Workshop for New Law Teachers

June 21–23, 2001
Alexandria, Virginia

Back to Workshop Program

Jean Koh Peters

I. Introduction

II. Harry Potter and the Dragon

III. The Three Paradoxes

A. The Law Teacher is in the Constant Process of Learning

B. Our Teaching is about Us, and not about Us.

C. In a Profession of Judging, NonJudgment is the Way.

IV. The Letter to Myself

Confidential Materials-Will not be Read by other than Writer

Critical Incidents: Ten Things That I Am Confident that I Do Well, and Enjoy Doing
( ideally from Outside Law)

(e.g., baking an apple pie, reading to my daughter, one-on-one basketball, gardening, etc.)

write the first things that come to mind:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Now circle the one (if there is one) that stands out from the others as highest in enjoyment, confidence or both; the thing you feel most clearly and unambivalently is one of your standout talents.

Confidential Materials-Will not be Read by other than Writer

Critical Incidents: Three Things That I Am Sure to Do in My Teaching Life Which I Currently Dread And/Or Fear Doing

write the first things that come to mind:

1.

2.

3.

Now circle the one (if there is one) which clearly stands out: the one you fear or dread the most or the one which, if resolved, would be the biggest breakthrough for you.

Confidential Materials-Will not be Read by other than Writer

HARRY POTTER AND THE DRAGON

Harry Potter is a 14 year old boy who, on his eleventh birthday, learned that he is a wizard. Moreover, so he is told, he performed uniquely powerful magic as a baby that is now legend in the wizarding world. Most of the time, however, Harry feels like an unlucky and untalented teenager-with one exception. He knows that he is an outstanding Seeker at Quidditch, a wizarding sport, which requires him to fly a broomstick (his current broomstick is called a Firebolt), dodge whizzing balls known as Bludgers, while he is searching for a winged, walnut sized and shaped golden object which usually wins his team the game.

The narration begins as Harry, through several twists of fate, must face a Hungarian Horntail dragon in front of a huge crowd of spectators. Worse still, he must wrest from the claws of the Horntail a golden egg. His only idea so far is to summon his Firebolt through a Summoning Charm (“Accio!”), and improvise from there.

Synopsis by Jean Koh Peters

To Follow: (An Excerpt from J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Scholastic, 2000)

Jim Dale, Narrator

What proven strategies can you import from your circled enjoyable talent to help you face the tough teaching task you just identified?

Additional Notes during Small Group Discussion and Plenary.

Confidential Materials-Will not be Read by other than Writer

A Letter to Myself

(Instructions: At the moment at the conference when you feel you have your most lucid insights about your highest aspirations for your teaching, write a letter to yourself, and seal it in the enclosed envelope, addressed to yourself. Bring the sealed letter to the final plenary or, if you are leaving early, leave it with Tracie Thomas or another AALS staff member. (You can also ask a staff person at your office or a friend back home to send it if you prefer.) NO ONE WILL OPEN THE LETTER BEFORE IT IS MAILED BACK TO YOU. We will add postage and send it back to you three months from today, to arrive in the first month of the new school year.

Minute Paper

(please take 60 seconds to answer the question below, and return the paper to Jean. You are welcome, but in no way obligated or expected, to take additional time to add any further comments.)

1. Do you leave this presentation with one concrete new idea for your teaching?

A. If so, and if you would feel comfortable doing so, jot down the idea.

B. If not, do you have any thoughts or suggestions for Jean for future presentations of this sort?

2. Any additional comments are welcome.

Thank you for coming!

NOTE: The preceding materials were prepared for use by the law teacher during my presentation at the AALS New Teachers Conference. I prepared the following materials originally for myself, about six weeks before the conference, to set my goals, teaching plan, and methodology for the presentation. As I completed them, I realized that these materials might be useful to some of the attending law teachers after the presentation, since they lay bare my thought processes in creating the presentation in a way that may parallel your processes in preparing for class. I make these available to you, first, to help you use the presentation, whether you found it entirely useful, entirely useless, or something in between, as a critical incident of your own learning which you can analyze in service of your own teaching. Comparing your experiences as the audience in this case, and seeing how what the presenter intended converged or diverged from your actual experience may offer a window into your own preferences for your own teaching and choice of presentation methodology in any given class. Second, in the event that any of the parts of the presentation were helpful to you, I wanted to direct you to additional materials (and some of my best teachers), where available, on use of these methods in your own classroom.

