Law School Admission Council’s
Academic Assistance Training Workshop
June 13 - 16, 2012
Joyce Savio Herleth
Saint Louis University School of Law
In the good old days, you played
dodge ball at recess
 You got picked (or not) depending on your prowess
 You got whacked with a ball (or in my case, a beanbag) and
you were out.
 Your school might have its own version of the game – and
you adjusted to the “house rules.” No arguments
 Now it’s about parachutes
 We are all good
 We are all special
 And so what does
 this mean to us?
Adjusting our programs to fit the
current millennial students
 What we know from the LSAC
demographics
 Educational theories that may effect
students’ perspectives
 Helicopter parents and their legacy
 Social media and how it has changed
students
•Thank you Law School Admissions Council
for all statistics
•Thank you Mike Kolnik, Assistant Dean of
Admissions for providing them to me!
Law School increases/decreases on application
volume fell by about 15 percent this year
(down to 62,330): How schools fared:
LSAC stats applicants
 2012 Applicants by Gender
2012 ABA applicants by
race/ethnicity
How the 2012 applicants did and
comparison from last yeat
Big declines on the
high end
What we all already knew
 Matriculant Group
 All
Fall 2010
49,700
Fall 2011
4 5,600
-8.3%
 Female
 % change from prior year
 Male
 % change from prior year
22,790
2 1,280
-0.5%
-6.6%
26,800
2 4,180
3.4%
-9.8%
2009 Age Group Median LSAT and
Number of Applications
 Age Group Median LSAT Median # of Applications
 21 & Under
155 7
 22-24
1546
While not a huge change up to
 25-29
1534
30, if potential applicants
postpone until a better
 30-39
1492
economic climate, what may be
the LSAT effect in future years?
 40+
1441
 So as students postpone, will there be an educational
gap/score gap?
A view from the Prelaw Department
 Anxiety
 Reliance on polls/certain certificates, etc.
 This is what our pre-law students are doing.
 Questions made harder because of press/access to all sorts of
information
 Is this a good choice for me?
 Am I making a wise investment when I am not confident
about my financial situation
 Thinks about more than USNWR –Specific process is
necessary to decide (see above)
 If get in a higher rank school – do I have to go there? Does it
make sense?
(thanks Prof. J. O’Hallaron)
11
Forbes article by Keld Jensen may
bring some comfort
 Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology
shows 85 percent of financial success is due to skills in “human
engineering,” described in the article as “your personality and
ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.”



Emotional intelligence – regulating and using emotions that are
good for self and relationships
 Monitor self
 Watch stress
Moral intelligence - integrity, responsibility, sympathy, and
forgiveness:
 No excuses
 Be responsible
Body intelligence knowing and taking care of self.
 Take care of yourself
 Only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge
 So our jobs as law professors and administrators go beyond just
getting them to pass the bar

Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need To Succeed
http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/04/12/intelligence-is-overrated-what-you-really-need-tosucceed/
So what does this mean?
 When we work with students it’s important to assist
them transition to professionals
 Not just law school (and the bar)
 But to become successful in their future life
 OK now let’s look at the issues
To get to success, let’s look the current generation’s prognosis
Millennials!
Millennials- Two Views*:
 Neil Howe and William Strauss: Millennials Rising: The Next Great
Generation
 Born between 1982 and 2004 or thereabouts
 seven "core traits": special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional,
pressured, and achieving.
 Established the notion of a generation sharing characteristics
 Note this became a cottage industry and business for Mr. Howe
 Jean. M. Twenge: Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are
More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever
Before
 Born in 1970s – 1990s
 Concern that constant praise resulted in a rise in narcissism (versus self-
confidence)
 Concern with “you can do anything you want to be” and “you’re special”
 Internet has led to more self-absorption
* From The Millennial Muddle by Eric Hoover, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 11, 2009,
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Millennial-Muddle-How/48772/
Next: What students have been
learning about themselves
 Many new theories have been developed over time
 One of the more interesting has been Howard
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
 For Gardner, intelligence is:
 the ability to create an effective product or offer a service
that is valued in a culture;
 a set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve
problems in life
 the potential for finding or creating solutions for
problems, which involves gathering new knowledge.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_overview.html
HOWARD GARDNER'S NINE MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
1. Linguistic Intelligence: the capacity to use language to express
what's on your mind and to understand other people.
2. Logical/Mathematical Intelligence: the capacity to understand
the underlying principles of some kind of causal system, or to
manipulate numbers, etc.
3. Musical Rhythmic Intelligence: the capacity to think in music; to
be able to hear patterns, etc.
4. Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence: the capacity to use your whole
body or parts of your body to solve a problem, make something, or put
on some kind of production.
5. Spatial Intelligence: the ability to represent the spatial world
internally in your mind
6. Naturalist Intelligence: the ability to discriminate among living
things and sensitivity to other features of the natural world
7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: having an understanding of yourself;
8. Interpersonal Intelligence: the ability to understand other
people.
9. Existential Intelligence: the ability and proclivity to pose (and
ponder) questions about life, death, and ultimate realities.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ed_mi_overview.html
According to Dr. P. Nuernberger, from New City School in
St. Louis (one of the biggest proponents of MI*)
 Many elementary/some high school teachers are aware
of this theory – not all use it (many don’t)
 Goal is to allow students to identify their source of
intelligence and how to adapt to the teaching/teacher.
 Ways to know oneself
 Ways to use their intelligence area(s) to return
information
 Methods at New City School (check out Wikipedia –
the school is mentioned!)
 Emphasis on group discussions, hands-on work, work on
knowledge of self

