Daniel L. Barnett

What is the most significant issue facing your field and how should it be addressed?
 
One issue that is particularly relevant to the legal writing field is helping incorporate effective formative assessment methods throughout the law school curriculum, as is now required by the law school accreditation standards. Legal writing professionals were early adopters of formative assessment by developing the basic writing curriculum around drafts and rewrites of assignments, which allowed teachers to provide extensive comments on drafts so students would improve their skills to complete the final project. The effectiveness of this feedback method led legal writing teachers to develop other creative forms of formative assessment—which were new to legal education—to help students refine their analytical and writing skills, including directed peer review, self-evaluation techniques, in-class writing exercises, and targeted one-on-one-one student meetings. I am excited that we can use this expertise to improve teaching and learning in all law school classes by helping all of our colleagues adapt these techniques for their own classes.

What's the most important thing you are working on right now?
 
My current project a first-year textbook on advocacy writing, which will be the companion book to the text I co-wrote with Professor Emerita Jane Gionfriddo (Boston College). I am designing the book to encourage teachers to incorporate a variety of teaching and assessment techniques. That focus has led me to try to write the teacher’s manual at the same time as the book, which is a very different process than I have used before, so it’s a new and fun experience.

What have you read, listened to, or watched recently that has influenced you or your work?

Olympia Duhart, “The ‘F’ Word: The Top Five Complaints (and Solutions) About Formative Assessment,” 67 Journal of Legal Education 531 (2018).