Law School Academic Support Blog

Facing Academic Dismissal

Students have received their grades.  And, those who were on probation last semester and did not make the necessary grades are telephoning, e-mailing, and arriving on my doorstep.  It is the time of year when I have to balance realism, ambiguity, and compassion carefully.

Realism comes into play as I try to help students understand the pros and cons of their situations in their decisions whether to petition to be allowed to continue.  For some, there are few "pros" in their favor.  I gently get them to think of options should their petitions be denied.  For some, there are obvious extenuating circumstances and a significant upward trend between fall and spring grades.  We talk about what needs to be included in a petition.

Ambiguity comes into play because each student petition is unique.  Although I have some idea of the chances for success based on past decisions, there is no formulaic answer.  The decision-makers will discuss the pros and cons of allowing a student to continue as a 2L or to re-start as a 1L again, depending on the type of petition.  The up or down vote results are not always what one would expect.

Compassion comes into play because I want each student to know that I am willing to listen, make suggestions, and help with weighing options.  I also want them to know that I care about them and understand how traumatic the situation is.  Shattered dreams, parental anger, embarrassment, guilt, and feelings of failure are just some of the components.

For the students with whom I have worked, the conversations are based on trust and rapport.  We have spent a great deal of time together.  In many cases, I can write a supporting letter for the petition packet.

However, the hardest conversations for me are the ones with the students whom I have never met.  They decided in January that they did not need any help from Academic Success - even though multiple people urged them to work with my office.  So often, as I listen to their tales, I see multiple places where I could have made an effective intervention and gotten them back on track.

When someone on probation shows up in January with a grade point average of 1.6 or lower, I warn them that we have a tough climb.  But, if they truly want to remain in law school and are not prepared to withdraw, we give it our best shot. Fortunately, not all of my probation students have such significant gaps between fall grades and the requirements.

I cannot guarantee that the students who work with me seriously (as opposed to showing up in body only) will make the requirements, but usually I can help with techniques that cause their grades to jump significantly.  If my probation students do not make the requirements, then most of them will have shown enough improvement to be able to petition if they had extenuating circumstances.

Fortunately, the probation students who did not make requirements are balanced by the probation students who excitedly e-mail me their grades to let me know that they are off probation.  I am always blessed by being able to celebrate successes while being able to console and listen for those who need it. (Amy Jarmon)

   

Remembering ...

I remember Januaries.

They begin with the AALS Conference where most of us show up to share ideas, eat too many cookies, scurry through the Thompson-West exhibit getting our cards initialed so we get the free gift and qualify for the big drawing, and ask, “Where is [fill in blank] ... did she retire already?”  Then those of us who can show up at the pre-dawn (well, it always seems like that anyway) Academic Support Section overpriced breakfast meeting near the end of the week to ask each other, “Who’s hosting the summer meeting(s) this year?”

The following Monday we all return to our offices to welcome the students back for the spring semester.  (Students in the northeast, as I vaguely recall, often return to snow.)  All of them are asking the same question: “When do we get our grades?”  The wunnelles are asking, “If my grades are horrible, can I get a refund on my spring semester books and get my tuition back?” Some have made New Year’s resolutions to study more efficiently, or visit the pub less, etc., etc. 

The long wait for grades ensues.  As they trickle in, so do the students – to make appointments with either the Dean of Students or the Academic Support Director (or both).  Some drop by to offer gratitude, but most arrive with an array of emotions ranging from disappointment to shock – a few with anger.  (I remember one student who arrived with her mother.  They both explained that the student had graduated at the top of her college class, had an IQ in the genius range, and – most importantly – had several lawyers in her family (not Mom).  The visit was to inform me that there’s something seriously wrong with a school that can’t figure out that she should be at the top of her class – her highest grade was a C.  She withdrew.) 

But this time of the year is when Academic Support professionals can do some of their most effective work – many students are now willing to admit that what you told them at Orientation really did apply to them.

If you’re relatively new to Academic Support and fortunate enough to be able to attend the AALS Conference, that’s a question to be asking your colleagues –“How can I be most effective in January for the students who have disappointing grades?”  Search out the “veterans” and find out their (open) secrets.  As weird as January is around a law school, it can be a very productive time for the Academic Support staff!

Me? No AALS this year. I wish I could! But the distance between New York and Montevideo is about 5,500 miles, the air fare is prohibitive, and I just compared the weather report for January in New York to January on Pocitos Beach in Montevideo.  (Remember, it’s summer in South America in December.)

Also, the academic support I’m providing to students of Concord Law School via cyberspace is of a different variety – for me it’s limited to extensive (written) exam-answering improvement advice, including (unlike yesteryear in law schools with buildings) explanations of the underlying law when appropriate.  I spend fifteen to twenty hours each week at this pursuit, reviewing essay answers that range from beginning students’ awkward attempts, to crystal clear, concise, excellent, lawyerlike answers.  My comments are composed of footnotes to most every issue discussed by the student, followed by “overall” suggestions on how to improve.  All of my work is reviewed by the professor teaching the class (and modified if necessary) before being sent to the students.

Of course this is time consuming.  After reviewing many hundreds of exam questions (Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Evidence), I still spend at least thirty minutes (usually longer) on each one.  That’s what makes this type of feedback both (a) very valuable for the students, but (b) virtually impossible for a one-person academic support office at the typical law school-within-walls to handle.  But I’ve got to say – this is something I’ve always believed students need: practice, practice, practice … with substantial feedback consisting primarily of encouraging positive improvement advice.

