how institutions depend on one another.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Define a social institution and tell an institution apart from an organization
Identify the major social institutions and the basic need each meets
Compare three ways of naming institutions: the Lynds' six activities, Hertzler's fields and present-day lists
Use federal data to describe the growth of education as an institution
Explain how a change in one institution affects others
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
The major components of culture D2.Soc.6.9-12
Social context as the external forces that shape behavior D2.Soc.2.9-12
"List everything you did yesterday that involved an organization or a set of rules bigger than you: a school, a store, a family meal, a bus, a game, a service, a website. Which of these would exist in almost any society, in some form?"
Group the answers on the board into clusters such as earning and buying, family life, learning, worship, rules and laws, news and entertainment, and health. Name the clusters as institutions. The things that exist "in almost any society" point to the most basic ones.
Direct Instruction20 minutes
Major social institutions (summary written for this page)
Institution
Basic need it meets
Example organizations and roles
Family
Raising children, care, emotional and economic support
What makes something an institution? It lasts across generations, it meets a need found in every society, it has recognized roles (parent, teacher, judge) and norms for each role, and it is carried out through many organizations. A single club or company is an organization; a new fad is not an institution until it settles into lasting roles and norms.
Read Source 1. Middletown is a study of one small Midwestern industrial city, which the authors called by an invented name so as not to single it out; the book's note on method says the authors lived there from January 1924 to June 1925. Dated language: paragraph 1 uses "Arunta," an older spelling for the Arrernte people of central Australia, and paragraph 4 uses "Negro," the standard term in 1929 and now outdated, and "native American stock," which here means white residents born in the United States, not American Indians. Sample warning: paragraph 4 explains that the city was chosen partly because it had few Black and foreign-born residents, so the study describes one unusually homogeneous city, not American society as a whole.
1A clew to the securing both of the maximum objectivity and of some kind of orderly procedure in such a maze may be found in the approach of the cultural anthropologist. There are, after all, despite infinite variations in detail, not so many major kinds of things that people do. Whether in an Arunta village in Central Australia or in our own seemingly intricate institutional life of corporations, dividends, coming-out parties, prayer meetings, freshmen, and Congress, human behavior appears to consist in variations upon a few major lines of activity: getting the material necessities for food, clothing, shelter; mating; initiating the young into the group habits of thought and behavior; and so on. This study, accordingly, proceeds on the assumption that all the things people do in this American city may be viewed as falling under one or another of the following six main-trunk activities:
2Getting a living. Making a home. Training the young. Using leisure in various forms of play, art, and so on. Engaging in religious practices. Engaging in community activities.
3This particular grouping of activities is used with no idea of its exclusive merit but simply as a methodological expedient.
[...]
4In order to secure a certain amount of compactness and homogeneity, the following characteristics were sought: (1) A city of the 25,000-50,000 group. This meant selection from among a possible 143 cities, according to the 1920 Census. A city of this size, it was felt, would be large enough to have put on long trousers and to take itself seriously, and yet small enough to be studied from many aspects as a unit. (2) A city as nearly self-contained as is possible in this era of rapid and pervasive inter-communication, not a satellite city. (3) A small Negro and foreign-born population. In a difficult study of this sort it seemed a distinct advantage to deal with a homogeneous, native-born population, even though such a population is unusual in an American industrial city. Thus, instead of being forced to handle two major variables, racial change and cultural change, the field staff was enabled to concentrate upon cultural change. The study thus became one of the interplay of a relatively constant native American stock and its changing environment. As such it may possibly afford a base-line group against which the process of social change in the type of community that includes different racial backgrounds may be studied by future workers.
Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Source 1: The Lynds divide a city's life into six main activities (1929) (1929). Public domain (published 1929). Source text.
Then read Source 2. Joyce O. Hertzler was professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska when Social Institutions appeared in 1929, as its title page says. His chapter IV, which this passage opens, goes on to nine fields: economic and industrial, matrimonial and domestic, political, religious, ethical, educational and scientific, communicative, aesthetic and expressional, and health and recreational.