*Telephone interview with Nuernberger May 10, 2012
More brain stuff
 Linguistics is the most important in lawyer skills – as
Reading/Writing is in VARK
 Just anecdotally find more students who are hands-
on/kinesthetic which is NOT good
 Moreover 10 -20 minutes is suggested as the top of the
attention scale
 Study by Prof. Kim Morse following her 2010 laptop
study noted that the students using computers were
going off-task every 4 – 5 minutes
 More later
So let’s focus:
 Either students know and adapt to what is out
there in the teaching world OR
 Students know what their MI/preference is
(VARK/ Meyers Briggs) but don’t know what it
means/how to use it OR
 They have figured out how to adapt using their
strengths but are self aware of that adaptation
(which makes it much harder to channel
appropriately)
 Students expect the professors to adapt to them
 Plus you better do it fast or they lose attention
Suggestions
 Think about doing some assessment tests (VARK is quick)
during orientation or with any students you work with.
 Make sure that you have a variety of programs that take
students step-by-step through the various topics you wish
to emphasize
 So if teaching synthesizing – have overall workshop
 Have step by step explanation
 Break it down into parts that a student can internalize with either a
Q and A approach (ask yourself….) 0r
 Outline steps
 Or video of explanation
 Make it “fun”
 If you can – have good and bad examples
 Teach self-assessment
 Have practice sheets
Samples of assessment of a practice
question: slide from a program
 You all had a variety of issues:
 Personal jurisdiction
 JMOL
 Issues regarding joinder.
 Scan now the answer key – how do you present the rules?
 Other than Prof. - - - -, did you all use the rule numbers ?
 Did you give a general overview of the purpose of these rules?
 Anything else you deal with significant?
 Notice that you will need to utilize some samples that
work with your professors if demonstrating exam writing
or outlining specific content in an outline
23
Generous “C”
Question Presented
Can Patterson (P) be found guilty of
murdering Amelia (A) when she falls to her
death as a result of his attempted assault on
her?
Use these
inserts to
Brief Answer
make
points to
Yes, under the FM Rule
Patterson
(P) is
likely to be found guilty of 1ststudents
° Murder.
Discussion
The elements required to be found
guilty under the FM Rule of 1st° Murder
are: 1) The unlawful killing must happen
while one is in the commission or
attempted commission of a specific
felony; 2) the felony must be inherently
dangerous; 3) felony must not be an
integral part of the homicide; 4) Death
must be a consequence of the felony.
[relevant case law?]
“A”
Is there sufficient evidence for 1st° Murder?
First section very efficient!
Generally, the rule for 1st° Murder is the
intentional and unlawful killing of a
human being with malice and with
premeditation and deliberation.
(Forrest) Premeditation (P) means to
think beforehand, and deliberation
means to measure and evaluate the
major facets of the choice as a problem
(Morrin). Premeditation and
deliberation can happen w/in the
“twinkling of an eye;” that is no time is
too short for a wicked man to frame in
his mind a scheme for murder, and to
contrive the means of accomplishing it
(Cardozo in Schrader). Guthrie further
defines this by saying there must be
some period of time between formation
of intent to kill and the actual killing. P
and D require an interval long enough
for a reasonable person to take a
“second look” at the nature of his
response. Malice is defined as the (a)
HELICOPTER
PARENTS
According to Prof. Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Hovering
Too Close: The Ramifications of Helicopter Parenting in
Higher Education, January 10, 2012 *
 The result of this type of parenting (which is the
subject of many papers) are students who have
difficulty moving from an environment which is
monitored to one of self sufficiency.
 Problems with self-advocacy
 Problems with self-reliance
 Problems with managing personal time
*http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1982763
What we may see in our students.
 Maturation issues
 Effect on professionalism
 An ability to acknowledge mistakes and work through them
 Effect on expectations