So even though I don’t get to see the smiling faces of the successful students, I suppose that’s balanced somewhat by the time not spent with … well, you know. 

I have to admit that “going to work” (in my living room) in attire ranging from pajamas to blue jeans is a plus, too.

Enjoy AALS – I will truly miss a week with you.  (djt)

Positive Feedback! Efficient & Effective

I have found this to be a wonderfully useful tool. It saves your time while providing an extraordinarily high level of feedback and/or instruction for your students. The tool?  Microsoft’s “Sound Recorder.”  It’s probably sitting on your hard drive right now. It’s easy to use … with a headset mike or just talking into your computer’s microphone.  Did you know your laptop has a microphone built in? (Maybe yes, maybe no … ask your tech support helper if you can’t determine. If it doesn’t have one, ask for a mike to plug in.)

Suggested uses . . .

· Tip of the day, tip of the week – in an email sent to a specific person, specific group or all students, let them know that if they open the sound message they’ll receive a helpful tip by listening (for example) only 20 seconds.  Send them something amazing so they’ll open the next one!

· If you are lucky enough to receive written student work from time to time, this is an excellent way to comment on it. In the body of your email, encourage the student to have a copy of her/his work on the desk, and make notations while listening to your vocal feedback. You’ll find you can say much more than you can write in margins … and you don’t need to make an appointment with the student to deliver the feedback. Result: more personalized help for more students in less time.

· You’ll find it’s a great way to encourage students to attend your presentations, others’ presentations, or off-campus conferences. Mention the conference in an email, and include “I’ve included a 20-second message about how this can help boost your GPA … just click here!”

· If you have the tech-capability at your school, you can store bunches of tips and information on a site that all students can access whenever they want.

Microsoft's is not the only recorder, of course.  I use others as well ... but if it's on your computer already, this might be the best way to begin to get used to recording messages for your students.

Caveat 1: Keep the vocal messages short.  Students don't want to listen to a rambling "tip." (I think it's different in the case of feedback on a piece of writing, however.  Line-by-line positive feedback ... "This is a great way to introduce the rule of law! You should do this more often!" ... will keep them listening ... then you can slip in something like, "What would really help is if you included all four ways of proving malice ... here's how I would suggest you could do that...." A recording like this can go on for several minutes and keep the student's attention.)

Caveat 2: It’s critical not to overuse this method. Remember, emails are easy to delete without opening. (djt)

Our Skills 4: Working with Faculty Colleagues

Whatever our position status in our law school, we work regularly with the faculty to help our students succeed.  The relationship can be a "two-way street" if we consider both 1) how faculty can help us in our work with students and 2) how we can help faculty in their work with students.  Sometimes, we focus only on the first of these relationships and forget the second.

Faculty members can help us more if they know about the specific ways that we work with students.  Faculty members can also help us more if they know what assistance they can provide.  So, our relationship becomes part publicity and part solicitation!

There are a number of ways that we can provide faculty members with more information on how we can help students: 

1. Send an e-mail to all faculty members each year explaining the services ASP offers to students: the population served; the workshops or classes provided; the individual assistance offered; any assessments provided; library facilities; or other services.
2. Add a page to the Faculty Handbook and/or the Advisor's Handbook regarding ASP services.
3. Provide faculty with the ASP workshop schedule for students.
4. Provide faculty for 1L students with the schedule for tutoring, supplemental study groups, mentoring, etc..
5. Schedule meetings with new faculty to introduce yourself and explain in more depth how ASP can help students.
6. Provide faculty with the opportunity to get copies of study tip e-mails that you send your students throughout the semester.
7. Make announcements at faculty meetings during the semester about particular programs, concerns, or other items that they need to know.
8. Develop a brochure that outlines the ASP services and give copies to faculty as a reminder as well as a handout for students to facilitate referrals.

There are a number of ways in which we can ask faculty for assistance so that we can do our jobs better:

1. Meet with individual faculty members for required courses to find out more about their courses and exams: what are common problems that students have in the course; what study tips would they give for their course; what are their study tips for their exam; what are the most common "point losers" on their exams.
2. Meet with 1L faculty to learn their impressions of the new class and any concerns that they have about the skill levels.
3. Ask faculty whether they would be willing to write hypotheticals with answer keys for you to use in your skills workshops with students. (They may have archives of old ones you can have without their having to produce something new.)
4. Ask a faculty member if you can see the exam, answer key, and student's exam answers for the past semester when you are working with a student who did poorly in that class and needs exam-writing help.
5. Ask 1L faculty members to talk about their teaching and exam styles at a training session for your tutors, study group leaders, or mentors.
6. Ask 1L faculty members to be part of a panel on exam-taking skills for a workshop with the 1L students.
7. Ask faculty members for required courses to recommend study aids that they particularly favor for their courses (you may want to purchase them for your own ASP library).

