First Week Assignment and
Expert Learning Program (Ex-L)
The Expert Learning Program (Ex-L) at Washburn Law is our academic success program:
- The First Week component, integrated into one of your first semester classes, gives you a jump start in law school by helping build basic skills and knowledge needed during the first weeks of law school.
- The Structured Study Group Program, also beginning during First Week, places you in a small law firm-type setting to help you develop collaborative skills in the context of learning the law and learning how to be successful in law school.
Our two-part program is designed to help you develop autonomous, reflective learning skills needed to succeed in law school, on the bar exam and in law practice. The following letter from Professor Schwartz describes the Ex-L Program in more detail.
Prepare the Following for Monday, August 17, 2009
See below for text #1, #2, and #3 ordering information.
- Text #1: Michael Hunter Schwartz, Expert Learning for Law Students. 2nd ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2008)
- Read entire text.
- Text #2: Michael Hunter Schwartz, Expert Learning for Law Students Workbook. 2nd ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2008)
- Journaling Assignment ("JA") #1:
Respond in writing to the following questions in the Expert Learning for Law Students Workbook:
Question (Q) 2, page (p.) 3; Q3, p. 3; Q4, p. 6.
(Combined, your responses to all three questions should be at least 150 words and no more than 500 words.) - Complete Exercises 5-1 through 5-4 in Expert Learning for Law Students Workbook.
- Journaling Assignment ("JA") #2:
Respond in writing to the following questions in the Expert Learning for Law Students Workbook:
Q4, p, 20; Q8, p. 21; Q1, p. 23; Q2, p. 23; Q3, p. 63.
(Combined, your responses to all three questions should be at least 150 words and no more than 500 words.)
- Journaling Assignment ("JA") #1:
- Text #3: Margaret Z. Johns & Rex R. Perschbacher, The United States Legal System: An Introduction. 2nd ed. (Carolina Academic Press, 2007)
- Read Chapters 2-4.
- Read "Lessons From the Third Sovereign: Indian Tribal Courts" (23 KB PDF)
- Read the information at the following links:
- Comparing Federal and State Court Systems
- Understanding Federal Courts: Civil Cases
- U.S. Courts of Appeals/District Courts Map (487 KB PDF; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
- You and the Courts of Kansas
- Kansas Court System
- Civil Court (read all the links under the "General Civil" heading on the left side of the page)
Ex-L at Washburn Law
Congratulations on your admission to Washburn University School of Law! I have taught law for eighteen years so I know how excited you are about what the next few months and years in law school and, eventually, in law practice, will bring. In fact, I recommend that you frequently remind yourselves of the goals and habits that led to your admission into law school: motivation and hard work.
I am a Professor of Law, who will be the contracts professor for half of you, and the director of Ex-L at Washburn University School of Law, a cutting-edge program designed to provide you the tools you need to succeed in law school and on the bar exam. I am writing to describe the two programs that make up Ex-L, the First Week Program and The Structured Study Group Program, and to give you some preliminary suggestions about managing your workload.
In the past few months, you probably have begun wondering what it takes to succeed in law school. Why do some smart people excel in law school and other, equally smart people struggle? What do the successful law students know that their peers do not?
The answer may surprise you. When you arrive on August 18 to start law school, your undergraduate grade point average and your LSAT score become old news. At that moment, you need to quickly develop the skills necessary for success in law school--the ability to manage the heavy law school workload, the motivation to work hard and the ability to study and learn law and legal analysis skills effectively and efficiently.
During Washburn's First Week Program and throughout the semester in Washburn's Structured Study Group Program, you will work on building and, hopefully, mastering these skills. Both of these programs have been designed based on a series of educational studies that have found that this approach is the best way to maximize students' chances to succeed in law school.
The moment you arrive on campus the morning of August 18, you will be starting the First Week Program. During this first week, you will be learning about the law school, about legal education, and about the resources available at Washburn to help you maximize your learning.
You will also begin your study of law. However, these initial class sessions will be slightly different than your later class sessions because we will be working with you to help you build the thinking, case reading, case briefing and other skills you will need to succeed in all your first-year law school classes.
On your first day of the First Week Program, you will also start the Structured Study Group Program. You will be placed in a small "law firm" of five or six students. Your firm will be led by a successful, carefully-trained and closely-supervised upper division law student whose job is to make sure that your group and all of its members:
- engage in the behaviors characteristic of successful law school study groups,
- stay on task,
- contribute equally to all group work, and
- collaborate in a way that encourages everyone to succeed in law school.
REMINDER: Do not purchase textbooks for any other classes prior to check-in on the morning of August 17.
To order these books from Carolina Academic Press:
- Click the link for the first book.
- A new window will open.
- Click the 'Order Now' button, then click the 'Add To Cart' button.
- DO NOT close the Carolina Academic Press (CAP) window.
- Return to this First Week Assignment window (i.e., this page).
- Click the link for the second book.
- Return to the CAP window to order and add this book.
- Return to this First Week Assignment window.
- Click the link for the third book.
- Return to the CAP window to order and add this book.
- Scroll down in the CAP window, if necessary, and click the 'Done Shopping' button.
- Follow the instructions on the 'Secure Online Order Form' to checkout.
Note: Carolina typically ships books ordered online by the next business day (UPS Ground, 5-7 day delivery).
So that I can intervene when necessary, the study group leaders also report to me throughout the semester about students who are struggling to learn or who are not able to complete their group work.
Both these programs will make demands of you. For example, you need to purchase the texts listed below and complete the described assignments by August 18. Both texts and the workbook are available online through the publisher, Carolina Academic Press:
- Text #1: Expert Learning... 2nd ed. (text)
- Text #2: Expert Learning... 2nd ed. (workbook)
- Text #3: The United States Legal System
If you have any questions about law school, the Ex-L Program, these assignments, or anything else, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at michael.schwartz [at] washburn.edu.
I look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz
Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Development
URLs for links on this page:
- Expert Learning... 2nd ed. (text)
http://www.cap-press.com/books/1810 - Expert Learning... 2nd ed. (workbook)
http://www.cap-press.com/books/1811 - Expert Learning... 2nd ed. (workbook, selected pages)
http://washburnlaw.edu/current/firstweek/expertlearning/expertlearningworkbookpages.pdf (60 KB PDF) - The United States Legal System. 2nd ed.
http://www.cap-press.com/books/1585 - Comparing Federal and State Court Systems
http://www.uscourts.gov/outreach/resources/comparefedstate.html - Understanding Federal Courts: Civil Cases
http://www.uscourts.gov/understand03/content_6_1.html - U.S. Courts of Appeals/District Courts Map
http://www.uscourts.gov/images/CircuitMap.pdf - You and the Courts of Kansas
http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/general-information/you-and-the-courts/ - Kansas Court System
http://www.kscourts.org/dstcts/Kjb_JD_Interactivemap.htm - Civil Court (read all the links under the "General Civil" heading on the left side of the page)
http://www.scselfservice.org/civ/default.htm
