The Teacher Manuals are designed to complement faculty's usage of CALI Lessons. As with Teachers Manuals tied to traditional textbooks, the material contained in the CALI Teachers Manual is not available to students; you will need the CALI faculty password to access the materials. Please contact Deb Quentel (dquentel@cali.org) for the necessary user name and password.
The Teachers Manual sets out the cases, statute sections, and topics covered in each CALI lesson for a particular subject area. Lessonettes can be accessed through the lessons description, through the Teachers Manual, or through the subject matter's Topic Grid. Additionally, the manuals describe the teaching goals and challenges students will face in every lesson. The CALI Teachers Manuals are designed to allow you to select the CALI Lessonettes that best complement your course.
The first Teachers Manual covers Criminal Law. The manual was written at the conclusion of the CALI Criminal Law Fellows year. For those of you familiar with CALI, you will notice that Lessons written by the Fellows are shorter than other material in the CALI Library. This change reflects CALI's move toward the "Lessonette" model. A Lessonette is a building block of material that allows you to determine the sequencing and timing of lesson assignments. There are several benefits to Lessonettes over a traditional CALI lesson. First, the Lessonettes' building block style allows you to assign the materials in any order to complement your course syllabus. Second, a shorter lesson requires only 20-35 minutes of a student's time.
As with CALI's existing Library, the lessons are interactive and serve to engage students in the material. These lessons are designed to replicate the critical thinking required of students during a discussion, rather than the more passive learning associated with reading. Further, each Lessonette focuses on a single point from the CALI Topic Grid. Thus, regardless of the order in which you approach the material, CALI's Lessonettes can accommodate your teaching style.
Contact Deb Quentel, Director of Curriculum Development at dquentel@cali.org or 312-906-5353 to receive a free copy of the Criminal Law Teacher's Manual.