Developed by Professor Howard E. Katz, AALS Advisor for New Law Teachers and Legal Educator-in-Residence at Cleveland State University College of Law
- Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching: A Primer for New (and Not So New) Professors by Howard E. Katz and Kevin Francis O’Neill
Available at no cost from your Aspen representative or SSRN - The Strategies and Techniques series (course-specific teaching advice):
Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Core Courses; Constitutional Law; Criminal Procedure; Torts; Contracts; Property; Civil Procedure; Legal Analysis and Writing; Criminal Law; Family Law; Evidence; Professional Responsibility; Administrative Law; Federal Income Tax; Environmental Law; Academic Support - AALS Teaching Materials Network (professors who have agreed to share teaching notes with newer professors)
- Videos with advice on constructing useful visual aids
- Advice on constructing and using PowerPoint slides:
Lynn M. LoPucki, The PowerPoint Channel, 17 U. Mass. L. Rev. 41 (2021)
2024 AALS Workshop for New Law Teachers – slides 46-61 - Easyretro.io Software to display anonymous classfeedback, breakout debriefings, etc.
- Resources on professional identify formation: Holloran Center at University of St. Thomas School of Law
David I. C. Thomson, The Guided Sequence for Formation of Professional Identity
Related Presentation - AALS Section on New Law Professors: webinars on art of choosing a textbook and on constructing and grading exams
- Audio of session at 2023 AALS annual meeting Stuff You’ll Want to Steal: Ideas for Teaching Topics in Property Law (presentations by Paula Franzese, Sheila Simon, and Howard Katz, including a discussion of the Unified Field Theory method mentioned below)
- Perhaps of interest to those teaching first-year courses (draft available on my SSRN site):
Teaching Legal Analysis Using the Unified Field Theory: The “unified field theory of legal analysis” method draws on learning theory as well as the experience of professors, especially those who teach element-driven courses. It emphasizes rules, the elements that comprise those rules, and application of new facts to those rules, as the fundamental organizing principle of how to discuss cases in class and how to do legal analysis. The coverage of each case in class models how to outline and how to write a good exam answer. The method embeds a variety of sound pedagogical techniques, including retrieval and formative assessment (without taking extra class time), and makes clear early in the course what is expected in answering an exam question, which is especially helpful for those students who have less access to the unwritten rules of how to do law school. It can be used by professors who use the Socratic method as well as those who use more active teaching techniques. You will also get a glimpse of one format for teaching notes.