1No attempt is made in this chapter to offer an exhaustive list of institutions, for there are literally dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of them, some large and some small, some important and some relatively insignificant, some voluntary and some compulsory, some local, some national, and some cosmopolitan. To enumerate them is both impossible and unnecessary. Nor is it our purpose to offer a classification of institutions, for no classification is entirely satisfactory, since each and every principle of division would do violence to some institution. Institutions do not represent water-tight compartments in social life, nor are they absolutely clear cut and precise in their characteristics and functions.
2The purpose here is merely to call attention to the major or pivotal institutional fields in which the multiplicity of institutions operate, each of which includes its numerous special institutions. These fields, in turn, conform roughly to the fields, or perhaps the classes, of permanent adjustment and regulatory needs of human beings in groups. For, after all, the institutions themselves are merely the numerous special forms of social apparatus in each field by means of which the major groups of needs are met. The combined institutions in a particular field constitute what we call an “order,” that is, a segment of the functional activities essential in any society. Thus the economic order has to do with economic needs, activities, and mechanisms; and the political order, the moral order, the religious order, and so on, have parallel content in special social fields.
3The reader must be cautioned that when the territory of social regulation is divided into fields it is a more or less arbitrary division for purposes of examination and analysis.
4Actually, there is much overlapping of institutions in different fields. For example, marriage falls predominantly in the field of sexual and domestic regulation, but it is decidedly an economic institution also among most peoples. The family is both a domestic and an educational institution. Certain institutions that order face-to-face contacts fall in both the fields of law and ethics. Other institutions straddle the economic and the political fields. We will attempt to place the institution in the field in which it serves its major regulatory function. [...]
Joyce O. Hertzler, Source 2: Hertzler on the pivotal institutional fields (1929) (1929). Public domain (published 1929). Source text.
From activities to institutions: Source 1, paragraph 2
Match "Getting a living" to an institution in the table, and explain how an activity relates to an institution.
Result: "Getting a living" is the economy: jobs, businesses, wages and the roles of worker, owner and customer. The Lynds name activities rather than institutions, but each activity is carried out through the roles and organizations of an institution.
Institution or organization?
Sort these: Lincoln High School, education, the city council, government, a family's weekly dinner, the family.
Result: Education, government and the family are institutions. Lincoln High School and the city council are organizations within institutions, and a weekly dinner is a practice within a family. One institution includes many organizations and practices.
Fields and orders: Source 2, paragraph 2
Hertzler sorts institutions into broad fields, each meeting one set of needs. Name two fields he mentions in paragraph 2 and an institution in each.
Result: The economic field includes markets, banks and businesses; the political field includes courts, legislatures and elections. Each field meets one set of needs through many institutions, and each institution works through many organizations.
Reading a federal table: Source 3 and the table of graduates
In 1869-70 there were 16 thousand graduates and 815 thousand 17-year-olds. Check the table's ratio of 2.0 per 100.
Result: 16 / 815 × 100 ≈ 1.96, which rounds to 2.0 graduates per 100 17-year-olds. Finishing high school was rare: education as an institution reached only a small share of young people.
Institutions depend on each other
Invented: a town's only hospital opens a nursing program with the local college. Which institutions are involved, and how?
Result: Health care (the hospital) needs workers; education (the college) trains them; the economy gains jobs; families may stay in town instead of moving. A change in one institution moves the others.
Close the segment: Which institution touches a typical high school student's day most often, and which would people in a town notice most if it stopped working?
Guided Practice15 minutes
Read Source 3 and the table of graduates together. Diagram 1 plots the last column of the table to scale.
1The large enrollment in high schools is one of the many success stories of American education during the 20th century. Not surprisingly, the high enrollment ratios have resulted in the growth in the number of high school graduates. An indicator of high school graduation success can be measured by comparing the number of high school graduates to the 17-year-old population. This measurement does not account for students receiving their diplomas through GED programs, night schools, or other special programs; however, this ratio does allow rough historical comparisons to be made over the past 120 years.
