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Muscle Reading. From Becoming a Master Student By Dave Ellis. What is muscle reading?. A technique that will help you stay focused as you read A way to decrease effort and struggle by increasing energy and skill. How does Muscle Reading work?.
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Muscle Reading From Becoming a Master Student By Dave Ellis
What is muscle reading? • A technique that will help you stay focused as you read • A way to decrease effort and struggle by increasing energy and skill
How does Muscle Reading work? • Muscle Reading is a three phase technique you can use to extract the ideas and information you want
Phase 1: Before You Read • Step 1: Preview • Sets the stage for incoming info • Look over table of contents or chapter outline • Read chapter headings and subheadings • Look for summary statements • Look for familiar concepts, facts, ideas • Examine photos, charts, graphs, etc.
Step 2: Outline Helps organize your thoughts Study chapter outline if provided or write a brief one of your own Step 3: Question Involves your brain in the assignment Write down a list of questions that resulted from your preview You may want to turn headings and subheading into questions
Phase 2: While You Read • Step 4:Read • Be conscious of where you are and what you are doing • Divide material up and take short breaks • Reward yourself • To stay focused • Visualize the material • Read the material out loud • Get a “feel” for the subject • Try to answer your questions from phase 1
Step 5:Underline/Highlight Emphasizes important info you will need later Uses kinesthetic sense of touch and motion Step 6: Answer Write down the answer to your questions in Phase 1 Fill in your outline Write down unanswered and new questions to ask in class
Phase 3:After You Read • Step 7: Recite • Helps you combine individual ideas and facts into a whole • Helps improve your ability to summarize • Talk to yourself (verbal rehearsal) or to someone else about the material • Form a study group to discuss the material • Teach a classmate the material –one of the best ways to learn anything is to teach someone else
Step 8: Review Do your first complete review within 24 hours This moves information from short term to long term memory Step 9:Review Again Review weekly/monthly to help you recall the info Review text and notes, recite difficult information
Muscle Reading • Step 1: Preview • Step 2: Outline • Step 3: Question • Step 4: Read • Step 5: Underline • Step 6: Answer • Step 7: Recite • Step 8: Review • Step 9: Review Again
4 Smart Ways to Highlight a Text • Read carefully first • Read first-highlight last
Make choices up front about what to highlight • Look for answers to your questions from step 3 of Muscle Reading • Highlight individual words, phrases, or sentences rather than whole paragraphs
Recite first • Recite first then go back and highlight
Use highlighting to monitor your comprehension • Stop reading periodically to check what you have highlighted • If you are highlighting more than 10% of the text, your are picking out more than the main points
Ways to Mark A Text • Place an (!) by important words or terms • Circle key terms and words • Write short definitions of key terms in margin • Place (?) in margin by possible test questions, things you don’t understand, and questions to ask in class • Write personal comments in margins
More Ways to Mark a Text • Write mini-indexes in the margin • Write summaries by listing main points or key events • Rewrite chapter titles, headings, and subheadings to make them more meaningful to you • Draw diagrams, pictures, tables, or maps • Number each step in a list or series