2 Chapter 2: Stress
Academic Skill: Reading
This chapter features a chapter, lecture and a reading on Stress— this chapter will enable you to practice all the academic skills you have been learning in this book. As you read this chapter, consider that you have two major tasks you need to do once it is complete.
- You will be preparing for a discussion.
- You will need to prepare for a multiple-choice test on the material in the chapter.
- Write a paper in which you compare and contrast how the chapter discusses stress with the way the lecture does.
Warm Up
Here are the steps you need to take to decide on a pre-reading strategy:
What do I already know about this topic?
What vocabulary am I going to need to know to understand this? You might find a list of vocabulary or you might skim it for the bold and/or italicized words.
What do the pictures, charts, and graphs tell me about this topic?
Turn the headings into questions. (You can answer these questions when you’re working out.)
Read the first paragraph and the last paragraph. What is the main idea?
Read the first paragraph of each section. Make a quick outline.
What will I need to do when I finish reading? (Take a quiz, write a summary, respond, etc)
You might also take note of when a quiz, summary, or test is due. How many pages will you have to read? While you read, you need to have a way to interact with the material so you can remember it.
There are several strategies you can use to become better at working out while you’re reading. Primarily, you will be taking notes while you read which is often called annotating.
Video on Creating an Annotation System
You might read in order to answer the questions (from the headings) in your warm up.
You might stop after each section and make a few notes about how this section connects to the previous section. How does this support the main idea? Can you describe events in order?
You might make a timeline, a Venn diagram, a mind map, or a chart in order to take notes.
You can read about how to use visuals and graphic organizers to read actively online.
You might make connections to what you already know (from the warm up activity).
You can explore a variety of ways to take notes. You can read an article about The Best Note-Taking Methods online. You can choose the outline method, the Cornell method, the Boxing method, the charting method, or the mapping method.
Once you have completed your warm-up, now it is time to decide on a work-out. Again, you can select more than one strategy if you would like to do so. You can also select one strategy you use in part of the chapter, but you can change your mind and use a different one in other parts of the chapter if it makes more sense. As the structure and the goals of the chapter change, you might like to change your notetaking strategy, just like a coach would change a game plan if the other team did something unexpected.
Below, write down which strategies you think you are most likely to use as your read. Wh