2In 1869–70, there were only about two persons receiving high school diplomas per 100 17-year-olds (table 19). While this ratio increased to 9 per 100 during the ensuing 40 years, high school graduation remained an atypical occurrence, at least in most areas of the country. It should be noted that graduation ratios for females have consistently been higher than those for males. In 1909–10, about 60 percent of the graduates were women. During the 1910s, the 1920s, and the 1930s, the graduation ratios increased rapidly. In 1939–40, the ratio rose above 50 percent for the first time. In that year, about 53 percent of the graduates were females. During World War II, the graduation ratio dipped as some young men left school to join the armed forces.
3Immediately after the war, the graduation ratio resumed its upward trend, reaching 70 percent in 1959–60. A peak ratio of 77 percent was attained at the end of the 1960s. After falling to around 71 percent in 1979–80, the ratio has returned to about the same level as the late 1960s. More students now obtain diplomas through non-traditional programs than in the earlier years. If these graduates were included, the total graduation ratio for young adults might now be higher than ever.
National Center for Education Statistics (Thomas D. Snyder, editor), Source 3: NCES on the growth of high school graduation, 1869-70 to 1991 (1993) (1993). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Selected rows from NCES table 19: high school graduates and graduates per 100 17-year-olds (numbers in thousands)
School year
17-year-olds (thousands)
Graduates (thousands)
Graduates per 100 17-year-olds
1869-70
815
16
2.0
1909-10
1,786
156
8.8
1929-30
2,296
667
29.0
1939-40
2,403
1,221
50.8
1959-60
2,672
1,858
69.5
1968-69
3,659
2,822
77.1
1979-80
4,262
3,043
71.4
1989-90
3,485
2,587
74.2
What is measured. What does the ratio compare, and whom does it leave out?
Read the trend. Using Diagram 1, describe the trend in three phases.
Connect to institutions. What does the growth suggest about how education's place among institutions changed, and which other institution (economy, family, government) might have pushed it? (Students compute changes in the homework.)
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students read Source 4 on their own and use all four sources for the quiz and homework. Source 4 is an invented case about an invented town.
1Invented case, written for this page. For ninety years, the paper mill in the invented river town of Mill Creek employed about one adult in five. It closed in a single year.
2Within months, many laid-off workers took jobs in a city an hour away. With parents commuting, more grandparents picked children up from school and cooked weeknight dinners. Several families moved away altogether.
3The elementary school lost so many students that the district merged it with the school in the next town, and buses now leave at 6:45 a.m. The community college added evening classes in welding and medical billing for adults who had worked at the mill.
4Two congregations that had always met separately began running a food pantry together in one church basement. The town council, which had counted on the mill's property taxes, cut library hours and applied to the state for money to retrain workers.
5The weekly newspaper, which had printed the mill's shift schedules for decades, cut back to one issue a month. A resident said, "It's as if the mill held up the roof of the whole town."
SVHS (invented scenario), Source 4: When the mill closed (invented case) (2026). Original passage written for this page.
Task: draw a ripple map for Source 4. Put the mill closing in the center and draw an arrow to each institution it affected, labeled with the detail from the case and its paragraph number.
Closure5-10 minutes
Exit ticket: "Name five social institutions. For each, give one organization in our community that belongs to it."
Teacher notes. (1) Middletown describes one city in the 1920s through the eyes of outside researchers; its choice of a city with few Black and immigrant residents is a limit to discuss, and paragraph 4's terms ("Negro," "native American stock") are those of 1929. Paragraph 1 names an Aboriginal Australian people with an old spelling. (2) Treat religion as an institution sociologists describe; the lesson takes no position on any belief, and students need not share their own. (3) Source 3's figures are national averages from a 1993 report; the table rows are copied from its table 19. (4) Source 4 and the hospital example are invented.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give the institutions table as a card with one local organization already filled in for each row
Pre-label the six activities in Source 1 with the matching institution for the first two
Provide the frame: "___ is an organization in the institution of ___, which meets the need for ___."