Now, to the second relationship of what you can do to assist faculty members:

1. Encourage faculty members to refer students who have problems with study skills and/or life skills (time management, stress management, etc.) after the faculty member has worked with the student on the substantive material.
2. Offer to meet with the faculty member's 1L class section to discuss reading and briefing cases, note-taking, outlining, exam-writing techniques or other study or life skills.
3. Be available to faculty for consulting on using learning styles in classroom teaching, test construction review, or other specialty areas in which you may have training.
4. Offer to assist with training on study skills and learning styles for teaching assistants, tutors, or other upper-division students who work with faculty in "teaching" functions.
5. Offer to meet with students whose performance was poor on mid-term exams in addition to the time that the faculty member and/or tutor is working with the students.
6. Offer to consult with a faculty member who is concerned about a student's performance or other indicators that the student is struggling.

Our faculty colleagues are valuable resources for us.  And, we are equally valuable resources for them.  (Amy Jarmon)

Where did the summer go?

I cannot believe that it is actually August 6th.  Where did the summer go?  I remember May 13th and hooding ceremony as taking place yesterday.

If you are like me, you still have miles to go before you are ready for the fall semester (my pardon to Robert Frost).  I have had a very productive summer, but there always seem to be more projects than hours.  However, I have concluded that having so much more to do is a result of loving my job and wanting to be better at it each day.  I want to excel for my students, just as I encourage them to excel.

If you think about it, we are blessed in the ASP profession.  We spend each day helping students succeed.  We spend each day learning new study and exam strategies from diverse students.  We have great books to read by ASP experts to guide us to new strategies, paradigms, etc.  We are surrounded by a learning community with people who actually want to learn.  We are surrounded by colleagues with fascinating experiences and specialties in law.  And, we get to share our students' successes.

As I look across my office, I see my framed poster from the 1980 opening of the U.S. Education Department.  It reads, "Learning never ends."

So, the summer may have flown by me.  But, I have been busy learning.  And, I hope my learning never ends.  (Amy Jarmon)   

Our Own Skills 3: Flexibility

Russell Smith, Assistant Dean for Student Services at Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, suggests that flexibility is a skill that all academic support professionals must master.  Dean Smith notes that "one size fits one"; therefore, "we have to be very flexible in dealing with students.  Some need specific academic help, some need the accountability of a weekly appointment, and some just need a friendly person."  (Dan Weddle)

"Not smart enough for law school? Prove it."

At the LSAC Academic Assistance Training Workshop this past June, James Levy advised participants to believe in each student's ability to perform at a high level.  He makes an important point.  We cannot help our students effectively if we do not believe they can be helped. Rather, we should be the ones that say, "If you are not smart enough for law school, you will have to prove it to me."

The temptation to believe that some students simply cannot succeed in law school is great, especially when they are performing poorly; but we cannot afford to give in to the temptation.  It is imperative that we work from the assumption that each student can succeed.  Any other approach is a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat. 

Students who struggle in law school are already prone to believing they are failures; after all, their grades say so. But they should hear something very different from us.

We should be the ones who refuse to believe that their grades are a true reflection of their capacity to learn and to excel.  If we are unwilling to accept their grades as the final word, we are much more likely to keep searching for the keys to their success; and they are much more likely to keep searching with us.

I have found again and again that students who want to succeed and who are willing to diligently apply effective learning strategies will ultimately perform well, despite early failures.  It may take some time for the wheels to catch, but they will catch if the students are willing to keep at it. 

When a student says, directly or indirectly, that she is just not smart enough to be in law school, we should insist that she prove it.  We should insist that she implement the strategies we suggest and prove that despite employing them faithfully and accurately, she is still doomed to fail.

Students need no help in giving up, in letting their setbacks define them.  We should be the voice that says success is within reach and that the end of the story has yet to be written.  For many students, ours may be the only voice saying it.  (Dan Weddle)

An Overlooked Resource?

In the search for good academic support resources, one that is sometimes overlooked is right under our noses:  our own faculty.  Our faculty colleagues were all very successful law students.  Why not ask them how they outlined or took notes or briefed for their classes?  Some of their old briefs, etc., can serve as powerful and credible examples of what works.  In fact, when you find an example that seems especially appropriate for students to emulate, have the faculty member give a short lunchtime lecture on her particular method.  (Dan Weddle)

Our Own Skills I: Listening

We devote a good bit of time on this blog to the skills our students need to develop to be successful in law school.  As a new school year approaches, however, I would like to devote some posts over the next few weeks to the skills we as ASP professionals need to develop.

Near the top of the list, it seems to me, is the art of listening.  When ASP professionals first begin their work in this field, the pressure to be able to give advice to law students can result in "mini-lectures" that lay out various formulas for success to each student who appears at the door.  These lectures can become rote advice that gives an obligatory nod to the principle that students must, of course, "make the strategies their own."

What most of us discover eventually is that the most powerful thing we can do is first to listen to how the individual student is actually approaching the particular demands that concern them.  Before giving advice on how to prepare for essay tests, we can be most effective by finding out the specific ways in which a student has prepared for such exams in the past or how the student imagines she should prepare for her first law school exam.  Once we know those things, we are in a much better position to focus our advice, whether the student's current approach needs a complete overhaul or merely some tweaking.  It does no good to walk through all of the exam preparation strategies for a student whose preparation is largely on target but whose all-night studying the night before the exam is leaving her too exhausted to think clearly.  The actual adjustment that is needed can get lost in a flood of "study techniques."

