A Lesson About Teaching for the Teacher: The Unintended Benefit of Peer Review

There were pros and cons to the increase in enrollment at my law school this year. The pros, of course, were being able to remain employed. The biggest “con” was that my class size increased to the point where I was not able to give as much individual attention as I would have liked, and my students craved this individual attention to the point where I often felt as though my students would not be happy unless I was spoon feeding each “correct” word to them.

During the fall semester, I often found myself falling behind in grading, partially because my grading, even on multiple choice assignments, necessitated a level of explanation regarding incorrect answers that doubled or tripled my grading time. Given the large size of my class and their overall needs, I decided that I would need to make some changes for the spring semester that would minimize some of my grading time while also preserving my mental health.