For Advanced Students
Explain why the Lynds' "Using leisure" does not match any one institution in the table, and argue whether leisure should count as an institution
Use the table to find the decade with the largest gain in graduates per 100 17-year-olds and suggest reasons from the economy or government
Argue whether the internet is now a separate institution or part of the media and the economy
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
Strong answers name the institution, the need it meets and a specific organization or role within it, and keep institutions and organizations apart. Watch for students who list only organizations, who treat any group as an institution, or who read Middletown's homogeneous city as a picture of all American life.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Institution Sort: Eighteen Cards
15 minGroups of 3-4
Each group sorts 18 cards, each naming an organization, a role or a practice, under seven institutions: family, education, religion, economy, government, media and health care. Groups mark cards that belong to two institutions and write one sentence explaining each.
The 18 Cards
A county courthouse
A grandparent who babysits after school
A credit union
A school board election
A community college
A congregation's youth group
A local radio station
An emergency room
A wedding
A labor union
A public library
A city police department
A pharmacy
A family reunion
A podcast about local news
A school nurse
A farmers' market
A religious holiday meal at home
Suggested Key
Family: 2, 14. Education: 5, 11. Religion: 6. Economy: 3, 10, 17. Government: 1, 12. Media: 7, 15. Health care: 8, 13. Cards in two institutions: 4 (government and education), 9 (family, and often religion), 16 (health care and education), 18 (religion and family).
Debrief Questions
Which cards were hardest to place, and what does that show about how institutions overlap?
Which institution had the most cards, and is that because it is the most important or because it has the most kinds of organizations?
Which card is an organization, which a role, and which a practice?
2
Six Activities, Then and Now
20 minSix small groups, one activity each
Each group takes one of the Lynds' six main-trunk activities (Source 1, paragraph 2). The group names the institution or institutions it belongs to, lists five organizations in its own community that carry it out today, and names one way the activity has changed since the 1920s, marked as the group's own inference rather than a fact from the source.
Six Activities Organizer
The activity, quoted from Source 1
The institution or institutions it belongs to
Five organizations or roles that carry it out in your community today
One change since the 1920s (your inference)
One group of people the Lynds' city left out who would experience this activity differently (see paragraph 4)
Teacher Note
"Using leisure" and "Engaging in community activities" do not match one institution neatly. Accept answers that name media, the economy (entertainment businesses) or government (parks, elections), with reasons. Keep community examples general.
3
Ripple Map: A New Hospital
15 minPairs
Pairs build a ripple map for an invented change: a large hospital opens in a small invented town. They place the hospital in the center, draw arrows to at least five institutions, and write on each arrow one likely effect and whether it would help or strain that institution.
Ripple Map Sheet
The change, in the center
At least five arrows, each to a different institution
On each arrow: one effect, marked help or strain
One second ripple: an effect on a third institution caused by an effect on a second
Variation
Give half the pairs the invented case of a hospital closing instead. Compare the two sets of maps: are the ripples mirror images?
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
1 diagrams
Diagram 1: High School Graduates per 100 17-Year-Olds, 1869-70 to 1989-90
Real data from the eight table rows in Guided Practice (NCES, 120 Years of American Education, 1993, table 19), plotted to scale at the year each school year ends.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
Homework: Identifying Social Institutions
Directions: Part 1 uses Sources 1, 2 and 3 and the table of graduates. Quote every source you use with its paragraph number and show your computations. Part 2 asks you to plan and write on paper only: do not survey or interview anyone.
Part 1: Sources and Data (Problems 1-3)
Place each of these under one of the Lynds' six activities (Source 1, paragraph 2) and under one institution from the table in Direct Instruction: paying a sales tax, a job interview, a bedtime story, a choir rehearsal at a place of worship, a city park cleanup, a high school chemistry lab. Explain any item you could place in two ways.