We also have to become good at listening to what is not said.  We have to become adept at reading between the lines as students explain their concerns to us.  A student who is feeling overwhelmed by the workload in law school may actually be overwhelmed by outside demands.  She may be completely capable of handling the workload but is torn in several directions by family demands, or she may be spending large amounts of energy and time on inefficient preparation strategies.  Those are two very different problems that require very different solutions.

As a result, I like to begin by letting the student talk, letting him tell me what brought him to my office or, if I have invited him because his academic performance is weak, where he thinks the root of his struggles may lie.  From there, I ask open-ended questions.  If he tells me he knows the material but cannot get get it into an essay answer, I may ask him to describe what he does from the minute he enters the exam room to the moment he begins writing an answer to a question.  If his approach to the taking of the exam seems sound, I may ask him to tell me a little about how he prepares for exams.  After a series of such exchanges, I may find that his real problem is that he only thinks he knows the material because when he sees it in an outline it looks familiar but that he is doing nothing to ensure that he can marshal it when the time comes to analyze a fact pattern.

The point is to let the student help focus the advice.  Listening is the key to letting that happen.  Knowledge of effective strategies is critical to our work, but defaulting to a lecture on exam preparation risks flooding a student with solutions to problems that do not exist.  Only by helping students reflect on their own situations and their own approaches can we tailor our advice and encouragement to each student's real concerns. 

We are, in large part, diagnosticians.  We cannot diagnose what we are not looking for, and we cannot treat what we do not know is there.  So our first instinct should be to listen rather than advise. Careful, thoughtful listening can transform an otherwise routine meeting into a turning point in a student's law school career. (Dan Weddle) 

Looking Horizontally

One of the best pieces of advice I received before attending law school came from a friend who had just completed his J.D. at the same school a year or two earlier.  He said, "Don't look horizontally."  By that, he meant that I should not worry about what other first-year students were doing because they may be doing all the wrong things.  Hearing from a fellow student that he "studies every night until 2:00 a.m." can be terribly misleading; for all anyone knows, that student does not begin studying until 10:00 or 11:00 at night and is in fact experiencing significant diminishing returns almost from the outset of each study session.   He may also be blowing smoke. 

If we had an academic support program when I was in law school, I was unaware of it, so I was on my own as far as figuring out how best to attack the material and prepare for exams.  Looking to equally clueless first-year students struck me as probably unhelpful, and I followed my friend's advice for the most part.  If someone talked about a specific studying technique, I was willing to listen and evaluate it against my own experience; but I was already committed to working hard, so worrying about how hard others were working did not seem useful. 

Perhaps I felt that way because law school was the start of a second career for me, and I had already learned how to work like a professional, putting in a solid day's work while balancing the demands of family.  I knew how to use the hours of a workday efficiently, how to ignore the clock and focus on the task, how to put in long hours while recognizing the limits of my productivity over stretches of exceptionally long days.  As a result, I took with a grain of salt others' bragging about their studying into the wee hours. 

Most of our students do not have the advantage of having worked in a demanding professional position before law school.  They can easily fall for advice that is as likely to create debilitating fatigue as it is to create real learning.  After all, undergraduate students frequently "pull all nighters," so new law students reasonably conclude that all nighters are the rule rather than the exception in the more demanding atmosphere of law school. 

We should disabuse them of such notions.  They need to understand that professionals do not waste time during the workday, hoping to recapture the time in the middle of the night.  Professionals plan their work and move methodically through it over time.  Professionals, of course, also know that the project rather than the clock may demand exceptionally long hours for several days running and that sometimes a professional has to work all night to get a project completed. 

Studying, however, is best done when one is fresh and alert.  The workday generally provides plenty of time to study long and hard if the day is used efficiently. 

As exams approach, many of our first-year students will engage in cramming approaches that have a tendency to produce more disadvantages than advantages.  If we can help them replace those approaches with effective time management, realistically paced studying, and effective study strategies geared to the peculiar demands of law school, we will be doing them a great service.  That sort of advice is useful.  It is significantly more helpful than what they are likely to glean from their inexperienced colleagues. 

My friend was right:  looking horizontally is a great way to take your eye off the ball and miss it altogether.  We need get their eyes back on the ball and off each other.  So you might give them my friend's insightful advice:  Don't look horizontally; that way lies confusion and anxiety. (dbw)

A Request for Our Readers

One of our readers, Professor Anna Hemingway at Widener University School of Law, has a request that I thought might be best sent out to the rest of our readers for responses.  Below is her request, and you can reply directly to her at aphemingway@widener.edu. (dbw)

Request

I have been charged with developing a program for incoming, at risk students.  I was wondering if any of you have developed this type of program at your law school and would be willing to share how your program is structured.  I am interested in finding out (1)when the program is offered (summer or first semester); (2) how at risk students are identified; and (3) what the program consists of.  Thanks to anyone who can provide me with help. 

Anna Hemingway 

Is Orientation Worth It? (A Posting by Our Newest Contributing Editor)

I am pleased to welcome our newest contributing editor, Herb Ramy, to the blog.  Herb has just assumed the role of Director of the Academic Excellence Program at New England School of Law after having designed and, for several years, served as Director of the Academic Support Program at Suffolk University Law School.  He is the author of Succeeding in Law School (2006) and Navigating the Internet: Legal Research on the World Wide Web (2000); he has also published several scholarly articles.  Below is his first posting for the blog, and I think you will find it thought provoking and insightful. (dbw)

Is Orientation Worth It?

