1. From Becoming a Master Student By Dave Ellis
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 Step 9:Review Again
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