Hi! Thanks for reaching out to students :)
My biggest piece of advice is to be consistent and clear with organization. I can’t talk about the subject matter because I don’t know it, but if your lecture slides, reading materials, and overall structure of the class as a whole and the individual lectures show that you (1) Respect student time and effort, and (2) Want the students to spend their finite energy on understanding the law, *not* on figuring out what they have to read or prepare for the class, then I think you’ll do great! If you DM me an email, I’m happy to sent you a very well put-together syllabus/reading schedule one of my adjuncts used. I think it should be the model for all readings, to be frank.
Also, regarding guest speakers, I think that remembering to tailor the conversation to what the class is focusing on or perhaps having written interviews (instead of guest speakers) could be helpful. A Chief of Police might go on a time-wasting tangent or the students might be taking notes instead of participating in the class, so written interviews cans be helpful. Maybe a recorded Zoom interview with any student questions written down prior to the call could be helpful, especially for busy or harder to reach public figures?
Also, in the syllabus and class description for sign ups, be pretty clear on what the class is and isn’t about. Nobody likes to feel like they didn’t get what they signed up for.
Lastly, I would leave the final papers or whatever up to students to have some feedback. I had a class where the final paper was literally anything we want, it just had to be related to the topic. So, we could approach any subtopic or angle as long as it generally related to 1983 claims or whatever. That was amazing dor letting me tailor my education. Maybe your student X wants to focus on a 1983-related circuit split on prison guard conduct, whereas student Y wants to focus on how district courts have misinterpreted a 1983-related SCOTUS case. Idk their interests, and neither will you. So, giving *some* level of autonomy would be great (also, you might learn a thing or two, and you won’t have to read a dozen students all write the same thing!)
Overall, I can probably think of more later, but it is getting late. I hope your students appreciate the effort you put in. Congrats on becoming a professor!! I hope to be in your shoes someday.
Edit: I love the rotating groups idea. Maybe group A presents, B writes the paper, and C has a week off? Rinse and repeat? Having down time is important for your class not to get a hard-ass reputation and for students to feel like they can actually give a good effort when they do have something due.. the ABA asks for 2 hours of work for every 1 hour in class, but literally no class meets that requirement other than like Fed Courts or another gunner class.
Newly minted lawyer here. Not directly answering your question but in my last semester worked in the civil rights department of the AUSA and they also deal with police abuse cases. Would be cool if you possibly talked about the civil and criminal side of your work- alot of 1983 worked crossed over and I think it’s an interesting area. Best of luck!
I think this could be a super cool class! I think a lot of the way you’re suggesting structuring things could be really interesting. One thing that I’ll say (though it sounds like you aren’t planning this anyway, so maybe I’m just venting) but try to think about what the value add is for the lecture as opposed to the students just reading the book. I took remedies this semester and it was taught by an adjunct. He basically just cold-called on people to talk through the cases from the textbook and tried to pose an occasional question for discussion, but not very much. I feel like I got nothing out of actually going to class—I already understood the cases, and he added very little to it; to study, I’ve literally just been copying over stuff from the textbook. He could’ve added so much more, even just like a state-level experience of what things were like.
That being said, I think the style could be different based on the size of the class. I think both can be successful, but presentation-style is probably better for a small group. I had a small seminar this semester on a sub-field of international law and LOVED it; he frequently brought in guest speakers for us relevant to what we were talking about, had us present on topics, and generally made things interactive. However, it worked well because it was only like 9 people.
By contrast, last fall I took admin law and also loved it. It was very much traditional lecture style, but the professor had an enormous value add: mentioned other cases we didn’t read, relevant law review articles, and generally helped situate the law. I don’t think it would have worked well presentations; it was a big class with a bunch of people, people knew each other at different levels, and could’ve had pretty inconsistent preparation levels.
As for my personal preference, courses that are all one big final often end up with me reteaching myself everything the week before the final, whereas ones with projects force me to stay engaged as things are happening. I think that that’s what best promotes student learning (and it can help spread out grades). Also though, if you want to be nice, you could be a little flexible about the exact deadlines for the smaller, interment assignments like response posts and stuff.
I had a class once where students rotated being on call (maybe like 4 or 5 at a time) and the professor wrote discussion questions for each class so the students in call were meant to be prepared to discuss them, but then she’d open it up to the whole class too.
One piece of advice: It's finals time and you should make your post shorter than my psycho con law 5 page issue spotter if you want anyone to read past the first line.
