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Conference on New Ideas for Experienced Teachers
June 9–13, 2001
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Thomas E. Baker, James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law & Director, Constitutional Law Center, Drake University Law School; thomas.baker@drake.edu
What the great English legal historian Frederic Maitland said about the common law also can be said about the subject I teach: Constitutional Law is “tough law.” It is tough to master-tough to teach and tough to learn. So I am always looking for ways to help my students overcome that difficulty and master our subject. One of the ways I have hit on is to give unannounced quizzes.
Consistent with our law school’s formal written student policy, I take into account a student’s preparation and performance in class for a one-grade up-or-down adjustment in his or her course grade (e.g., B raised to a B+ or B+ lowered to a B). We have a law school rule that we must announce our intention to implement this policy in our class at the beginning of the semester, to put students on notice of the course requirement. Many professors make this announcement in terrorem but few actually follow through to adjust final course grades. I am one of those who do adjust the grades, however, and it has become part of my passed-down reputation among our students. I base this up-or-down adjustment primarily on unannounced quizzes, which I think are very beneficial. Here is how they work.
At the beginning of the hour, I walk into class and announce we are having a quiz so the students should close their books and take out a sheet of paper. The question always is based on that particular day’s reading. Sometimes, it is the question I left them with at the end of the previous class meeting. I state the brief question and repeat it once. The quiz question is focused and specific; usually the emphasis is on the “Rule” in the “Issue-Rule-Analysis-Conclusion” or “IRAC” logical sequence. Questions vary from year to year, of course, but here are some illustrative examples from early in the semester: What does the Constitution say about “judicial review”? . . . . What are “advisory opinions” and what is the Supreme Court’s position on them?. . . . Define “property” for purposes of the 5th and 14th amendments .
My students have ten minutes to write an answer. They put their name on the paper and pass it in. I take the quizzes home and grade them, using the same three categories as the law school’s grade adjustment policy (“+” or “0" or “-”). A missed quiz counts as a minus. Often I write comments to explain the point of the quiz and to respond to the individual answer. Sometimes I add a word or two of encouragement, if for example the student took the lead that day in class discussion and performed well to contribute to our effort to understand the material. If I sense that the student is just “not getting it” I will write a note to invite him or her to come by my office for a conference. My secretary records the grade and returns the graded quiz in the student’s box before the next class meeting. Typically, I will start that day’s class session with some in-class discussion of the quiz question. Sometimes I will begin the next following class with some brief comment to reinforce how the previous day’s quiz fits into the organization of the course.
Over the semester, I administer between ten and fifteen quizzes. At the end of the semester, I adjust final course grades with a plus or a minus largely based on the quizzes, taking into account attendance and the notes of in-class participation that I make on my seating charts during the term. Usually, the semester adjustments describe a slightly-skewed bell-shape curve with about 20% pluses and 10% minuses and 70% no adjustments.
I submit that the benefits of unannounced quizzes far outweigh the costs. Really, the only costs of this technique are the lost class time, which totals at most only two or three class meetings over the semester, plus my own grading time and effort, which amounts to two or three hours for each quiz. The benefits for the students are substantial. In effect, this technique allows me to “call on” every student individually to recite on that particular day’s reading, which is far more fair than calling on random students in a Socratic lottery and avoids some of the in-person stress and pressure of oral recitation. And the quizzes help me to provide my students with personal feedback on individual course topics of some importance. While I am not as great a teacher as the legendary Mark Hopkins, each quiz sits me on one end of a log and one of my students on the other end to discuss the quizzed topic. More generally, students also benefit from knowing sooner rather than later if what they are doing to learn the material is adequate, far in advance of the winner-take-all final examination, after which it is simply too late to regroup or to seek help. They know, if they rack up a series of minuses, that they should come talk to me, sooner rather than later. And I can review their quizzes to help diagnose their problems with the course and to prescribe what they should do to solve them. The quizzes reward preparation and performance and thus reinforce professional work habits. Indeed, I have the sense that the quizzes have had the salutary by-product of toning up the overall level of class preparation and participation.
I am convinced that this evaluation and teaching technique is valuable and effective. I believe that unannounced quizzes can easily be adapted for any law school course, though I think quizzes make the most sense in first year courses, as needed-and-welcomed feedback. Any number of variations suggest themselves, for example, a professor need not record the grades but could implement non-credit quizzes to provide each individual student some personal feedback on an ongoing basis outside the tyranny of grades that first year students live under. Someone might adapt the quiz system to administer them using West’s Educational Network or Lexis’s Virtual Classroom. I highly recommend unannounced quizzes and I would encourage law professors to experiment with them.