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Teaching Resources

Writing a good exam (summative assessment)

Susan M. Case & Beth E. Donahue, Developing High-Quality Multiple-Choice Questions for Assessment in Legal Education, 58 J. Legal Educ. 372 (2008).
Summarizes the merits of multiple-choice questions v. essay questions and then focuses on how to write good multiple-choice exams
Daniel Keating, Ten Myths About Law School Grading, 76 Wash. U. L.Q. 171 (1998).
The author identifies and tries to debunk some myths about grades in law school.

Assessment outside of the final exam or paper (formative assessment)

Greg Sergienko, New Modes of Assessment, 38 San Diego L.Rev. 463 (2001).
Steven Friedland, A Critical Inquiry into the Traditional Uses of Law School Evaluation, 23 Pace L. Rev. 147 (2002).
Margaret Martin Barry et al., Justice Education and the Evaluation Process: Crossing Borders (New Developments in Clinical Legal Education), 28 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 195 (2008).
Suggests that the criteria established for student evaluation must be communicated with plenty of continuing feedback.
William S. Sullivan et al., "Assessment and How to Make it Work" in Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (2007).
Available from the library at call number MON KF272 .E38 2007
Classroom Assessment Techniques in Legal Education
How Failure in the Classroom Is More Instructive Than Success
Addresses ways in which to teach students to embrace failure in order to be more creative and take risks. The author even finds ways to assess her students for good use of failure by grading them, in part, on how ambitious their project was.
Challenges in Motivating Law Students to Learn
advocates using short, ungraded and unannounced quizzes to make sure students read and are prepared for class.

Samples

Institute for Law Teaching and Learning resources
includes example syllabi, exercises, handouts, grading rubrics and more.

Student learning outcomes

Mark Battersby, So, What's a Learning Outcome, Anyway?, ERIC Document ED430611 (July 1999).
An excellent overview on student learning outcomes and how/why to teach using them.
Twenty Questions for Identifying Learning Outcomes in Law School
Assessment Resources from Institute for Law Teaching and Learning

rubrics

Great Rubrics
Advice and examples for how to create effective rubrics