1. Muscle Reading From Becoming a Master Student By Dave Ellis

2. 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

3. How does Muscle Reading work? Muscle Reading is a three phase technique you can use to extract the ideas and information you want

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 4 Smart Ways to Highlight a Text Read carefully first –Read first-highlight last

12. 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

13. Recite first –Recite first then go back and highlight

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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