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Friday, May 06, 2016

Random items for a Friday morning

1) Here is a supercut of movie scenes depicting people dealing with writer's block. The Slate story describes it as stressful to watch--and it is. I also would say "claustrophobic."

2) Yesterday, I held my Civ Pro review session, which also included, for the second time, presentation of the "creative projects" that students can do for extra credit. The students enjoyed it, I got about 80-90 % participation (down slightly from the first time I did it, but still good). And it ran the gamut--board games, music parodies,* children's books, a skit about one of out classes, and even a pencil drawing of me. I think this is beginning to take on a life of its own, which I like. And a forever H/T to Josh Douglas for suggesting the idea; it has proven to be a nice exercise in class collegiality and, in many cases, an review that allows me to see what they understand (and what they don't). [Update: Here is the information sheet I give to students about this assignment]

    [*] The one problem with music parodies is that my musical tastes have not kept up. So I can recognize the Spice Girls ("I wanna really, really, really get an A in Civ Pro") and "Let it Be" ("Let 'em plead"--"yeah there will be an answer" sort of fits perfectly). The rest, not so much, although I think they were well done.

3) A federal lawsuit has been filed in the Southern District of Florida alleging that a former administrator in FIU's School of Architecture sexually assaulted a student. I know nothing about any of this. I mention it only to highlight one Civ Pro angle: The complaint was served while the defendant was on campus of another school in another state interviewing for an academic position. That is cold-blooded.

Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 6, 2016 at 09:57 AM in Civil Procedure, Howard Wasserman | Permalink

Comments

I have amended the original post to include a link to the information sheet I give my students on this project.

Posted by: Howard Wasserman | May 7, 2016 12:39:05 AM

M.G.-

Here is the Prawfs post I wrote about it: http://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2014/12/civil-procedure-creativity-extra-credit.html

And here is how I present the assignment in my syllabus:

“Creativity” Extra Credit Assignment: During the semester you may submit one “creativity” project for extra credit. You may work alone, or in a team of up to four people, to create a YouTube video, comic book, song, poem, or some other creative way to explain any one of the following concepts: personal jurisdiction; supplemental jurisdiction; pleading; or claim or party joinder. You may choose to focus on particular aspects of these concepts or the entire concept. If you work in a group, you must identify each group member’s contribution. The project will be worth up to 5 raw score points toward your final raw score total. (The final exam raw score total will be approximately 150 points.) Points will be allocated based upon the following factors: content chosen and explained (i.e. if you take a very simple portion of a rule and explain that, you will likely not receive many points); demonstrated understanding of the applicable rule(s); communication of the rules to other students; and overall creativity. I will show the projects as part of a review session at the end of the semester. You must turn in your project via email to me by Wednesday, December 17, at 12:00 p.m.

Posted by: Josh Douglas | May 6, 2016 11:20:21 PM

Could you tell us more about the creative projects? How do you frame the assignment?

Posted by: M.G. | May 6, 2016 5:48:39 PM

Glad to hear the creativity assignment worked well again this year! But the thanks should go to Andi Curcio, from whom I stole the idea.

Posted by: Josh Douglas | May 6, 2016 10:55:29 AM

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