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Introduction to Reading in Law School. Ante-Law School Camp session 7: Wrapping Up: Review, Rephrase and Record. Recap of Week 6:. empowEr E valuate What You’re Reading: Your Ideas Matter Evaluating Before Reading External distracters thoughts and feelings re: life
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Introduction to Reading in Law School Ante-Law School Camp session 7: Wrapping Up: Review, Rephrase and Record
Recap of Week 6: • empowEr • Evaluate What You’re Reading: Your Ideas Matter • Evaluating • Before Reading • External distracters thoughts and feelings re: life • Thoughts and feelings re: reading subject matter • While Reading • Judges’ writing styles • Judges’ biases and presumptions • After Reading • Intellectual content of reading • Relationship to past and future reading • Learning is a recursive and constructive process
Today: empoweR • Engage with Energy • Monitor Your Reading and Read for the Main Idea • Always (Always!) Read with a Purpose • Get Oriented and Own Your Prior Knowledge and Experience • There’s More to the “Five Ws” (Who, What, When, Where and Why) Than Meets the Eye • Evaluate What You’re Reading: Your Ideas Matter • Review, Rephrase, Record
Review, Rephrase & Record • Discovering the key (“magic”) words of legal discourse • Takes advantage of the natural processes of memory • Short term • Working • Long term • Note-taking & Case-briefing
Review, Rephrase & Record (cont’d) • “The best highlighting in the world can only capture the author’s words. You also need to read with a pen or pencil at your side so that you capture your own thoughts and reactions to what you are reading.” • Writing down thoughts forces conscious attention, and with it evaluation, of what you do and don’t know about a subject.
Leonard v. Pepsico EMPOWER E- (energy assessment) M- main idea & monitoring P- purpose O- owning prior knowledge & orient W- who, what, when, where, why & how E- evaluate R- review, rephrase, record
Casebook Reading Reviewed • DO • Engage in a conversation with the writer of the text you’re reading • Monitor yourself as you read • Know why you’re reading • Modify your reading techniques to circumstances • Pay attention to knowledge and knowledge gaps • Use case-briefing to help chunk information for more efficient processing • Have opinions • Be flexible • Rephrase to reach understanding • Use your knowledge of memory to optimize your study efforts • Work towards a “big picture”
EMPOWER • Engage with Energy • Monitor Your Reading and Read for the Main Idea • Always (Always!) Read with a Purpose • Get Oriented and Own Your Prior Knowledge and Experience • There’s More to the “Five Ws” (Who, What, When, Where and Why) Than Meets the Eye • Evaluate What You’re Reading: Your Ideas Matter • Review, Rephrase, Record
Resources • Ruth Ann McKinney, Reading Like a Lawyer: Time-Saving Strategies for Reading Law Like an Expert