Law Schools

8 Ways To Help Your Millennial Law Students Learn More This Semester

Added bonus: these tips will also make your semester easier!

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I recently realized that I spend a lot of time talking to my students about how to navigate law school and not nearly enough time talking to my colleagues about how to teach millennial law students. So this week, law professors, I am talking to you! Here are 8 things you can do this semester to help your students learn more effectively and be more engaged.

1 – Encourage them to be creative

Everyone likes to feel that their opinion matters, millennials even more so than others. They enjoy coming up with creative solutions and then having the opportunity to share them with others. Unfortunately, there isn’t always a lot of time for this in a law school classroom. I know it can be a challenge to merely get through the necessary material in a course. I have actually found that allocating time for students to discuss their opinions at predetermined points in the semester helps to keep the discussion on track the rest of the semester.

2 – Give them the opportunity to collaborate

Millennials are relational, and they thrive when interacting with others. However, most of the time, law school is a solo activity. Outside of self-created study groups, there are not many chances for students to work together in law school. While almost all of my students have expressed deep contempt for group projects that count towards their grade, they have also told me they enjoy when I carve out a few minutes of class for them to work through a hypothetical question with a partner or in a small group.

3 – Show interest in them as individuals

I’ll spare you my feelings on the term “helicopter parent,” but we need to remember that many of our students grew up with parents who were very involved in their lives.  They are used to the adults in their lives showing interest in them and their success. I understand that this can be difficult with 60+ students in a class, and I am not suggesting that we go overboard here. This can be accomplished by simply taking the opportunities that arise in the moments after class when a line forms for questions or in office hours to ask students “how are you?” or “do you need help with anything?” These questions can go a long way in making students feel “seen.”

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4 – Teach them how to learn

This is probably not news to you, but our students are accustomed to being taught to the test. They really want us to give them the answers. It may even be the case that their critical thinking skills are not where we think they should be. The reality is that our students need our help to understand the legal learning process. You can, and are always welcome to, send them to your academic success department for help with these issues. However, it goes a long way when a substantive law professor takes some time to discuss study habits, exam preparation, and exam writing with their students. They want the blueprint for success and are much more likely to take action on it when it comes from you.

5 – Set classroom rules and boundaries

One place where we can be very clear and specific is with our classroom rules and boundaries. It is our job as professors to set expectations of and for our students. Millennials tend to act more casual and relaxed in professional situations than some professors may like. We are, after all, the “social media generation” and have fewer in-person interactions than previous generations. If you don’t want your classroom to have a laid-back vibe, be sure to clearly set and communicate your expectations early and in writing.

6 – Explain “why”

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Your students really want, and sometimes need, to understand why you request certain things of them. Telling millennials “because I said so” simply does not work. For example, if you plan to incorporate the last tip about setting boundaries, it is important that you also explain why you put those rules in place. I know it can be frustrating to feel as if you are justifying yourself or your policies. Instead, I would try to look at it as a teachable moment where instead of only telling students how to behave, you also explain why they should want to behave that way for themselves.

I have found that when students feel more invested in, well, anything, they are more likely to go along with it. For example, when I plan on using the Socratic method in a class, I explain what it is and why I use it. Doing this helps change the student’s mindset from “my professor is trying to embarrass me” to “this will help me engage with and learn the law.”

7 – Create some academic urgency

Have you heard that millennials are entitled? That we are the “everyone gets a trophy” generation? Some students come in with the expectation that if they merely show up, they will succeed. You can help to break this mentality by challenging them early in the semester with a quiz or practice question. I am not suggesting that we should completely demoralize our students early on (we have all semester for that), but rather that we show them where they need to be substantively and skills-wise by the final exam against where they are today. This often works to help increase their motivation to show up and work hard for the rest of the semester.

8 – Give them feedback

While I resent, and generally reject, the premise that millennials lack grit and perseverance, I can acknowledge that some of us have difficulty self-assessing and self-validating. When a grade is based on only one final exam at the end of the semester, students can be way off the mark as to how they will perform. Generally, I see one of two situations occur: students either spend all semester unnecessarily over-anxious and then perform well on the final or they think they are doing great and then completely miss the mark on the exam.

The only real solution to this is to give students feedback throughout the semester. A midterm, quizzes, or a few practice questions throughout the semester enable students to better understand their progress. Some of these activities, such as a graded midterm, require a significant investment of time on behalf of the professor. Other exercises, such as ungraded practice questions that you review in class, require a relatively short amount of time, but offer an effective mechanism for self-evaluation to the student.

I hope you take advantage of these opportunities to incorporate some of these strategies into your classroom this semester and that they are beneficial to you and your students. More importantly, or should I say selfishly, I hope that you will share with me any other tips or tricks you have up your sleeve for teaching millennial law students.

Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at info@vincoprep.com.

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