Law school syllabi, and a bleg

I have syllabi for my fall classes! Well, all but one; that prof hasn't posted it yet. (They're posted on the law school equivalent of Blackboard; Westlaw does its own course-management thing. So I don't have to wrestle with Blackboard. Given that back when I took grad school classes, professors didn't all use e-mail yet, some profs still typed syllabi, I don't think I'd yet seen course materials distributed as PDFs, and online course management systems didn't exist, it's a little weird negotiating one as the student rather than the prof. It's not any prettier than Blackboard, I can say that much.)

This also means I have the reading assignments for my first day of class. Ack!

Two of my profs have an interesting (to me) policy called "present and prepared": when you get to class, they circulate a seating chart and if you're present and prepared, you circle your name and they know they can call on you. One prof docks you if you're not present and prepared for x number of classes, the other rewards you if you're present and prepared for more than x number of classes. If you say you're prepared and the professor figures out you're not, you get docked; and if you get someone to sign you in as prepared and present and you're not there at all, you're in BIG trouble. (Though I suppose some days the luck of the draw would let you get away with these bluffs, if the professor didn't get around to calling on you.)

I thought this was fairly cool because it means that if you're not prepared, the prof knows not to call on you and waste everyone's time (and embarrass you in front of everyone).

It also seems to encourage you to come to class even when you're not prepared so you can learn something - because you don't have that fear of being called on when unprepared to keep you away. This was something I struggled with when teaching - students who thought, "well, I didn't do the reading so I won't go to class." Yes, I much prefer students to DO the reading, but even if they haven't, I still want them to show up! Not because I want to call on them and make them look stupid, but because they might learn something regardless.

I wonder how well such a policy would transfer to a different academic setting? It seems better suited to larger courses than wee tiny ones (my law school classes run from 35-40 to 80-90, I think). It also seems more designed for a course in which the professor is running the discussion/interactions, rather than students generating them (it's about answering the professor's questions, not so much about other participation). Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

It was also heartening to think that class participation counts for something. It's a teeny-tiny something, but it can add or subtract a couple of points from your final grade (and I'll take all the points I can get). I mean, I know the crucial thing remains the exam - that's what determines your grade, really - but since I know that I learn better if I go to class and talk about the subject, it's nice that these profs seem to consider that a valuable activity as well.

It has also dawned on me that this means very soon, I'll be sitting in class taking notes. I plan to use my laptop for note-taking (I always liked writing my notes by hand in the past, but I also want to be able to cut/paste/reorganize/revise/otherwise manipulate my notes when studying for exams, which is much easier to do with computer files than handwritten sheets, and if I take them on the computer to start with, I don't have to waste time entering them into the computer later), and this leads me to my bleg:

I've been looking at two programs that are basically note-takers/outliners (outlining is very big in law school): Circus Ponies' Notebook, and the Omni Group's OmniOutliner Pro. Both are effective, easy outliners. Both cost about the same (I'd be upgrading to OOP, not buying the full version). Both have things going for them: OmniOutliner Pro feels more "professional", more like a multi-functional power-app. Its interface is extremely clean - almost to a fault; it's a little spartan for me, who likes her Mac because it's pretty. OOP feels a bit more flexible than Notebook, but conversely the learning curve for using that flexibility seems a little steep. Notebook flirts with cutesiness - you take notes on "notebook pages" of ruled yellow or white paper, or you can use graph paper - but I actually quite like the notebook metaphor. I like that Notebook allows you to keep "writing pages" (plain text) as well as outline pages in the same document. And Notebook seems maybe a bit more limited in what it allows you to do, but it's easier to learn what it does allow. Notebook indexes your notes for you, which is a feature that appeals to me; I'm not sure if OmniOutliner Pro does that or not. (I'm sure you can search OOP for keywords, but what I like about the index feature is that you don't have to know already what term you used in a given context - you can just skim the list to see what they are.)

So the bleg part: anyone out there have an opinion on why one of these applications is better than the other? (FWIW, I've played around with MS Word's outlining feature, and first, it's really ugly, and second, it doesn't have the features that I like about Notebook/OOP, so I know I'm not going to use that.) Thanks so much!

Comments

[dr four eyes]

That present and prepared thing is interesting! I'm already thinking of how I can use it in my lower-level class. Not everyday, but I'm thinking of days when I have students doing peer review workshops (which means they should all come prepared with their own writing). I'm with you--I'd prefer students come prepared or not; but it makes me want to tear my hair out when I put groups together and then find out that only one student in a group has writing to share. I'm thinking I could do a "present and prepared" check in on those days, then put groups together accordingly, probably spreading out the unprepared students so they give but don't receive feedback. I'll have to think about that some more, but, off the top of my head, it has possibilities.

[Jackie]

I really like that "present and prepared" idea too, especially for junior/senior level classes!

Could you explain a little what "outlining" means in the law school context? My husband starts law school this fall, and we both come from the academic world too, so we're collecting info on law school note-taking, etc.

[Seeking Solace]

I like the present and prepared concept.I wish some of my law school profs would have used it. It would have helped on days where I was less than prepared!

I wouldn't mind trying that in some of my classes. CT and Business Law are very participation heavy.

I am not familiar with either of those products. When I was in law school in the mid 90's, we still took notes on paper! I did make my own outlines on my home computer, but I just used MS Word. I guess you have to use what you think will be less of a hassle. You don't want to be messing with trying to figure out stuff come exam time!

I am so excited for you. I really loved law school. That's why I think I am a better law teacher than I was as a lawyer (And I was a good lawyer.) Just studying the theories and concepts is so exciting.