Lawsuits anyone?
 Sense of entitlement and expectations
 Or, as my mother would comment on occasion, “their
mommas loved them way too much” (dads too!)
 Immediate communication
 Question of filter?
 Sources of information
 Effect on collegiality
 Effect on learning
Concerns about independence and maturation
 “I know you presented earlier this year on the meaning of "business casual",
and I was wondering if you have any of that information stored
electronically that you could send me”
 It’s all on my TWEN site as well as another site as well as the video of the
program (and none of this is a secret)
 Dear Joyce,
I hope all is well. A couple of [my} students have reported that they are
unable to find and access [my} past exams on Twen. Has something
changed or do they need to do something?
Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Don't know what to say - it's where it should be - did they "join" Past Exams
- Academic Advising and then hit [professor’s course name] and then your
file?
If they are having problems - have them talk to one of the librarians …Joyce
Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Thanks Joyce- I just wanted to be sure that nothing had changed. And I also
checked with the librarian who handles TWEN. And I finally just copied
all the exam questions and emailed them to the student…
There are different students and different emotions
 But there is a higher level of anxiety and desires to be
the better students (to get the job)
 Thoughts to deal with this:
 Have a go-to person in your mental health/student
health department.


Memorize the name and number!!!
In a perfect world – have an on-site person at least part-time
 Make sure that students understand cause and effect
regarding how they prepare and study for exam
 HOWEVER, think about your message to emphasize the
process of legal analysis rather than the grades.


informative but recognize that knowing what to do is the
critical task – not X g.p.a. but make sure they realize where the
grade ranges fall. POST IT.
Message of knowing what to do, practicing what to do, focus
29
on process not result.
Suggestions
 Make them do it:
 Student (email) I was wondering if I could come in at some
point early in the week to meet and talk about scheduling for next
year. I would also like to make sure I don't have any holds on my
record. [then lists times to meet]
 Me: 10:30 on Tuesday - the holds are your responsibility to check; if
you did not go to the presentation [on registration basics and
advice] last Tuesday at noon - the video is posted on my Academic
Advising Workshop TWEN site. Please look at it before we meet
tomorrow.
 But be realistic and have at times – baby steps if necessary for the
most needy
 Have sessions/handouts/etc. that break down topics into pieces
 Be prepared to have one-on-one for the needy/significantly
troubled
How students
communicate
and network
Issue of inappropriate
communications!
 1L; Hello Joyce, I was directed to you by [Career Service] about my
interest/concerns of improving my test taking and studying abilities, as
I was not overly satisfied with my performance first semester. [75 –
80%] Please let me know if you would be able to meet with me sometime
in the near future. I have posted my weekly availabilities below.
 Me: 10 on this Friday works; see you then, Prof Herleth
 Text language
 Unfamiliar with formality
 Open door – head on in! (who me? Knock?)
Subtle hint
Solutions:
 Require formality
 Teach professionalism
 Don’t be afraid to tell particular offenders that they
need to clean up their act
 It’s uncomfortable to tell a student they are too
loud/that jokes in class are not welcome/that you expect
them to refer to all professors as “Professor” even in
meetings.
 Make sure you also maintain formality
 Watch Linked in/Facebook (nonprofessional)
 But declare colleagues at graduation
I learned in this presentation!
Orientation
instruction
Prof. Joyce Herleth, Director of Academic Advising
34
Tuesday January 23, 2012
12:00 – 12:50 p.m., room 303
Offices of Academic Advising and Career Services
2Ls/3Ls – with
Career Services
Communication issues: getting them to pay
attention to what they are reading
 May need to work with students on critical reading
skills because some students have difficulty staying on
task sufficiently to pull out material facts/synthesize
 May need to work with students if they are not getting
sufficient information from class
 May need to work with students to make sure they
read carefully on exams
 More practically make sure they read your
emails/letters/and other stuff you send them.
Short attention span suggestions
 Emails to the point – no longer than a tweet
 Bullets
 Use alternatives for emails since many delete (so put in heading
something that will bet them to open it)



