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Preview-Do-Review Strategy • Preview the assignment •
Preview each case • Ask questions • Read each case • Review
"Preview - Do - Review" is your basic learning strategy. After creating a positive learning environment, you are ready to read cases in preparation for class. These case reading strategies are based on three major premises:
(1) People learn best by actively participating in the learning process,
(2) People learn best when they can connect new knowledge to something they already know, and
(3) Repetition helps learning because learners are most likely to make connections to existing knowledge when they deal with new material several times.
Preview the assignment as a whole to put it into context. Before you start reading, take 60 seconds to put the assignment into context by reviewing the syllabus and table of contents. What have you covered in the past week? Are you continuing to work on the same subject or moving on to a new subject? If it is a new subject, is it a subset of the previous discussion or a totally new topic? How many cases are you reading? In addition to the preview offered by the syllabus and table of contents, some learners do best by reading about the area of law before they tackle the cases.
Imagine you are assigned to read pages 683-705 in a criminal law casebook. Your syllabus and table of contents show the main topic for three weeks is group criminality. Under this heading, you have already covered the basics of mens rea, actus reus, and differential liability of different actors. Now you are moving on to a new topic, criminal liability of corporate entities. The four cases and three notes in today's reading focuses on liability of the corporation; and tomorrow you will cover liability of corporate agents. Just from this sixty-second overview, you have a mental outline of what your reading will cover and how it fits into the context of the course.
By itself, the sixty-second syllabus/table of contents review works well for most law students. But some students need more context before they tackle the casebook. If you are one of these, quickly read through the relevant section of a hornbook, treatise, explanation of the law, or course-specific outline at the beginning of each new section of material. Then do the sixty-second review in the table of contents at the beginning of each assignment. Avoid this method, however, if you tend to be conclusory or if you have trouble applying law to new fact scenarios.
Preview each case. Instead of plunging into a case, preview it. Get a feel for the case without bogging down in specifics. Try these three strategies for getting a preview and use the one that works best for you:
First and last paragraphs: Read the beginning and end of the case, just enough to get a taste for the parties, the dispute, and the holding.
First sentence of each paragraph: Read the first paragraph, first sentence of each succeeding paragraph, and the last paragraph. In addition to getting the basic plot, you will be introduced to the court's reasoning.
Story line reading: Skim the case quickly for the basic story line. Connect the story to the subject you are studying. For example, "Implied Assumption of Risk--On Coney Island ride "Flopper," man gets on after watching others fall and breaks leg."
Ask questions. Based on your preview, ask yourself questions. What is this case about? Why did the winning party prevail? What were the key facts? How does the case relate to the casebook topic?
Read each case. After your preview, read through the case carefully and actively, trying to answer the questions that you posed to yourself. Take notes in the margins if this helps you. But put away your highlighter--it only lulls you into believing you are understanding the case.
Review. You will have two stages of review:
(1) Briefing the case. What are the facts the court found most important in reaching their decision? What rule of law should you understand from the case? What types of legal reasoning did the court rely on in coming to a decision?
(2) Reviewing after briefing. After you brief all your cases, spend two minutes thinking about how each case you read relates to the subject matter of the class. Does one case illustrate a majority and the other a minority rule? Traditional rule and modern rule? Rule and exception? What questions is the professor apt to ask about the cases? If they seem to contradict each other, can they be reconciled? This review will help you remember the cases and also acts as a preview for the class.
Here are some helpful resources on active case reading:
Dennis Tonsing, 1000 Days to the Bar (Hein, 2003)
University of Dayton Online Academic Assistance
University of Missouri - Kansas City Academic Achievement Program
York University, Counseling and Development Center, www.yorku.ca/cdc/
For more class preparation tips, visit
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© Nancy Luebbert 2007
Last updated 2007-08-17 |