[Seeking Solace]

Oh, I just read Jackie's comment. Outlining is used to help streamline your notes. Almost all law school classes have only one exam, the final. So, with all that information, it is necessary to have the material in a concise manner, especially if the exam is open notes.

[hypatia cade]

Oooh I'm loving the present and prepared for my Masters level clinical course. I think that should help me bridge the gap between making them turn in summaries for readings (ick) and having them be completely unprepared (boring). What a nice idea!

(I have no comment on either of the tools you mentioned :/ )

[medieval woman]

I'm going to come out of the closet and say that when I first read this post about law school reading assignments on the first day, I blurted out: "Ooo! Ooo! You'd better read - don't forget what happened to Elle Woods in Legally Blonde!!!"

(*crawls away in shame*)

[New Kid on the Hallway]

hee, medieval woman, Legally Blonde is definitely a big cultural reference for law school! (I watched it once with my cousin's husband, who's a lawyer, and while I think of it as a sappy comedy with a happy ending, he said it was like a horror movie for him because he kept having flashbacks to law school!)

Jackie, Seeking Solace knows much more about outlining than I do at the moment! But my sense is that most common method of studying for exams (which sum up the ENTIRE SEMESTER in three hours, not my favorite pedagogical approach, sigh) is to create an outline of your notes from the semester and learn the outline. There are websites that offer free course outlines to download (though the usual stance is that the value in the outlines is creating your own, not just learning someone else's), so you could see what they look like (though I admit they don't make much sense to me yet, not knowing any of the material). I think the point is to be able to identify what's central and what's supporting and so on. Some people create 70 pp outlines, some people whittle them down to 10 pp (the latter sound much easier to negotiate in the middle of an open book exam!). I also know people who say that outlining didn't work for them, so I don't think that it's the only way to study.

I liked the way the outlining programs made it easy for me to make hierarchies between different elements of my (test) notes, rather than just coming up with a bunch of undifferentiated paragraphs or a list of information, which is what my notes on academic reading normally look like - the latter is fine if I'm taking notes on one article, but I think if it were a semester's worth of material, it would get really unwieldy.

[Belle Lettre]

I went to law school from 2002-2005, and am still going to law school (for the graduate degree) from 2006-present. I used to be the ultimate outliner. Nowadays I use other people's outlines. But, the process of making an outline is important. What I do is toggle the syllabus to the table of contents. If you look at the TOC of the book, it is a natural, usually logical outline of a subject. The concepts build on each other, as do the cases. Your prof, however, will not assign every case, so you clearly don't want to cut&paste the entire outline as your framework. Also, s/he may assign some secondary source reading for the "policy perspective" or what not, and they will have to fit in with the headings (e.g., "mens rea" or "strict liability".

I never used those programs. I just took notes and later integrated them into my mini-case briefs. I used the notes to add what the professor said, to copy verbatim his take on a point of law, or to organize it into a flow chart. Lots of law school concepts lend themselves to flow charts.

I used MS Word (still do), but always created a separate table of contents _for my outline_ so that come exam time, I could quickly look up a concept rather than flip through pages. You don't need fancy programs. You just need to know how to digest, compress, and organize a lot of information.

See all the outlines I sent you for more!

Good luck! Email me with any questions. I am here for you.

[Amy]

"Present and Prepared"--I LOVE it!!!! Wonder if I could make it work in my sophmore level classes. I don't do a LOT of participation on non-discussion days... but I wonder if it would go farther in making them actively accountable for the material...

[trillwing]

I haven't played much with OOP, but I LOVE OmniGraffle as visualization software.

Have you looked at Scrivener? I've heard terrific things about it as well, though I haven't yet taken it for a test drive.

[George]

I use NoteBook for almost everything--it has a bit less raw outlining power than OmniOutliner, but the indexing and the other bells and whistles make it incredibly useful.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Hi Belle - thanks for the advice! The TOC point is really good (it's funny, I always used to tell students in my class to do this - look at the TOC and headings and so on in their textbooks). I know the programs aren't necessary, but what I like is that they make it really easy to format notes without thinking about it, which takes away the opportunity for me to waste a lot of time fussing over getting MS Word to make things look EXACTLY the way I want them to. (Which is so what I would do.) Plus I like playing with different programs. ;-)

trillwing, I looked at OmniGraffle a little but I don't think I'm much of a visual thinker... or at least, when I think visually, I'm still locked into the process of manually drawing stuff to do so. But I hear wonderful things about it, so I may have to play with it a little more. I've tried Scrivener, and I really like it a lot for research and writing papers, but it doesn't have the kind of outlining features that I'm looking for for note-taking.

George, hi and thanks for the vote for NoteBook!

[Lisa Spangenberg]

Hey, you!

I do like OmniOutlinerPro (get the educational price!) for outlining. That said, have you looked at the outlining ability of TextEdit, what comes with your Mac? Also, loathe as I am to say anything nice about MSWord, do check out the Notebook feature--in particular the way it works with recording audio while you make notes. It's very useful for the occasional lecturer who verbalizes at 90 mph. You record, take notes as best you can on the broad topics, then listen again and fill in.

[Lisa Spangenberg]

Hey, you!

I do like OmniOutlinerPro (get the educational price!) for outlining. That said, have you looked at the outlining ability of TextEdit, what comes with your Mac? Also, loathe as I am to say anything nice about MSWord, do check out the Notebook feature--in particular the way it works with recording audio while you make notes. It's very useful for the occasional lecturer who verbalizes at 90 mph. You record, take notes as best you can on the broad topics, then listen again and fill in.