I wish to thank the AALS for inviting me to contribute to this blog and to Paul Caron for his hundreds of hours of service writing the blog all these years. As I reflected on what I might have to contribute to a blog that has delivered so much valuable content, I decided that I would devote one post each week to a short, easy-to-implement, teaching suggestion. I hope you find these useful. If you try any of my suggestions, I would love for you to share your experiences as comments below.

Nearly all (if not all) of us who randomly call on students have had to deal with a student who was quite obviously unprepared for class, which I distinguish from a student who struggled to understand the material. Many of us, when we were students, experienced faculty who responded with anger or derision. I believe there is a better alternative. I learned it from Professor Emeritus Gerry Hess of Gonzaga, when I studied his teaching for What the Best Law Teachers Do (2013). When a student was unprepared, he acknowledged the issue by saying that he needed to bring in a peer. After class, he emailed the student some version of the following: “I noticed you were not prepared for class today, and I wanted to check in with you. Your participation is important to me. What can I do to better inspire you to prepare for my class?”

Professor Hess reported (and I have experienced since I adopted his approach) that the student will inevitably apologize, write something like, “It’s not you, Professor; it’s me,” and promise to be prepared for the next class. And they always are prepared for the next class and, often, for all the following classes.  When students feel that their professors are invested in them and treat them with respect and as individuals, they invest themselves more in our classes.