I have just taken part in my first orientation at New England School of Law (NESL), although I have been a part of a law school orientation for the past nine years at Suffolk University Law School.  I thought the orientation went quite well, and it has been interesting to see what another law school does during those first fretful days of the semester.

On one level, I was happy to learn that NESL’s orientation was not all that different from Suffolk’s.  Both programs are 3-4 days long, utilize faculty/students panels to convey certain law school truisms, and address the topic of case briefing.  Initially, the similarities suggested that I must have been doing something right for the past nine years.  Then, a not so pleasant thought occurred to me . . . maybe both schools have been handling orientation incorrectly!  I don’t think that is really the case, but it got me wondering as to what we are trying to accomplish during an orientation program.  I say “we” because ASP offices often play an important role in these programs.

What are we trying to accomplish during orientation?  If the answer is “we want to teach students the skills necessary for success in law school,” then I’m afraid our efforts may be doomed to failure.  In many (possibly most) law schools, orientation is a 3-5 day affair during which we program 3-5 hours per day.  If we subtract from that time hours devoted to panel discussions, assigning lockers, welcoming speeches, and social functions, we are left with only a handful of hours for skills instruction.  I’m not sure that I can teach case synthesis in an hour, particularly where my students have read the grand total of two cases prior to coming to class!

You may think that I’m advocating for much longer orientation periods, but I’m not.  At one time, I strongly believed in the need for longer and more in depth orientation programs that lasted 3-4 weeks.  Then, reality started to creep into the conversation.  Sure, we can accomplish a great deal if orientation lasts 3 or 4 weeks, but most administrations won’t be willing to do this, and with good reason.  Having students arrive 3-4 weeks before the traditional start of classes can be a logistical nightmare.  Where will they live, eat, and sleep?  What about students who have summer plans that overlap with orientation?  Will other faculty and administrators be willing to participate in an orientation program that begins at the end of July or beginning of August?  Before you say yes, keep in mind that most of these folks don’t take vacations from September through May because of the academic calendar. (By the way, I am purposely excluding CLEO programs or targeted orientation programs from this discussion due to the much smaller number of student participants.)  And, if your school has an evening division, then the above concerns are twice as big a problem.

So, where does that leave us?  Maybe back at the beginning.  Maybe relatively short orientation programs aren’t such a bad thing if we modify our expectations.  Instead of using orientation to teach all the skills necessary to succeed in law school, maybe we should focus on 1 or 2 ideas and hammer them home.  If we do a good job, then orientation can serve a public relations purpose.  Students pleased with our work during orientation are more likely to attend our ASP classes or meet with us one on one.  Then, the real work can begin.

Just my two cents . . . (hnr)

Preparedness of Incoming Law Students

Cathaleen A. Roach has written a thought-provoking article about trends we may expect to see in our students over the next few years, trends that are not entirely encouraging.  Several studies have suggested that students in high schools and colleges are receiving less and less instruction and practice in research and writing and, as a result, are graduating college with increasingly poorly developed analytical skills.  In addition, students are exhibiting increasing passivity in their approaches to learning.

Her article has important implications for legal pedagogy in general and academic support efforts in particular.  You will find her article, "Is the Sky Falling?  Ruminations on Incoming Law Student Preparedness (and Implications for the Profession) in the Wake of Recent National and Other Reports," in 11 Leg. Writing 295 (2005).(dbw)

Water Law?

Okay, here's one I hadn't thought about.  Someone just gave me a short article[1] detailing the effects of dehydration on mental and physical performance.  I am no fitness fanatic, but a couple of things jumped out at me.

Chronic dehydration afflicts about three fourths of Americans.  That fact matters for our students because two of the effects of dehydration are daytime fatigue (dehydration is the most common cause) and impaired mental processes, including weakened short-term memory and difficulty focusing on both computer screens and the printed page.

And you thought water law was all about riparian rights.(dbw)

---

Water or Coke, Buzz Saw: Official Publication of the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Missouri Vol 90, 4.

Catch 'Em Doing Something Right

If your program uses teaching assistants, here's an effective technique to help them get off to a good start and build morale. Grab a small notepad and pen, and step quietly into each TA's workshop or study group.  Just watch from the back for a few minutes until you see the TA do something that is effective.  It needs to be something specific and concrete.

Then step back out and, right there in the hallway, take fifteen seconds to jot a note telling the TA what you saw and why you thought it was effective.  Use a "nice job!" tone in the note.  It needn't be more than a sentence or two.

Then drop the note into the TA's mailbox.  Little bits of encouragement like that can make a world of difference for the TA's confidence, and it gives you an excuse to say something positive with no qualifiers.

When I was a high school administrator and shared responsibility for supervising teachers, we used to always say, "Let's go out of our way to 'catch 'em doing something right.' "  For the first three weeks of the school year, we would each visit the classroom of every teacher a couple of times, each time staying until we had something concrete to compliment.  Each visit took no more than five or ten minutes, including the time to jot a note and drop it in the teacher's mailbox.

It was tremendously helpful in building trust.  The teachers began to see us as coaches instead of supervisors and knew we were not simply looking for instructional problems or for areas in which they should improve.  They began to look forward to our visits throughout the year and welcomed constructive criticism as the year progressed.  I think it went a long way toward helping us administrators keep healthy perspectives as well.

