Goal Specific	Introduction	-
Help	[Orientation]  Support |  Lesson |  Practice	-	2 of 46

From time to time you probably have had the need to hang a picture or other wall hanging in your residence. This task could require a different set of tools and procedures, depending on several variables, including the size and weight of the object, the type of hanger used, the type of walls you have, and whether or not you have the freedom to put holes in your walls. You may just need a hammer and a nail to install a simple picture hanger. If the piece is heavy, you may need a drill to put a hole in the wall for an anchor; then you'll need a screwdriver to put the screw in the anchor. Or, if you have to use a non-permanent method, you may just have to peel and stick a hook on the wall. There are many other examples we could use to point out that different circumstances call for different actions. This is a truism for the reading process as well. Successful reading comprehension involves using a variety of reading strategies, largely dependent on the purpose for reading, the type of material being read, and the reader's own strengths and weaknesses. A reader has to decide which techniques are most helpful in constructing meaning at a given point in time, before, during, and after reading. A term used to describe these independently used techniques is "goal-specific" comprehension strategies. They are so called because the reader has a particular reason for using a given technique. You have encountered this term before if you have studied Lesson 3 in Module III on strategic instruction in which you learned three types of strategies used in reading comprehension: goal-specific, monitoring, and higher order sequencing. In this module, Goal Specific Comprehension Strategies, you will learn particular strategies readers can use to enhance their processing of a variety of materials at different points in the reading process. You will learn five types of strategies: preview, self-questioning, visual imagery, paraphrasing, and summarization. Although we will address them separately, it is important to understand that it is unlikely for a reader to use any one of these strategies in isolation, even during the same reading event. It is more likely for them to be used in combination. We should mention up front that analyzing text may also be viewed as a goal specific comprehension strategy. However, because there is so much to learn in this arena, a whole module was devoted to it. This module is presented a little differently from the others. In each lesson you will meet one or two teachers who have developed expertise in specific goal-specific reading comprehension strategies. You will meet Yvonne in the first lesson, Jeff and Susan in the second lesson, and Reva and Ted in the third. Don't misunderstand; none of these professionals uses a particular technique in isolation, nor to the exclusion of all other approaches. They are sharing information in areas where they have read extensively and attended professional development activities. Lesson 1, Preview Strategies, deals with setting the stage for reading a particular piece. Yvonne, a fourth grade teacher, will be your guide through this lesson. You will learn what previews are, including the kinds of activities involved. She will focus on three specific kinds of activities: summarizing and discussing content in advance, activating prior knowledge, and predicting. An important discussion of fostering student independence in using previews will be part of this lesson. Lesson 2, Questioning and Visual Imagery Strategies, covers two different types of goal-specific comprehension strategies which readers can access while they are reading: self-questioning strategies and visual imagery. Our resident teacher experts for these strategies are Jeff, a high school social studies teacher for self-questioning, and Susan, a middle school language arts teacher, for visual imagery. They will teach you the elements present in these strategies and give you examples of them. Both Jeff and Susan will emphasize the importance of the strategic component to any approach with self-questioning and visual imagery. Lesson 3, Paraphrasing and Summarization Strategies, will give you ideas for teaching students to paraphrase and summarize reading material successfully. Reva and Ted who are colleagues at the same school will guide you through this lesson. You will learn similarities between paraphrasing and summarization and the knowledge and skill requirements for their use as strategies. They will cover the kinds of activities that should be present in a paraphrasing strategy, regardless of the specific procedure used. They will also explain summarization procedures. You will see examples of strategies incorporating those components. Because we are dealing with strategies, an important thread in this module relates to the kind of instruction you will have to do to teach students how to use these techniques independently. That's what will qualify them as "strategies." This module will highlight the importance of the explicit teaching of the strategies, a recurring theme in several modules.