I have the pleasure of co-teaching Advanced Legal Research (ALR) with Joan Shear this fall. She has lots of experience as a law librarian and as a teacher. You might even know her, as she has worked with RIPS for quite a while.
I absolutely love co-teaching – I learn so much from other instructors. One of the many things I have learned from Joan this fall is the power of the rewrite. (Maybe I will share more of the nuggets of wisdom I have gained from co-teaching with Joan and others in future RIPS Blog posts).
In ALR here at Boston College, a large part of the grade students earn is for take-home graded assignments. These graded assignments involve students researching a fact pattern, and turning in a short memo, addressed to their assigning attorney, along with some form of a research plan and log (we call it a PLOG). For the first assignment this fall, Joan and I used a format she recently developed. Under Joan’s new model, ALR students turn in their assignment, then receive feedback from their instructors. Next, students incorporate the feedback into a rewrite of their graded assignment memo. To add to the “real life” feel, the feedback is given as a memo from the assigning attorney (though the memos were really written by me and Joan) to each student individually, via email.
The first memo the student turned in was worth twenty points, and the rewrite is worth ten points, out of a semester total of 100. In the past, Joan has checked with the class to confirm it is OK with them that she grants more than ten points on the rewrite to those who, let’s just say, had a lot of room to learn. After checking in with the entire class to get the OK to award extra points, she has been able to give students more than ten points, if their improvement reflects it.
This morning, I just wrapped up providing the feedback memos on one of the two questions to all of our 20 students. Joan will handle the other question. Yes, I admit, it was quite a bit of work. And truth be told, a bit depressing to see that many concepts we thought were clear to our class are obviously not there yet.
However, even though I just spent hours staring at my computer screen, I feel energized. Providing the detailed feedback to each student felt fantastic. While the rewrite for this semester is not due until a week from Monday, I just know the students will have the opportunity to really, really learn from this process.
Joan has used this method for a few semesters, and has seen significant improvement on her end of semester final graded assignment. I did not see that great an improvement in my class last spring even though I provided specific feedback on the first assignment through Canvas. Many of my students last spring had the same exact problems on the second assignment that I had pointed out on the first. Likely, it boils down to the fact that law students are so busy that if they reviewed my comments on the first assignment, they probably gave them a quick read. My anecdotal experience is helping me see that specific feedback and a rewrite will help students really learn and internalize their newly acquitted legal research skills.
Every week in ALR, we post answer keys to quizzes and in class work to Canvas. However, I question how often students go back and look at these tools.
What might be the difference with the rewrite? One thing that jumps out at me is that the students HAVE to read our feedback. Their grade on the rewrite depends on incorporating our comments. They have to go back and provide what Joan and I ask for in our feedback memo. For example, asking for more primary law in place of secondary authority – asking for citations where they were omitted.
Additionally, we will be dedicating two class sessions to reviewing the areas of common confusion. (And explaining why websites are not primary law. Alas.)
Students have now looked at the assignment. Researched the issues and law. Received detailed feedback, and will go back and look again to see what they have overlooked. Finally, as a group, we can talk about areas of legal research which are still causing confusion. Before the assignment, students might have thought they knew how to research those areas of law on the assignment. Now, we will work together to make sure their command of legal research is sound.
I also have learned a lot. This new approach helps me to slow down and really try to see where students are struggling. There are many common errors. And for those feedback memos, I could reuse a bank of feedback comments, with small tweaks for many students. Joan even shared comments she used in previous semesters on the same or similar questions. Observing this process will make me a better instructor in next spring’s ALR class, too. And I will adopt Joan’s feedback method for my next semester of ALR.