Reading competence, interest, and reading goals in three gifted young adolescent readers

Abstract

The complex intersection of interest, reading goals, and competence was investigated through qualitative analysis of the cross‐domain reading of three middle‐school highly gifted readers. Students completed knowledge pretests and domain interest assessments, thought aloud while reading college‐level reading and history passages, and completed open‐ended questions assessing recall, understanding, and evaluation of the author’s argument. Think‐alouds were coded for reading behaviors, including expressions of interest, and re‐coded for inferred reading goals. Individual reading profiles incorporated students’ assessed knowledge and interest, observed interactions with the texts, levels of goals, and outcome performance. This set of reading profiles informed an elaborated characterization of reading competence. The role of such reading competence in development of competence or proficiency in other academic domains was discussed.

Keywords:

• reading
• think‐aloud
• competence, middle‐school
• interest
• goals

Acknowledgements

A version of this paper was presented at the EARLI Biennial Conference, August 2009, Amsterdam.