Ah, the first day of law school. The 1Ls are ready to go. Orientation may have fed some of their apprehensions, but it’s also gotten them excited about beginning their law school journey. The returning 2Ls and 3Ls have done a variety of things over the summer. Their experiences in many cases have given them new-found motivation (though that doesn’t necessarily mean they are all thrilled to be back at school).
But what to do on the first day of class? At Elon, we have a two-day “boot camp” as part of orientation. So every 1L has had a classroom introduction to each first year subject, and they’ve even written several mini-exam answers so they begin to see what the enterprise of legal analysis is about. And in my case, having taught the boot camp session on torts, I’ve already met with all the 1Ls (including the students I will have in my section. So a little bit of the ice has already been broken; they’ve already met with me (and several of their other professors) before the first “official” day of their law school careers.
Even with this run-up, there are still so many things a professor wants to impart on the first day. There are obvious logistical and housekeeping announcements. Even if they are covered in the syllabus, it’s usually a good thing to go over the most important ones in class. Over time I have become more and more convinced that making expectations clear and beginning to demonstrate how to approach legal problems is a good thing to do. Of course I don’t expect students to “get it” the first time it’s put out there – element analysis, applying facts to rules, etc. If they did, we wouldn’t need to spend an entire year doing the first year of law school. But the sooner they can begin to see what the expectations are at the end of the semester, even if at first their approach is mechanical, the more efficient all of their studying and preparation will be. At SEALS a couple of months ago, at one of the sessions I attended a professor said that on the first day he shows students what an exam question and a good answer look like. I have never gone quite that far – for one thing, I think it might be too intimidating. But the mini-exam hypos our students do in boot camp allow me to begin talking to first –year students from the very start about how to “reverse engineer” back from the ultimate result to what their notes and outline will have to include to get them there.
Having said that, and recognizing that there is so much we want to tell them, I strongly believe in “doing some law school” the first day. So regardless of where we are in the introductory material, at some point on the first day I want to make sure we begin to discuss a case. Too much talk of abstract concepts, process points or general themes can overwhelm 1Ls, especially when they haven’t yet read any cases.
One more point – also suggested by someone at SEALS. One nice, simple way to start a conversation about teaching among colleagues is to pose the question, “What do you do on the first day of class?”. Great idea. So give it some thought – what do you do? And why?