Using the table of graduates, find the change in graduates per 100 17-year-olds from 1909-10 to 1939-40, and the women's share of graduates in 1909-10 if 93 thousand of the 156 thousand graduates were women. Then check the second answer against Source 3, paragraph 2.
Hertzler writes in Source 2 that institutions "do not represent water-tight compartments in social life." Choose one institution not named in his examples and explain how it belongs to two institutional fields at once.
Part 2: Planning and Writing (Problems 4-6)
Plan, on paper only, a small "Middletown" study of your own community's institutions. Name the six activities or institutions you would study, one record you could read for each (such as a school calendar or a council agenda), and how you would make sure your study includes groups that the Lynds' city left out.
Explain the difference between an institution and an organization, with three pairs from three different institutions (for example, education and one named type of school).
Some people argue that the internet has become a social institution of its own. Using the four signs of an institution in Direct Instruction (it lasts, meets a basic need, has roles and norms, works through many organizations), argue for or against.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Institutions
Each item placed under a fitting institution, with overlaps explained
One or two misplaced
Institutions confused with organizations throughout
Evidence
Quotations with source and paragraph numbers, or correct figures, support each claim
One claim unsupported
No evidence
Computation
Problem 2 correct with work shown
One error
Several errors
Reasoning and fairness
Arguments use criteria; groups described neutrally; plans stay on paper
Argument thin or one loaded word
No reasoning, or stereotypes a group
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Sources 1 and 2 are printed in Direct Instruction, Source 3 and the table of graduates in Guided Practice, and Source 4 in Independent Practice. Source 1 is used in Questions 1-4, 15 and 19; Source 2 in Questions 5-7 and 16; Source 3 and the table in Questions 8-11 and 17; and Source 4 in Questions 12-14 and 18. Question 20 needs no printed source. Questions 1-14 are multiple choice; 15-20 are short answer.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 1, whose approach did the Lynds borrow to study their city?
Answer: B
"A clew to the securing both of the maximum objectivity and of some kind of orderly procedure in such a maze may be found in the approach of the cultural anthropologist." A, C and D are not in the source; the Lynds wanted to look at their own society the way an anthropologist looks at any society.
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 1, paragraph 2, which of the six activities corresponds most closely to the institution of education?
Answer: D
"Training the young" matches education: passing on "the group habits of thought and behavior," as paragraph 1 puts it. A is mainly the family, B the economy, and C mostly government and civic life. Families also train the young, which is one way institutions overlap.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 1, paragraph 3, why did the Lynds use their six-part grouping?
Answer: A
The grouping "is used with no idea of its exclusive merit but simply as a methodological expedient," a practical tool. B, C and D are not in the source.
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
What reason does Source 1, paragraph 4 give for wanting a homogeneous, native-born population?
Answer: C
"Instead of being forced to handle two major variables, racial change and cultural change, the field staff was enabled to concentrate upon cultural change." The choice made the study easier but narrower, a limit the Lynds admit when they call such a population "unusual in an American industrial city." A, B and D are not in the source.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 2, paragraph 1, why does Hertzler not offer a classification of institutions?
Answer: A
"No classification is entirely satisfactory, since each and every principle of division would do violence to some institution." B contradicts "literally dozens, and perhaps hundreds." C contradicts "some large and some small, some important and some relatively insignificant." D is not in the source.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 2, paragraph 1, which pair does Hertzler use to describe how institutions differ from one another?
Answer: B
Hertzler lists institutions as "some large and some small, some important and some relatively insignificant, some voluntary and some compulsory, some local, some national, and some cosmopolitan." Joining a club is voluntary; attending school up to a certain age is compulsory. A, C and D are not pairs he uses.
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which example of overlapping institutions does Hertzler give in Source 2, paragraph 4?
