Of course, I should have brought along the digital camera to take a group photo. Kris Franklin (pictured, right) organized another wonderful NY-centered worskshop on Friday, November 18.
Academic Supporters from Maryland, Pace, NYLS, Touro, Hofstra (see Richard Neumann, at
right) , Quinnipiac (see Gail Stern, at left), Roger Williams, Fordham and Cuny gathered to discuss, learn and work together.
You shoulda’ been there! Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus and Myra Berman taught us how to use "IRAC Diagraming" to help students "…see IRAC in action." Fabulous.
Mark Padin sparked a discussion about LSAT/diversity-minority/bar-pass issues, concerns and controversies … not the least of which was the mandatory vs. voluntary participation controversy, which led … as you would expect … to the stigma/backlash controversy. Mark not only offered his own comments and experiences, but distributed material documenting the disturbing fact that "minority representation among law students has dropped for the past two years, from 20.6 percent in 2001-2002 to 20.3 percent in 2003-2004" (based on ABA statistics).
[By the way, one of the articles Mark handed out was from a publication you may be unaware of: Minority Law Journal Student Edition. This particular article featured the FIU and FAMU attempts to "increase the legal profession’s diversity in Florida." ed.]
Dionne Koller (left) explained how she trains and employs "Teaching Fellows" to assist with the Academic Support Mission at the U. of Maryland.
Kris Franklin ran us through a drill which required us to analyze two (actual) students’ exam answers, then discuss how to best help each student. For this part, I passed out four-color pens, and explained the Dan Wilson (see tribute to Dan by his Denver students) method of helping students analyze their own answers. Kris provided a typed transcript of her detailed voice recording commentary that she delivered to the student (a method which provides the opportunity to offer detailed, lengthy and – one would hope – more helpful advice to struggling students).
Note to workshop participants: consider writing a short version of your impressions of what went on during the workshop, and I’ll post them here. Send them as an attachment. (djt)