Such an approach should transfer nicely to a program that incorporates teaching assistants.  Most teaching assistants have little experience leading workshops and study groups, and their confidence is naturally a little shaky early on.  As novices, they will have plenty of room for improvement; but they will appreciate having someone who is out, first of all, to "catch 'em doing something right." (dbw)

Another Great Overview of Skills Needed for Success in Law School

Another great resource for an overview of key skills law students must acquire is Prof. Vernellia Randall's slide show, The Law School Learning Pyramid.  In the slide show, Prof. Randall lays out the key intellectual skills from simplest to most complex, in a form very much like Bloom's famous taxonomy of learning behaviors.  She then ties those skills to specific activities in a"Strategic Study" plan.(dbw)

Focus

"Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence."
Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818).

A frequent complaint these days is that law students often believe they can learn during class while instant messaging and surfing the Internet.  We would do well to remind our multi-tasking students that, for all the technological advances of the past twenty-five years, learning still works the same way it always has. (dbw)

Getting Stupid

This last year as director of academic support was my first involvement with a year-long ASP program, and one of the strangest and most unexpected things afflicted me:  I suddenly became incompetent in things I normally do well.  I found, for example, that I made stupid mistakes in writing letters and emails, sometimes in really important letters and emails that I had edited several times.  And I have been teaching writing at one level or another for twenty-five years!  At one point, I sent an email announcing a deadline for applications to a program; and within the few paragraphs of the email and its attachment I gave three conflicting deadline dates, not one of which was the actual date I intended to convey.

I would have concluded that senility had finally set in with a vengeance, but I remembered that the phenomenon is often common among first-year law students.  Studies have revealed that when trying to master high levels of especially complex and challenging material or skills, people often experience a temporary drop off in their existing skills.  Because of the overwhelming nature of the new learning they are encountering, law students find similar drop offs in skills that earlier in their academic lives they had acquired with a significant level of mastery. 

Taking over our academic support activities at UMKC presented a very steep learning curve for me, not only about the theories and methods associated with effective learning in the law school context, but about the simple mechanics of our existing support programs.  I found that in trying to juggle all of those aspects of the job, along with preparing for my normal classes, I suddenly became stupid about the most routine kinds of activities.

The phenomenon was terribly unsettling at times and made me frequently question whether I had any business doing what I was doing.  That same phenomenon afflicts many, if not all, of our first-year students.

We need to remember to tell our students that such reactions to the stress of their new endeavor are only temporary and that they are not an indication of anything other than the intensity of the learning curve.  Half the battle in getting through the first year of law school is knowing that one's struggles are common and to be expected.  Knowing that "getting stupid" is a normal response to unfamiliar pressures can take some of the sting out of the experience and replace it with a realistic hope that old skills will return once the new skills begin to settle in. (dbw)

Balancing Act

My friend Ellen Swain (Vermont Law School Academic Success Program Director) recently directed me to an interesting ABA Journal article.

In Discontented in the Law, author Jill Schachner Chanen explains: "It’s no secret that law and job satisfaction don’t always go hand in hand, but a recent survey shows just how miserable some lawyers really are, especially those newer to the practice. ... The reason boils down to work-life balance, according to a survey by the National Association for Law Placement Foundation. The struggle to find that balance is especially pronounced among lawyers in supervised or nonmanagerial positions, the survey found."

Consider this: what do students learn in law school?

If they don't learn to "balance," then their learning of legal concepts, analytical processes, preferred methods of citation, and tax regulations is for naught. 

Excellent law students become excellent lawyers.  Miserable law students (even those—or maybe especially those—with high GPAs) become miserable lawyers.   
   
Ms. Chanen writes that Milwaukee lawyer Christina Plum, chair of the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division, also is not surprised by findings in the survey (mentioned above). "It’s hard for me to imagine a lawyer not having to struggle to balance work with all of the other choices in their lives," she says.

Yes, it is a struggle.  But it would be far less of a struggle if students spent their (pardon me, please) 1000 days in law school practicing how to achieve this balance.

This, I believe, is the most critical message of academic support.  Yes, students, you need to learn how to read casebooks.  Follow the exercises in Ruth Ann McKinney's book.  You need to learn how to brief cases.  Check out the examples in Bridging the Gap.  You need to learn rules, strategies, and so much more.  But if you don't learn "balance," it is all for naught.  Spend three hours outside of class for every hour in class.  That's 60 hours each week, right?  Sleep eight hours each night. 56?  That gives you 52 (awake) hours each week for the other stuff of life.  Use it.  Or lose it. 

If we don't make this message explicit to our students, we are doing them a disservice. (djt) 

Lawyers with Disabilites

The most recent (March 2006) issue of the ABA publication Student Lawyer includes (see page 34) a conference notice of interest.  Quoting from the magazine ...

"The ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law ... in conjunction with ABA president Michael Greco and the EEOC, is sponsoring a National Conference on Employment of Lawyers with Disabilities.  Participants will discuss ways to further the employment opportunities for and promote the hiring of recent law graduates and young lawyers with disabilities."

The conference is on May 22 and May 23.  "The conference," the notice continues, "encourages law students to attend the conference.  To support student participation, the commission will offer a reduced registration fee as well as scholarships to students demonstrating need."