“pizza and a workshop”
“Want to pass the bar? Come to this!”
Really think about an Academic Support separate Facebook page.
 Brand those clichés!
 Use similarity of terms to remind students of what you are talking about
 Make posters pop
 Make the message simple
 Remember the rule:
 Tell what you are going to tell them
 Tell them
 Tell them what you told them
 And limit your points no matter how wonderful they are!
 Powerpoint/videos only work if they can capture the audience
Sample questions for critical reading:
When reading cases, need to have students
ask themselves
• Are these facts?
• Are these rules?
• Are these “other”- like (public) policy?
• If facts:
• Are they material facts?
• If rules:
• Examine and figure out how to decide what court wants
• If policy
• Decide what the policy is
• Examine and figure out why this policy is significant
STRUCTURE IS
WHAT CAN HELP
STUDENTS
GROW
Laptop and multitasking!! You will
lose them when:
 Student laptop users tend to go off-task when X-(anything) occurs





for 4 minutes or more...
When professor is engaged in Socratic method with one
student, there is an increase in off-task behavior by other students.
When a classmate engages with professor, there is an increase
in off-task behavior by other students.
When professor is monotone, or, overly uses one linguistic
intonation style, students tend to increase off-task behavior.
Approximately 40 minutes into class, off-task behavior increases.
When professor calls on students in expected order, off-task
behavior increases.
Before You Ban: Empirical Data on Student Laptop Use
Prof. Kim Novak Morse, Saint Louis University School of Law
If you have a class/program try:
 ““Announcing-the-Good-Stuff” Strategy:
 “Ultimately, courts look at X...”; “The upshot is...”
 Using the “Rupture Strategy” which directs students to
something:
 “Look at page X...”; “On the screen, notice X...”,
 “Changing-up-the-Voice” Strategy with signal phrases like:
 “This would be a good exam question...” “ I want to flag for
you...” , “The critical idea here is… or, rising intonation found in
questions: “Because........?”
 “Problem-Posing” Strategy:
 “If we alter X, what might Y?”
 “Keep-the-Show-Moving” Strategy:
 may present info (5 min or less)
 switch 2) ask a question to the class (5 min or less)
 switch 3) direct students to book (5 min or less)
 switch, etc.
 “Moving-into-student’s-space” Strategy:
 Students redirect attention when professor moves toward off-task
individuals (but surprisingly only for a short time).
Maybe…
Maybe not…
Things to consider*
 Courses really need to be standardized and clear in the
expectations of what the objectives are, as well as the
method of assessment
 Actually difficult to accomplish on one’s own, absent
some expertise- so use technology
 On the other hand, there are more one-on-one aspects
to on-line work
 Student can repeat/review at own pace
 Student can determine with more accuracy where the
problems are
 Quicker response time than pen and paper (ok,
computer and response)

Dan Bennett The Imperfect Art of Designing Online Courses, Chronicle of Higher Education April 29, 2012
Possible ideas: Don’t forget to use
what’s out there
 CALI and other on-line study aids
 Often for bar prep, can get the leading for profit programs




(e.g. BarBri and the like) to work with you to prepare some
m/c question
Many companies are willing to help you create your own
books
Also NCBEX will sell for a cost
And of course one can use clickers and the like
So what is important is the personalize aspect – no matter
how its accomplished
 Tutors
 TAS
 And of course, you.
Nagging by parents/undergrad experience can
make 1Ls (particularly) vulnerable to time and
self-motivation issues
 Not often enough did parents allow consequences to
happen.
 Too much protection and fighting their children’s
fights
 Too much programming suggests that students need
to be told when to do things more
 If they think they are special and thus too sure of
themselves – will they wait until it is too late to start?
I want it and I want it NOW
 Part of multitasking and all internet usage
 Even if you are free for students at consistent times –
encourage appointments (on-line)
 Rsvp for workshops (on-line)
 If the information is readily available – make them get
it.
 Remember the goal is professionalism
Last issue: time management
 Emphasize time management – journal it for students
having issues
 Make them note location and quality of attention to
studying
 Emphasize that legal analysis can’t be done quickly
 Make it a part of our culture by reminding students of
what they should be thinking about:
 Facebook about filling out bar application
 Facebook about starting outlines (in conjunction with
programs large and small)
 Emails may be ok – but remember short and sweet and
rsvp
Bottom line:
 Some students – not all – are programmed to expect
success always
 So it’s hard for them to be open to the new reality of
law school
 We need to educate not only in the basic structure of
law school, but be prepared to
 Entertain
 Remind
 Explain in small segments and detail
 Listen and empathize
On the horizon
 There are always new theories in education – and a
noted scholars Duckworth and others found that
students who push through with long term stamina
tend to do better. The buzzwords then are:
 Perseverance
 Failure
 Grit

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087- 1101.
Good thought to end presentation
 Drs. Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman
(2006) found that the correlation between selfdiscipline and achievement was twice as large as
the correlation between IQ and achievement. *


Dan Laitsch Self-Discipline and Student Academic Achievement Research Brief, June 26, 2006 | Volume 4 | Number 6
Duckworth, A., & Seligman, M. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents.
Psychological Science, 16 (12), 939–944.