Answer: C
"The family is both a domestic and an educational institution," and marriage is "decidedly an economic institution also among most peoples." A, B and D may be arguable, but they are not the examples Hertzler gives.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 2, during which decades did the graduation ratio increase rapidly?
Answer: D
"During the 1910s, the 1920s, and the 1930s, the graduation ratios increased rapidly," rising above 50 percent in 1939-40. A covers the years when graduation "remained an atypical occurrence." B includes the wartime dip and a later, slower climb to the peak. C covers a fall to about 71 and a return.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 2, why did the graduation ratio dip during World War II?
Answer: B
"During World War II, the graduation ratio dipped as some young men left school to join the armed forces": a change in government (the military) pulled students out of education. A, C and D are not in the source.
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Using the table of graduates in Guided Practice, by how much did graduates per 100 17-year-olds fall from 1968-69 to 1979-80?
Answer: C
77.1 - 71.4 = 5.7. A, 2.8, subtracts 1979-80 from 1989-90 (74.2 - 71.4). B, 2.9, compares 1968-69 with 1989-90 (77.1 - 74.2). D, 6.0, rounds both ratios to whole numbers first (77 - 71).
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, paragraph 3, why might the true graduation ratio for young adults be higher than the table shows?
Answer: B
"More students now obtain diplomas through non-traditional programs than in the earlier years. If these graduates were included, the total graduation ratio for young adults might now be higher than ever." A and C are wrong: the table counts public and private graduates of both sexes. D is not in the source.
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 1, the change that starts every other change in the case belongs to which institution?
Answer: D
The paper mill, which "employed about one adult in five," is part of the economy. Its closing ripples into the family, education, religion, government and the media in paragraphs 2-5. A, B and C are institutions the closing affected, not where it began.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which detail in Source 4 shows the family adapting to a change in the economy?
Answer: C
With parents commuting, "more grandparents picked children up from school and cooked weeknight dinners" (paragraph 2): family roles shifted. A is government, B religion and D the media, each adapting in its own way.
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In Source 4, paragraph 4, the town council's two actions belong to which institution?
Answer: A
The council "cut library hours and applied to the state for money to retrain workers": a local government making budget decisions and seeking help from the state government. B is the congregations in the same paragraph; C and D are not involved in these actions.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Match each of the Lynds' six activities (Source 1, paragraph 2) to one or more institutions from the table in Direct Instruction. Which activity matches no single institution, and why?
Model answer: Getting a living: the economy. Making a home: the family. Training the young: education (and the family). Engaging in religious practices: religion. Engaging in community activities: mainly government, along with civic groups. Using leisure in play and art does not match one institution: it runs through the media, the economy (entertainment businesses), government (parks) and the family. Rubric: 2 points for correct matches; 1 point for identifying leisure (or community activities) with a reason.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Using paragraphs 2-4 of Source 2, name four institutional fields or orders Hertzler mentions, and give a present-day organization that belongs to each.
Model answer: The economic order: a bank or a factory. The political order: a state legislature or a court. The religious order: a congregation. The domestic field, where Hertzler places marriage and the family: a household. Also accepted: the moral order or ethics (an ethics board), law (a court) and education (a school), since paragraph 4 names the family as "an educational institution." Rubric: 1 point for each field correctly named with a fitting organization.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Use two numbers from the table of graduates and one sentence from Source 3 to explain how the place of education among American institutions changed between 1869-70 and 1968-69. Then name one limit of the measure.
Model answer: In 1869-70 there were 2.0 graduates per 100 17-year-olds, and graduation "remained an atypical occurrence" for decades (paragraph 2); by 1968-69 the ratio was 77.1, so finishing high school went from rare to expected. Education became an institution that reaches almost every young person. Limit: the ratio "does not account for students receiving their diplomas through GED programs, night schools, or other special programs" (paragraph 1). Rubric: 1 point for two correct numbers; 1 point for the quotation and interpretation; 1 point for the limit.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Trace how the mill's closing in Source 4 affected three different institutions, citing a paragraph for each, and explain what the resident's last sentence means.
