I strongly believe that formative assessments improve student learning. However, I have struggled to find the right mix of assessments and implement them effectively. After the fold, I share what I have learned from six years of trial and error. I know there is a great deal of literature out there on assessments, but I thought it might be helpful to hear what has and hasn’t worked for another law professor. I welcome others (including students) to share their experiences in the comments.
Practice Essays
I have always given my students practice essays with model answers so that they know what to expect on the final exam. I now include a rubric as well to give them a sense of what I look for when grading. I started out making these purely optional, but I discovered that many students would just pick up the model answer and skim through it without bothering to even write an essay. I then moved to collecting the students’ answers and grading them pass/fail, but I found that many students did not take them seriously. I now make them low-stakes take-home essay (with a page limit) by grading them just like a final essay, and the students seem to put in the effort.
The obvious cost here is that grading the essays is time consuming. I limit student answers to 2 pages (double-spaced, 12 point NYT font) to keep it manageable. I think the benefits are substantial. The students get much-needed practice on their exam writing, and the short essays probably do a better job of mimicking the bar than a standard issue-spotting final exam. Because the students all take the essay seriously, the model answer and rubric help reinforce the doctrine and show them what I am looking for. I can also identify students who have major problems (either with writing or the doctrine) and give more individualized feedback. In sum, I think the essays actually improve student writing and understanding, while the final essay really just sorts students into groups and does little to advance learning.
Multiple Choice Quizzes
I have used clicker quizzes, paper quizzes, and online quizzes before class. The system I like best is passing out two exam-style multiple choice questions on paper at the start of class about once a week. I then give the students a reasonable amount of time, collect the quizzes, and go over them with the class. I typically page through the quizzes, pick someone who got the question right, and call on that person to talk through it. I think it is useful to model how to think through the problems. Occasionally, the quizzes also help me to see where I need to spend more time on something or cover it differently because the students aren’t getting it. The cost is that it takes class time, but I think it is time well spent reviewing the doctrine.
I make the total score a small part of the overall grade (10%), but I drop the lowest few quizzes to account for absences. In my experience, if it doesn’t “count” the students don’t take it seriously and it isn’t as effective. That being said, I often encourage students to use Socractive, an online app, as an informal polling tool in class. I use this for quick hypos or opinion questions, and the results are anonymous. One thing to keep in mind though—for any in-class assessments, you should talk to the appropriate person at your school about how to include students who require accommodations.
Midterms
I started with multiple choice midterms, because grading in the middle of the semester sounded daunting. I now do a combination of multiple choice and essay. The grading is manageable this way, because the students just don’t have enough time to write a long essay. Of course, you could also use a character/word limit.
I give a model answer to the essay, I usually give a sample student answer, and I always offer to review it with each student individually. Just like with the practice essays, I think this helps students to learn the doctrine and improve their writing. The problem with midterms (and especially multiple midterms, which I have not yet tried) is that they take away an entire class period. My philosophy on this, however, is that depth and skills are more important than coverage.
Briefs
I have experimented with having students upload briefs to the classroom webpage. I no longer do this for a couple of reasons. It is very time-consuming to check, even if you only spot check intermittently. Many students also did not take it very seriously, and I even had a few instances of people copying from online summaries. Finally, I rarely teach 1Ls now, and I think this is most appropriate for them.
Outlines
I don’t do anything with student outlines, but I am planning to share with my students this excellent advice on outlining from my colleague Erica Goldberg. The next time I teach first semester 1Ls I think I might require students to turn something in before the midterm to gauge how things are going.
Skills Exercises
I have occasionally tried to structure my practice essays as a motion or memo to a partner. I thought it worked fine, but I gave up on this a couple of years ago. Students worried too much about the formatting, and I prefer to sell the essays as practice for the final exam.
Final Thoughts
I have tried different combinations, but I now think the ideal balance is one midterm, about one multiple choice quiz per week, and two writing assignments. This is a lot of extra work and probably isn’t manageable the first time you are teaching a new class. In fact, I am thinking about grading just one of the essays next semester. I would probably also need to adjust things in a large class, but luckily I haven’t had to teach a course of more than about 45 students recently. If I had a large course, I would probably try to use an outside grader (adjunct or teaching assistant) during the semester.
I still make the final exam at least 60% of the overall grade, because I want to stress the importance of pulling everything together at the end.
Please share your experiences below! I would be especially interested in hearing about group work and oral presentations, which I haven’t used much yet.
Thanks for sharing. I've done many various assessments (all ungraded) and then polled my hundreds of students across various courses on which they found most effective--and surprisingly the majority say multiple choice quizzes because of the quick and objective feedback they receive on them.
Posted by: Margaret Ryznar | March 22, 2018 at 12:03 AM
Two words that ease the burden of formative assessment: Teaching assistants
Posted by: Jay Feinman | March 22, 2018 at 01:54 PM
Jeff, out of curiosity, do you have a sense of how schools meet the needs of students with accommodations, without compromising an anonymous grading policy, when a professor administers a graded, in-class exercise? I've always made my in-class exercises ungraded to avoid this challenge, but you have some great ideas I may try to adapt for my classes (90+ people in Tax, Wills & Trusts).
Posted by: Bridget Crawford | March 23, 2018 at 11:23 AM
Bridget, when I give the multiple choice quizzes I can forestall most accommodation issues by taking time pressure out of the equation. Instead of timing the students, I give them about 4-5 minutes and then ask if anyone needs more time. For some students with accommodations I have (rarely) allowed students to pick up the quiz before class begins or even take it in my office 10 minutes before class. Aside from the midterm, all of my other assessments are take-home.
Jay, this is a good suggestion, and I plan to experiment with teaching assistants next year. However, I do have some reservations about having the TA grade assessments that count, and I have found that many students (and especially the students who need the help the most) don't put much effort in if the assessment isn't graded.
Posted by: Jeff | March 23, 2018 at 05:07 PM