GOALS

1. To convey the message: each of you has ample basis to have confidence in your abilities, and much of yourself to bring to your teaching. You have within you what you need to meet these daunting challenges already, and to enjoy the experience.

2. To perform that message in an engaging, risk-taking fashion that appeals to a number of learning styles, by using a buffet of nontraditional methods to supplement the listener’s own experience of traditional law school teaching (lecture, socratic method, classroom Q and A, and seminar discussion), in hopes that at least each participant will take away at least one new idea for use in her teaching;

3. To offer a learning experience attempting to solve a pressing concrete problem for each participant in a safe, nonjudgmental process;

4. To complement the learning event with materials exposing the planning process which designed it, in order that participants have a way to benefit from the experience whether they found it useful or not;

5. To offer a congenial, enjoyable, useful and memorable introduction to the New Teachers’ Conference.

TEACHING PLAN

1. Offer Presentation to All Participants in two parts: the first, primarily a series of connected inquiries designed to solve a specific problem that may be haunting teachers as they embark upon teaching; the second, comments exposing what the exercises were designed to illustrate. Key factor-medium is the message-try to create an experience of positive, enjoyable learning;

2. Create Written Materials in advance, so that Participants can have them available before, during and after Presentation;

3. Offer Followup Voluntary Session for those who wish to continue the experience, debrief it, or otherwise tailor their learning to their unique teaching ahead.

THE INTERNAL THOUGHT PROCESSES OF ONE TEACHER: PLANNING THE PRESENTATION, STEP BY STEP
(In Order Planned for Presentation)
As of May 25, 2001

NOTE: While all of these ideas are, as of one month before the presentation, planned to be part of the presentation, the final decision about whether to use them all will be made as the presentation takes place, based on my assessment in the moment of how likely they are to help me meet my goals. The alternatives include both ideas I prepared for possible use, off the teaching plan, for the presentation, as well as alternatives considered and discarded, for various reasons (including: lack of time, incongruent or incompatible with other ideas already planned, inappropriate for student group, etc.). a. Use of Music- music stimulates right brain activity in the classroom, expands the frame of class time beyond law per se, and can create a mood of calm in the classroom. Also designed to offer hospitality and a sense of safety in the room. See, Mary Rose O'Reilley, Radical Presence : Teaching As Contemplative Practice (Heinemann 1998). In this case, music may also ease transition for the turmoil of leaving work for, and travelling to, the conference.

alternatives considered: live music, art works displayed on slides, round singing

b. Goals- Gerry Hess urges law teachers to set explicit goals for all teaching experiences (courses, individual classes, individual classroom exercises) and to link these goals throughout the micro and macro choices of our teaching (therefore, connecting the micro goals of any given exercise with the macro goals of the course as a whole). At any moment, any participant in the workshop should be able to ask me-how does what we are doing now relate to the goals I have enunciated? (Hess & Friedland, Techniques for Teaching Law (Carolina Academic Press 1999). See also, The Law Teacher-a newsletter of the Institute for Law Teaching at Gonzaga University School of Law, Gerald Hess, Director (email: ilst@lawschool.gonzaga.edu; phone (509) 323-3740), as well as the Institute’s publications and summer conferences. (I thank Gerry for four years of monthly teaching to me about teaching.)

The explicit goal of taking risks, and modelling risk-taking, seemed particularly important for new law teachers, since it is true to my observation in my own teaching that the greatest payoffs for students are usually accompanied by the greater willingness to take risks on my own part. In addition, the chance that a new teacher may be encouraged to try new ideas that all teachers could benefit from is well worth the actual risk to me (that of being thought eccentric or odd by some). In addition, I often find that those who don’t benefit from the unusual design of the presentation will either a) appreciate the effort nonetheless, b) take some useful nugget out of even a disappointing presentation, or c) quickly forget the whole thing anyway.

c. Problem Solving Focus- in my experience, the most successful conferences help me identify and solve problems, and reenergize me for the return to work. Creating a framework for each participant to analyze, and possibly resolve, an actual problem that each one was facing seemed to be a useful goal for an opening talk; worth even the substantial risk of being unable to help some for whom this was not a useful learning approach. To try to make the approach useful even for those who disfavored it, the publication of these notes seeks to offer the disgruntled participant a way to analyze how the presentation went wrong, and how to avoid such pitfalls in his or her own teaching.