Encouraging news: "With proper accommodations and open lines of communication, lawyers with disabilities have proven themselves to be as successful as their peers without disabilities."

In the academic support field, most of us work with students manifesting a variety of disabilities (visible and invisible); and many of us contend with comments by students, faculty and lawyers along these lines, "Why is she even going to law school?  Who is going to hire a lawyer with (fill in the blank)?"  Oh, that gets to me.  Between your school's Career Services office and its Academic Support office ... somewhere ... we need to be able to provide accurate, up-to-date answers to these inquiries ... not only for those who ask the questions above, but, more importantly, for those who ask this question: "Will I ever get a job if they find out about my _________?"

For detailed conference information, visit the commission's web page. (djt)

Wow: Technology!

You're gonna love this.

Read the attached, then visit the web site: digital notes.
(Many other websites describe the product, and offer other prices, so shop around.)

Your notes, student notes ... whaddya think?

Do you have some tech ideas you use that others might be interested in?  Send me an e-mail note.

(djt)

Time to Rethink Time

Now that your first-year students have experienced an entire semester of law school, from orientation to exams, they have a golden opportunity to rethink how they manage their time and make changes for the spring.  In the first days of law school, they may have received wonderful, practical advice on how to manage their time; but August and January are light years apart, and that same advice may play very differently now than it did then.  Now that they know what law school truly requires (exam results have a way of removing illusions), they are in a much better position to evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches to law school and to adjust them in realistic ways.

Your students may find Sheilah Vance's advice on time management a helpful guide as they assess their approaches to law school and refine their strategies for success.  Adapting the advice given by a number of experts in academic support, she provides students a balanced and detailed strategy for handling the demands of law school and their personal lives. (dbw)   

Sleeping Your Way to the Top

According to an article in the most recent (January 16, 2006) issue of TIME Magazine, 71 percent of American adults do not average eight hours of sleep.

The article, entitled "Sleeping Your Way to the Top," by Sora Song, cites a 2003 sleep study's results—"The human brain is only capable of about 16 hours of wakefulness [a day] ... When you get beyond that, it can't function as efficiently, as accurately or as well."

Sleeping less than your body requires erodes productive capability, according to the researchers.

Although people think of sleep as a necessity to avoid physical fatigue, Song points out: "What most people don't realize is that the purpose of sleep may be more to rest the mind than to rest the body.  Indeed, most of the benefits of eight hours' sleep seem to accrue to the brain: sleep helps consolidate memory, improve judgment, promote learning and concentration, boost mood, speed reaction time and sharpen problem solving and accuracy."

The next time you work with your students, ask them how much they are sleeping.  Many students I encounter tell me they are "lucky" to get six hours of sleep each night.  Many "get by" on five or six.

My thought?  They are unlucky to get six hours of sleep each night.  Actually, luck has little to do with it.  Poor planning is the reason—or an unrealistic sense of priority.

Ask your students, "Would you want your lawyer to be suffering from poor memory, less than adequate judgment, less than optimal concentration, and dull problem solving capabilities when your trial begins?"

The article includes this eye-opening fact: results of sleeping too little "...may even mimic the symptoms of dementia."

Ask your students, "Do you want to mimic the symptoms of dementia in class?"

Do the math: " ... in giving up two hours of bedtime to do more work, you’re losing a quarter of your recommended nightly dose and gaining just 12 percent more time during the day.”  Trading a bit of "awake" time for a higher rate of productivity makes more sense doesn’t it?  (djt)

Taking Notes: Custom Paper?

Do you teach your students how to take notes?

"I don't know what to write down," is a refrain I hear from wunnelles—and it doesn't end with the end of the first semester.

It's not just what you write down, of course, it's how you write it, and what you do with what you've written.

I have recommended a variation of the "Cornell Note-Taking" system for quite a while (I have attached a few paragraphs explaining the method I suggest).  Imagine how surprised I was to find that students can now generate their own customized paper for taking notes!

Yes, yesterday my wife, Kristy, discovered an online resource we can direct students to, so they  need not depend on the bookstore anymore. 

How many lines per inch would you like on your paper?  Just how wide should that left-hand margin be?

Thanks, Kristy! (djt)

We Don't Have Arts and Crafts...

It is time for my students in academic distress to register for spring classes.  Because I am often asked for advice on these matters, I am often conflicted.  Should I advise students to take classes that will be sure things or to take something new and interesting to rejuvenate their passion for law school?  Should I discuss exam styles with these students:  "Well, he's great, but his entire exam is multiple choice," or "I hear people have needed IV fluid during the exam, but the subject is on the bar..." -- or even worse -- "Oh definitely take it with that professor, there's no exam, just a book report; no really, I'm not kidding on that"? 

Do I point students in academic distress toward the easiest path; the one that might be better for their GPAs, or the one that might be more challenging but would recapture their interest in law?

After being in Academic Support for about three and a half years now, I do have some "insider" information on the professors, exams and classes; but I still try to get students to challenge themselves.  I have even administered the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – I had to take a class to qualify to do it, so don't try this at home!) to provide some insight into students' learning styles and what classes and/or professors might be a more "natural fit" for various students' personalities.   

