Howard Katz, professor of law at Elon University School of Law, has coauthored "Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching," a book that provides detailed and comprehensive advice on how to plan, design, and teach law school courses effectively.
Coauthored with Kevin Francis O’Neill, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and released by Aspen Publishers in April, the book strongly encourages faculty to define objectives carefully for their law school courses, while offering detailed advice on a wide range of subjects, from choosing textbooks and designing a syllabus, to orchestrating the classroom experience and creating the final exam.
“We hope to show new (and not so new) professors that thinking strategically about the design of a course is as important as specific teaching techniques,” Katz says. “We also hope to alert new professors to many of the various issues that arise in the preparation, planning, and execution of a course. If a reader of the book disagrees with us, at least they will have identified the issue and thought through their own approach to it.”
As of June 2009, Katz and O’Neill’s initial article on the subject has been downloaded 1,270 times from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), ranking it among the most downloaded articles in the network and indicating strong interest in the authors’ insights into teaching the law.
Aspen Publishers recently announced that “Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching” will be provided each year to every new law professor at the American Association of Law Schools Workshop for New Professors and to every law school in the country to make available to new and returning professors.
Katz joined Elon Law in the fall of 2009. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law in 1977 and has since taught at a number of the nation’s top law schools while shaping public policy through years of service in city and county municipal leadership positions. To read more about Howard Katz, click here.