Model answer: Family: parents commuted and grandparents took over pickups and dinners (paragraph 2). Education: the elementary school merged with the next town's, and the community college added evening classes for laid-off workers (paragraph 3). Religion: two congregations began a food pantry together (paragraph 4). The resident means the economy supported the other institutions: when it fell, they all had to change. Rubric: 1 point for each institution with a paragraph; 1 point for the explanation.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain why the Lynds' choice of city (Source 1, paragraph 4) limits what Middletown can tell us about American institutions, and suggest how a researcher today could study institutions in a more diverse city, on paper only.
Model answer: The Lynds chose a city with few Black and foreign-born residents so they could focus on "cultural change" alone, and they admit such a population "is unusual in an American industrial city." Families, congregations, schools and workplaces in diverse cities may work differently, and the study cannot show how. A researcher could choose a city with a varied population, study organizations serving each group (such as several congregations and neighborhood schools), and compare records and interviews across groups. Rubric: 1 point for the limit with a quotation; 1 point for why it matters; 1 point for a workable plan.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Name five social institutions. For each, give one organization and one role in a community you know, and explain the difference between an institution and an organization.
Model answer (one of many): Education: a middle school; a teacher. Economy: a grocery store; a cashier. Government: the county court; a judge. Family: a household; a grandparent. Health care: a clinic; a nurse. An institution is the lasting pattern of roles and norms around a basic need; an organization is one specific group that carries it out. Many organizations make up one institution. Rubric: 2 points for five correct sets; 1 point for the distinction.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does D2.Soc.8.9-12 mean?
D2.Soc.8.9-12 asks high school students to identify important social institutions in society. It belongs to the C3 sociology companion's group on social structure: culture, institutions and society (Appendix C).
What are the major social institutions?
The five most often listed are the family, education, religion, the economy and government. Many courses add the media and health care. No single official list exists, which is why the lesson compares several.
What is the difference between a social institution and an organization?
An institution is a lasting pattern of roles and norms around a basic need; an organization is one group that carries it out. Education is an institution; a particular high school is an organization within it.
Is D2.Soc.8.9-12 the same as D2.Soc.9.9-12?
No. D2.Soc.8.9-12 asks students to identify institutions. The next indicator, D2.Soc.9.9-12, asks them to explain the role institutions play in society, which builds on being able to name them.
Why do sociologists call religion an institution?
Because in every society it has lasting roles, rituals, organizations and norms that bring people together around shared beliefs. Calling it an institution describes how it is organized; it says nothing about whether any belief is true.
Is the media a social institution?
Many sociologists treat it as one, because news and entertainment now have lasting organizations, roles (reporters, editors, audiences) and norms. Others treat it as part of the economy. Students can argue either side using the signs of an institution.
What was Middletown?
Middletown (1929) is a study by Robert and Helen Lynd of one small Midwestern city in 1924-1925, organized around six main activities of life. This page uses its six-activity scheme, and its choice of city is a reminder to check whom a study left out.
How do institutions affect each other?
They depend on one another. A new law, a new technology or a change in how people earn a living changes what families, schools, congregations and other institutions must do. Sociologists study these links as well as each institution on its own.
What is a common mistake with D2.Soc.8.9-12?
A common mistake is listing organizations (a school, a bank) when asked for institutions (education, the economy), or calling any group an institution. A strong answer names the institution, the need it meets and an organization within it.
How does D2.Soc.8.9-12 connect to civics and economics?
Government and the economy are institutions that civics and economics courses study in depth, for example in D2.Civ.6.9-12, which asks students to critique relationships among governments, civil societies and economic markets. Sociology looks at how all institutions fit together.
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Related Standards
6 standards
These standards connect to D2.Soc.8.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.
Explain the role of social institutions in society
Lesson coming soon
D2.Soc.10.9-12Extends to
Analyze how social structures and cultures change
Lesson coming soon
Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.
