Each fall in my Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing class, I split students into teams, each comprising four or five students, and have them compete to prepare citations that are correct according to the Bluebook (or the ALWD Guide, depending on your proclivities–I check to be sure they are consistent). They compete in relay races, two teams at a time, weekly during the semester. In the last couple weeks of the semester, we have playoffs and crown each section’s winning team. Well… we do not exactly crown them. Instead, they get their names engraved on the coveted “Citation Cup,” pictured here. They also win the dubious ‘prize’ of coming to happy hour with me.
In each round, teams are scored based on citation accuracy, and the team that finishes first in each round gets a bonus. This fall, I had two sections and so a victorious team in each. Here are the victors.
In section 2, the winning team was 1L of a Team, whose members are pictured here with me: (L to R) Me, Lauren Treviño, Joseph Glover, Victoria LaFleur, Joshua Stephens, Chase Archer, and TA Olivia Countryman.
In section 6, the winning team was Premature Adjudication, whose members are pictured here with me: (L to R) TA Cody Gee, Me, Hope Cory, Amanda Cervantes, Isabelle Chapman, Justin Cias, and Bryan Berens.
I know, I need to get a better photographer for these victory shots…
The Citation Cup helps make teaching citations more enjoyable for me, and I hope it improves the experience of learning it for the students.
-Brian