As a clinical teacher who does not favor lecture as a preferred method of teaching, delivering a dinner speech risked undercutting an important message-that law school teaching is constructive when interactive, individualized, cooperative, concrete, and connected to our reality. I realize that I will disappoint those who prefer a traditional dinner speech.

e. Critical Incidents Thinking- asks student to look at data from their own life histories or experience for ideas for future problem solving. See, Stephen D. Brookfield, Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series, 1995)

Ask for the positive critical incidents first (before the fears), and more of them, to perform the message: you have ample basis to have confidence in your abilities, and much of yourself to bring to your teaching. You have what you need to meet these daunting challenges within you already, and to enjoy the experience.

because these concerns may be highly personal, i want to make sure the exercises explicitly protect the confidentiality of the teacher's thoughts, so that s/he can safely and honestly face her authentic concerns. (see pressing need/dread, free writing and small group discussion below) other critical incidents:

*“review significant life learning experiences”, See Finkel, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, (Boynton/Cook Publishers, 2000);
*“Consider your own experiences of learning”, e.g. Jane Tompkins, A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned
*favorite teachers
* your friend’s favorite teachers that you didn’t care for

alternatives considered: non-personal critical incidents-from literature, recent current events

f. teach from the pressing individual concern--specific fear/dread
since my goal is to be of help to individual law teachers, but my main forum is a group talk, i am trying to facilitate a useful private learning process (one that i will never be privy to the results of) through a combination of teaching from the pressing individual concern and free writing (below). here i assume that attendees at the conference come with some "how-to" agendas, and i hope to offer a way to resolve at least one of them, concretely, in my short session. for some people, these pressing concerns will block other learning until they are resolved. If i can offer each participant one new insight from him/herself to herself, the presentation will be of concrete use, and may also facilitate an ongoing process of self-teaching. (See also, Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way : A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (J.P. Tarcher, 1992))

Fear is a substantial concern for teachers, a substantial barrier to authentic teaching, and best faced head on. See, Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach : Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life (Jossey-Bass, 1997). I choose to ask for the fears second, after reminding the participants of the many positive and thriving areas of themselves first. I also choose to ask for fewer fears/dreads to perform the message that there is more to be optimistic about than worried about. Again, confidentiality is a key concern, and is therefore addressed on the worksheet directly.

g. Use of Non-Legal Materials -Popular Culture
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, excerpt (Scholastic, 2000)

offer opportunity for analogical/metaphorical/right brain thinking; offer a positive story of constructive, successful problem solving; offer a break from legal materials; offer materials in narrative rather than analytical mindset; offer materials that student may be familiar from in other realms; offer materials which may be non-threatening because of their lay nature.

Introduce the key terms and jargon through a written synopsis for later reference and to help nonauditory learners; also varies the classroom activity, giving students a chance to read in class. (Learned from Mark Weisberg, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, who also originally suggested that I read many of the fine references listed herein. I thank Mark for his ongoing collegiality and teaching to me about teaching, and for reviewing these materials several times before i submitted them.)

h. Audiotape - (Jim Dale, Narrator)
-offer material in an alternative voice, (not incidentally, that of an extremely talented professional actor), multiply the voices heard in the classroom; take a break from the teacher’s voice; appeal to auditory learners.

i. Free writing -
Creates a private space for thought, and some quiet time in class so that students don’t have to synthesize all material on the spot, or in a race with the “quickest” in the room. Critically, it creates a place for confidential reflection, and seeks to enhance a sense of safety in reflection. Increases active learning, and creates a writing that can be continued at another time. Also, good way to gather many scattered, seemingly disconnected thoughts, and sort through them. See, e.g., Peter Elbow, "Teaching Thinking by Teaching Two Kinds of Writing," in his Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching (recommended by Mark Weisberg, Queen’s University). Again, confidentiality is a key concern, and is therefore addressed on the worksheet directly.