I know that sometimes a slam-dunk kind of class can restore badly damaged self-esteem.  In addition, classes that are "skills-based" can remind students about the end goal of law school:  lawyering.  Some students find these classes (like trial practice and negotiation) the antidote to a bad spell of more doctrinal classes.  I also think that everyone should take a clinical class or do an internship; perhaps this stems from my co-op experiences in law school. 

Eventually, all my advice boils down to this:  take a variety of classes. Think of your course selection somewhat like using the food pyramid.  Look at what you need to take and what you want to take.  Mix statutory (or code) and case law classes because these are two different types of analysis you'll need for the bar.  And ALWAYS take one fun class – the class where doing the work is not a chore. 

And finally, it is often worth it to take the 8:00 a.m. class, especially if it is graded on a curve.  Why?  Because if you are the only one who shows up, you'll do better on the exam than anyone else.  (ezs)

At the Halfway Point

Aren't we about halfway through the first semester?

How are your wunnelles doing?  No doubt, many are doing well (with the emphasis on doing); that is, they are not only accomplishing the pre-class chores of reading and briefing, but are also engaging in the real learning activities – the post-class work.

On the other hand, because they receive little feedback, many are lulling themselves into believing they're doing well because they "know the material," or think they do.

About this time of year, I send a letter to each student, suggesting they consider tweaking their study regimes.  This year, I pulled a handful of surveys I've collected over the years, to determine the study habits of students who thought they were doing well, then surprised themselves by not hitting their mark.  These are the study methods to avoid, wouldn't you say?

I have attached my letter to this blog post, but deleted the numeric information and names of folks other than me.  If you would like to use the letter as a model to encourage your own students, go ahead and refashion it to suit your school's circumstances, and your program objectives.

Let me know what you think.  (djt)

Practicing Now

In "What Did I Do Wrong," an article by Jennifer J. Marrapese, Esq. (a law firm coach and consultant), the author offers "outrageous" examples of attorney behaviors that drive clients away.

When I encourage students to "practice" law in law school, professionalism is the watchword.  This article, written for attorneys, highlights ten no-no's ... many of which our students can practice avoiding now.

How about this as an example of professionalism directly applicable to the academic enterprise: "Prepare ahead for a ... meeting with a client by anticipating his questions and having the answers ready...." 

Several of Ms. Marrapese's examples deal with timeliness.  "I received five frantic-sounding voice mails from my client today.  He wanted my immediate help ... Unfortunately, I was tied up ... and didn't have time to call him back."  Here's another: "I didn't do my homework today.  I received a message from the client about a matter he had asked me to research a week ago."

Suggestion: encourage your students to practice professionalism, preparedness and timeliness as they work their way through law school, with this objective: entering the professional practice with excellent professional skills and habits.  Guess what: their grades may reflect their professionalism.  (djt)

Body Language

Did you know that body language accounts for over 90% of a conversation?

Body language can be used to help teach a class, conduct an interview (from either side of the desk), give a presentation or deliver an appellate argument.  For lawyers (and law students, and those who teach them), information and practice in this area is critical.

Cara Hale Alter, who owns and operates Speechskills, a communication consulting firm in San Francisco, helps lawyers communicate better. This month (September 2005), her article, "Does Your Body Speak Your Language?" appears in California Lawyer Magazine.  (My thanks to the magazine and the author for permission to reproduce the article on this site.)

Ms. Alter reminds us that "People make up their minds about others at lightning speed – without attempting to analyze why they find them likable, authoritative, credible or insert-adjective-here.  These conclusions are based on observable cues – nonverbal signals such as the position of a chin, width of a stance, speed of gestures, or duration of eye contact."

"Take control," she implores, "of your nonverbal signs."

Law schools talk about "thinking like a lawyer" quite a bit.  We teach students how to "write like lawyers."  How much emphasis do we put on talking "like a lawyer?" 

We teach in two (basic) ways: by providing information and by modeling.  When you meet students in your office, when you present workshops, when you speak at orientation ... do you "... bolster your appearance of authority and confidence" as Ms. Alter suggests, by focusing on stronger volume, crisper articulation, use of the lower tones of your voice?  Are you conscious of your body language when you need to appear approachable and receptive?

The article, appearing in a magazine targeted at the profession, is for lawyers.  Encourage your students to start practicing now to be the lawyers they aspire to be. 

Your thoughts?   (djt)

Maximizing Your Computer

Do your students spend too long typing?  Every time they use multiple key strokes to type, for example ...

• Constitutional Law
• Section 25
• Rule against perpetuities
• Condition subsequent

... they are wasting time.  (You, too!)

Visit this website (then send your students) to learn how to use MS Word's "autocorrect" function to maximize your keyboard efficiency.  (djt)

How to Study!

Ruth McKinney alerted me to this study guide web site, recommended to her by Judith Wegner.

This all-inclusive site, developed by Joseph Landsberger (review his very interesting CV), cuts across academic, cultural, linguistic and age boundaries.

Right away, I was blown away by his Time Management "Learners' Day Planner." This interactive tool is at once simple and amazing.  Try it.

His down-to-earth advice on "Concentrating" is well-worth distributing to students.  ("Concentration," Professor Landsberger writes, quoting Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942), "is the eternal secret of every mortal achievement." Tell that to the students you find "concentrating" in the cafeteria or on the classroom corridor sofas.)

Let me know as you discover other useful information out there on the Information Superhighways.  (djt)