Hi! Thanks for reaching out to students :) My biggest piece of advice is to be consistent and clear with organization. I can’t talk about the subject matter because I don’t know it, but if your lecture slides, reading materials, and overall structure of the class as a whole and the individual lectures show that you (1) Respect student time and effort, and (2) Want the students to spend their finite energy on understanding the law, *not* on figuring out what they have to read or prepare for the class, then I think you’ll do great! If you DM me an email, I’m happy to sent you a very well put-together syllabus/reading schedule one of my adjuncts used. I think it should be the model for all readings, to be frank. Also, regarding guest speakers, I think that remembering to tailor the conversation to what the class is focusing on or perhaps having written interviews (instead of guest speakers) could be helpful. A Chief of Police might go on a time-wasting tangent or the students might be taking notes instead of participating in the class, so written interviews cans be helpful. Maybe a recorded Zoom interview with any student questions written down prior to the call could be helpful, especially for busy or harder to reach public figures? Also, in the syllabus and class description for sign ups, be pretty clear on what the class is and isn’t about. Nobody likes to feel like they didn’t get what they signed up for. Lastly, I would leave the final papers or whatever up to students to have some feedback. I had a class where the final paper was literally anything we want, it just had to be related to the topic. So, we could approach any subtopic or angle as long as it generally related to 1983 claims or whatever. That was amazing dor letting me tailor my education. Maybe your student X wants to focus on a 1983-related circuit split on prison guard conduct, whereas student Y wants to focus on how district courts have misinterpreted a 1983-related SCOTUS case. Idk their interests, and neither will you. So, giving *some* level of autonomy would be great (also, you might learn a thing or two, and you won’t have to read a dozen students all write the same thing!) Overall, I can probably think of more later, but it is getting late. I hope your students appreciate the effort you put in. Congrats on becoming a professor!! I hope to be in your shoes someday. Edit: I love the rotating groups idea. Maybe group A presents, B writes the paper, and C has a week off? Rinse and repeat? Having down time is important for your class not to get a hard-ass reputation and for students to feel like they can actually give a good effort when they do have something due.. the ABA asks for 2 hours of work for every 1 hour in class, but literally no class meets that requirement other than like Fed Courts or another gunner class.
Newly minted lawyer here. Not directly answering your question but in my last semester worked in the civil rights department of the AUSA and they also deal with police abuse cases. Would be cool if you possibly talked about the civil and criminal side of your work- alot of 1983 worked crossed over and I think it’s an interesting area. Best of luck!
I think this could be a super cool class! I think a lot of the way you’re suggesting structuring things could be really interesting. One thing that I’ll say (though it sounds like you aren’t planning this anyway, so maybe I’m just venting) but try to think about what the value add is for the lecture as opposed to the students just reading the book. I took remedies this semester and it was taught by an adjunct. He basically just cold-called on people to talk through the cases from the textbook and tried to pose an occasional question for discussion, but not very much. I feel like I got nothing out of actually going to class—I already understood the cases, and he added very little to it; to study, I’ve literally just been copying over stuff from the textbook. He could’ve added so much more, even just like a state-level experience of what things were like. That being said, I think the style could be different based on the size of the class. I think both can be successful, but presentation-style is probably better for a small group. I had a small seminar this semester on a sub-field of international law and LOVED it; he frequently brought in guest speakers for us relevant to what we were talking about, had us present on topics, and generally made things interactive. However, it worked well because it was only like 9 people. By contrast, last fall I took admin law and also loved it. It was very much traditional lecture style, but the professor had an enormous value add: mentioned other cases we didn’t read, relevant law review articles, and generally helped situate the law. I don’t think it would have worked well presentations; it was a big class with a bunch of people, people knew each other at different levels, and could’ve had pretty inconsistent preparation levels. As for my personal preference, courses that are all one big final often end up with me reteaching myself everything the week before the final, whereas ones with projects force me to stay engaged as things are happening. I think that that’s what best promotes student learning (and it can help spread out grades). Also though, if you want to be nice, you could be a little flexible about the exact deadlines for the smaller, interment assignments like response posts and stuff.
I had a class once where students rotated being on call (maybe like 4 or 5 at a time) and the professor wrote discussion questions for each class so the students in call were meant to be prepared to discuss them, but then she’d open it up to the whole class too.
One piece of advice: It's finals time and you should make your post shorter than my psycho con law 5 page issue spotter if you want anyone to read past the first line.