j. small group discussion
the short discussion with one other person is designed to: 1) offer a helper for thoughts which may be bubbling to surface; 2) give each participant a chance to encourage another in this process, and perhaps, in so doing, learn how to encourage himself in the process; 3) give each participant a second context in which to try out the problem resolution technique (to contrast or relate to his own experience with it); 4) give each participant one person at the conference with whom he has had one interaction before the conference starts in earnest; 5) allow the participant to air his individual thoughts and take a break from the big group presentation atmosphere, even for a minutes; and 6) demonstrate that meaningful one on one interaction can happen even in a very short period of class time. breaks up the big group and the anonymous and apathetic learning that can happen when the student is silent for too long. i chose to do one on one conversations rather than groups of three or four both because of time, because of the dinner table configuration, and because of personal preference for one on one conversation. Because of confidentiality concerns, instructions are deliberately very general about what each person can share-choice is up to each participant, with no set requirements.

k. Brief ideas from group in plenary format
as with small group, offers participants a few more applications or experiences of the exercises and brings the exercise to a close with the group reunited. Also a clear reminder of the wisdom of the group, rather than of the teacher, being the predominant theme. I hope this will also give chance for the group to share a positive experience with the inquiries, and also a chance to express negative feelings that may need to be vented.

l. Letter to Myself
Designed to create a forum for a participant to crystallize and record his most useful thoughts, and make them available to him/herself at a later time when these insights may have become temporarily clouded (especially, by the stress of the semester). I often use this with first year entering students, and I often use it myself to shore myself for the hardest times of the year (e.g., September, April). Also very useful for sabbaticals-have a staff person or friend save one to send you during the sabbatical from yourself during the school year, and vice versa.

m. Minute Paper
Designed to get feedback in a minimally burdensome way from the group before it disperses, and to offer participants this device for their own use with critical classes of their own. To allow participants to keep a sample, a loose copy of this will be distributed at the tables, along with a full packet of the worksheets for the presentation for those who understandably did not bring their materials to dinner.

For more on obtaining feedback on specific class sessions, see Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (Jossey-Bass, 1993). Angelo and Cross offer many concrete ideas for classroom assessment. Concerning forms such as this, they note “[d]on’t overuse the feedback form technique. Two or perhaps three administrations over the course of a semester are enough to indicate your sincere interest and provide useful information without risking overkill.” (Id. At 333)

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

Prior to beginning of remarks-during dinner-music in background-compilation tape of favorite music, stressing: variety (classical to popular, vocal and instrumental), upbeat positive nature, meditative pieces. Play at a volume that would allow those who are attracted to music to be aware of it, while those who find it distracting can tune it out.

1. Introduction
   welcome and personal thoughts; introduce goals; introduce structure of presentation and availability of second, followup session. Before main dinner?

2. Harry Potter and the Dragon

   (For the next exercises, alternatives-do in head, do on paper)

   1. Critical Incidents: Ten things You Are Confident that You Do Well, and Enjoy Doing, The first thing that comes to mind-Preferably from Outside Law )(2 minutes-or during dinner)
   2. Pressing Concern: Three things in Law Teaching that you must do that you currently fear/dread doing (2 minutes-or during dinner)

      (Hope to start here after dinner)

   3. Harry Potter and the Dragon: Problem-Solving ( 8.5 minutes-intro, tape and extrapolation)
   4. Free Writing-3 min to write down additional thoughts.
   5. Small group discussion -one on one-Choose one aspect of your problem solving that you feel comfortable speaking about with your neighbor. Speak for 4 minutes/ 2 mins per person.
   6. Plenary-ideas and illustrations from the group (5 mins)

3. Three Paradoxes(6 mins)
   1. The Law Teacher is in the Constant Process of Learning.

      Any rewarding or frustrating experiences of learning are important data about how you learn, and will inevitably be part of how you teach-but you are the means and not the end.

   2. Our Teaching is About Us, and is Not About Us.

      In the end, what is important about our teaching is the learning that it facilitated. My preferences were much less important than how effective it was, or wasn’t with you. Yet, my choices-my interest in Harry Potter, my preference for music, my choices of music-were what you were stuck with. Police-every move you make I’ll be watching you.

   3. In a Profession of Judging, we must teach and model NonJudgment

      Learning and Lawyering, even legal judging, requires a focus on the facts, in their complexity and numerosity, not prejudgment, stereotype, or careless generalization. Nonjudgment in the classroom is essential to learning and modelling excellent lawyering and fighting bias and stereotype.

4. Explain Letter to Myself and Logistics (2 mins)/Announce Followup session

5. Minute Paper and Thank you