Although I find it very hard to let go of content, as an intellectual
matter, I am convinced that teaching legal reasoning (used narrowly here to
mean application of law to facts to attempt to reach conclusion) is more
important to that content.  Toward that end I have done the following:
 
1.  Allow students to bring crib notes to all exams.  I tell them to go
ahead and write down all the "rules" that we have covered & explain that it
won't do a bit of good unless they can apply those rules to fact scenarious.
Don't waste time memorizing content that constantly changes and is always
available in reference books.  (A good point for lawyers who never seem to
stop relying upon a memorized statute of limitations -- and find out it
changed only after it is too late.)
 
2.  Use only scenario based analysis questions on the exams (Both objective
and subjective).  Hard to write good questions, harder to grade, but
obviously more challenging in the area of reasoning.
 
3.  Emphasizethat a student can get a perfect score  on essay/short essay
questions irrespective of the outcome they arrive at; supply scenarios that
are sufficiently gray to permit a legitimate difference of opinion on the
probable outcome; grade the analysis.  To Keith Maxwell's students who think
they already know how to think, my response is "prove it".  Provide a follow
up question for each essay requiring the student to argue in favor of the
opposite conclusion using same rules.  Getting my students to understand
that for many legal issues there is no clear-cut answer seems to be a major
accomplishment.
 
4.  Provide lots of practice scenarios that are discussed in class.
 
By the way , a lot of what I do in my class, I learned from master teachers
at ALSB!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lizbeth Griffin Ellis, Associate Professor
New Mexico State University
P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3FIN
Las Cruces, NM  88003-0001
(505)646-5066  / [log in to unmask]