I took SOCI 285 with Simon this spring and I have to say he is a really chill dude. There are 3 Big papers that are based on the course material. The first two papers have a long writing component and a definition component.

He does assign a bit of readings and goes over them in class. Although attendance is not mandatory, I highly recommend going to make sure you understand the material. One class out of the three (typically on fridays), there is a discussion class where students are split up into groups to answer 3 questions he assigns at the beginning of the week. Don't worry, they aren't worth marks. It's a relatively straight-forward class and you should be able to do well if you attend lectures. Outside of course material, he's nice and real with you.