NOTES ON MY APPROACH TO TEACHING
Teaching is vocational to me, and developing and learning new teaching methodology is central to my identity as a scholar. To this end, I am committed to continuous improvement in teaching methods and I seek out opportunities to learn new teaching methodologies and to think critically about methods of teaching. Committed to not only developing, but also sharing pedagogical tools, I’ve also recently published an in-class exercise I developed, “The Court of Student Excuses”, in the peer-reviewed Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology (TRAILS).
My primary teaching strengths revolve around course planning and preparation, my appreciation and respect for students, and a can-do approach. In large courses, I plan lectures to be informative, while integrating stage-setting and explanatory lecturing with intricate exercises, conversational prompts, and opportunities for small group participation. The goal is to design several venues for student interaction while at the same time facilitating deep and meaningful engagement with the subject matter through lecture and presentation that builds over time.
I am committed to creating effective and enjoyable classroom experiences for students that include high caliber discussions in a respectful and welcoming atmosphere, guiding students to critical junctures of reasoning and thought. I am also committed to providing timely feedback which can be integrated into student’s work product.
I prioritize student involvement in courses, and build-in course policies and practices focused on building rapport that help students feel comfortable participating in-class. In smaller classes, activities that nudge students to participate can be useful in setting the stage for robust student participation. For example, I use class ice breakers such as encouraging check-ins around student’s class-related projects throughout the semester or by asking students what activities or topics they would like to prioritize throughout the semester. I find that assigning students materials which they take ownership of is a productive way of encouraging sustained student participation in classes. For example, in a recent seminar class I asked students to present an individual reading to the class and to develop discussion questions for their peers. This heterarchical approach to the seminar worked and students responded well to the discussion questions posed by their peers. By using these discussion questions to steer conversations to important points and connections, the class conversation flowed naturally even as I facilitated it as the instructor. At times in larger courses, I also employ modified traditional law school methods of ‘cold calling’ students to engage socratically in course subject matters.
I design courses to be student-centered, with a view to broadening and deepening student knowledge of and interest in the course subject matter. My overarching goal when designing courses is for students to find that the course profoundly impacted their capacity to think well and critically as future attorneys. I constantly strive to help students connect legal concepts with their lived experiences. I’m also interested in developing unique pedagogy and innovative classroom experiences. For example, I’ve designed two unique and innovative ‘topics’ courses at UMass Law since I began teaching there in Fall 2022. Similarly to the exercise I recently published in TRAILS, and the various in-class materials I include in my support documents, I aim to be thoughtful in designing exercises for students in a way that allows them to gradually build their knowledge and work product.
Bar preparation, an identified focus area at UMass Law, is a focus of each of my doctrinal courses. For example, when teaching the upper level seminar “Business Organizations”, I built in a near-weekly bar preparation activity that coordinated with the week’s readings and lectures. In another example, in teaching the capstone course, Remedies, a significant focus of the course is bar preparation. The course builds on student knowledge of torts, contracts, property, and civil procedure, providing an excellent opportunity for advanced law students to review those subjects in preparation for the bar exam. As well, while first year students are several years from the bar exam, a focus of the course is familiarizing students with the types of questions and critical thinking skills that students face when taking the bar exam. In each course and in new course development, I am committed to continually building on and improving pedagogy and developing new experiences and activities that further student’s bar readiness.
Another central objective of the law school, formation of professional identity, is also built into each of my courses. For example, teaching Business Organizations, I lead the class in an activity–the study of the formation of the Boston Beer Company, Inc. The founder of the company, Jim Koch, started the company himself and eventually expanded into the corporation that today owns the Sam Adams brewery. Koch had a lot of ideas about how a corporation should be run and this comes through in the way that his company is organized, including how it ‘went public’. I asked students to study several individual clauses of the formation documents, and asked them if they would have advised their client “Jim Koch” to move forward in that way, and why they would or wouldn’t have. This not only brought the contract to life in a very practical way, but it allowed students to think about how they would advise a client and what kind of attorney they would like to be. The exercise spanned several classes and readings, and I’ve included an example of one of the handouts from the exercise, which spanned across several classes, in my supplemental review materials. In teaching Remedies, as well, developing student’s professional identities is a central goal of the course. Because students are re-visiting their base knowledge of law–torts, civil procedure, property, etc.–around ‘choosing’ what kind of remedy might be available to their client, there are many opportunities for student’s professional development. In each course and in new course development, I am committed to continually building on and improving pedagogy and developing new experiences and activities that further student’s professional identities.
Student engagement in practical legal experiences, is built into each of my courses. During my first year of teaching, I had the unique experience of teaching a doctrinal and clinical course at the same time. As they were co-requisites, several students who I had in the doctrinal course were also students in the clinical course. I found in the clinical course that students were highly engaged in the context of engaging practically in real legal matters, and dedicated to effective representation of their clients. Some of those students also struggled in the doctrinal seminar which was taught primarily using the case method. In order to better capture and grow the strengths of students, I integrate both practical and theoretical aspects of doctrinal courses such that, if the practical hands-on type of work is what allows students to access the subject matter, they have the opportunity to use this type of experience to better understand the critical theoretical aspects of the course. In each course and in new course development, I am committed to continually building on and improving pedagogy and developing new experiences and activities that further student opportunities to engage in practical legal experiences.
I believe in building supportive mentor-mentee and advising relationships with students over time, and use assessments and class time to help build the basis of this relationship in my classes. For example, in the 1L course Property Law, I have built in mentor-building features which I hope will benefit students over the course of their legal education. In the first weeks of the course, I delivered a set of introductory tutorials and assessments which intended to processually facilitate student acquisition of skills that could lead to success in the Property course, and which also laid the foundation for trust-based relationship with students. For example, in the second class session, I outlined the process of case briefing specific to the cases the students read for class and they were given in-class materials that helped facilitate their briefing of the cases. Then, in the third class session, students were asked to complete their own case briefs before coming to class, and they were assessed by me. Finally, connecting the case briefing process to in-class participation, I assessed the students’ individual understanding of the cases in small group conferences in a way that mimicked the in-classroom modified ‘socratic’ case method. Students were graded pass/fail in the assessments, and were given multiple opportunities to pass a similar assessment if they did not perform well the first time. This low-stakes assessment set the stage for the course by demonstrating to students that assessments are designed to capture their effort and knowledge acquisition, and facilitated students acquiring the everyday habits of a successful law student gradually and systematically. Specifically, this set of introductory tutorials and assessments helped students to become comfortable in several skills: 1) case briefing, 2) socratic dialogue and in-class participation, 3)office hours attendance, 4)Seeking advisor feedback & mentorship, 5)Accessing peer support. In each course and in new course development, I am committed to continually building on and improving pedagogy and developing new experiences and activities that further student’s access to, comfort and confidence in the classroom and the advisor-advisee dynamic.
I design courses and tools of student assessment to capture the expansion of student knowledge and skill over time. To illustrate, I’ve included an example of student work in my files that shows the expansion of critical conceptual knowledge from the midterm to the final exam in a course. For first year courses, I design midterms to give students data about their study methods, writing technique and understanding of the course subject matter by creating comprehensive graded midterms with ample review both before and after.
Finally, my student course evaluations are consistently well above the mean of the law school faculty. Students consistently identify my classes as those in which they learn more and have meaningful experiences that they will carry with them into their professional lives.