Student Outstanding Research Award
History of the Award
The Annual LRA Student Outstanding Research Award was initiated in 1985 to encourage greater participation of students in LRA meetings and to honor excellent scholarship efforts. The award is given for an outstanding student conference paper, which may or may not be based on a dissertation. All forms of research, including conceptual papers, are welcomed. A version of the winning paper is published in the Yearbook. Application information is available on the web. Individuals who indicate that they are interested in applying for the award on the “Call for Proposal” form will be sent an e-mail reminder notice after conference proposal notices are completed. Applicants are encouraged to contact the Student Outstanding Research Award Committee Chair for information. Please check the criteria described below before requesting award information.
Criteria for Consideration
**Please review carefully as the application procedures have changed***
1. The paper must be solely student-authored. It may be co-authored with other students, but cannot be co-authored with a faculty member, either as presented or in its published form.
2. The paper must be based on the proposal submitted to the LRA Annual Conference Program while the author held student status, and based on research conducted by the student.
3. The proposal must have been accepted for presentation at the conference.
4. The cover sheet that is submitted with your award proposal must identify the title of your LRA presentation, your contact information, and be signed by a faculty member at your home institution to affirm that the applicant conducted the research and was a graduate student when the research was conducted.
5. Materials, including the cover sheet, and one electronic version of the paper must be received by September 1st by the Student Outstanding Research Award Committee Chair: Jud Laughter. Please email submissions to jud.laughter@utk.edu
IMPORTANT: Deadline to RECEIVE ALL applications is September 1st.
Paper Guidelines
Paper must be no longer than 25 double-spaced pages typed in 12 point font with APA margins. All quotes must be double-spaced. The 25-page limitation includes all tables, appendices, graphs, charts, and other ancillaries to the text. Authors of papers not meeting these guidelines will be notified and given 3 days to comply with guidelines.
However, as many additional pages as necessary are permitted for listing references used in the paper.
Review Process
Papers will receive blind reviews by members of the Student Award Committee. Please check the body of the paper to make sure there are no author-identifying references. Also, please check the electronic file properties and delete identifying author information.
Review categories include:
SIGNIFICANCE
RATIONALE
METHODOLOGY
THEORETICAL SOUNDNESS
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS OR CONCEPTS
QUALITY OF WRITING
MOVES FIELD FORWARD
Applicants will be notified of results prior to the conference. The award will be presented at the conference, along with an honorarium of $500.
The committee will give revision recommendations to the winner, and the revised paper will be submitted to the Yearbook editor for publication by the yearbook’s deadline. NOTE: Acceptance of the award is a commitment to publish the paper in the Yearbook. Publishing your paper in the Yearbook does not preclude sending an article from the same research project to another journal.
Award Committee
Award Winners
(2023) Scott Storm
(2022) Huan Gao – Digital/Media/Information Literacy Development in the Broader Context of Transnational Migration, for the Purpose of Empowering Transnational Students to Become Savvy Online Information Seekers and Consumers
(2021) Lindsey W. Rowe – Social Functions of Students’ Bilingual Composing in an English-dominant, Second-grade Classroom
(2020) Monica C. Kleekamp – University of Missouri – Columbia, Reimagining Isolated Literacy Classrooms as Interdependent Networks: Tracing Compulsions, Repetitions, and Technologies
(2019) Jungmin Kwon – The Circulation of Care in Multilingual and Transnational Children
(2018) Joy D. Erickson
(2017) Jennifer Reichenberg
(2016) Dan Reynolds – Interactional Scaffolding for Reading Comprehension: A Systematic Review
(2015) Beth Buchholz – Dangling Literate Identities in Imagined Futures: Reading, Time, and Development in a K-6 Classroom
(2014) Jaye Johnson Thiel, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, The Role of Objects in the Construction of Young Children’s Literacies
(2013) Angie Zapata, University of Texas, Austin, Examining the Multimodal and Multilingual Composition Resources of Young Latino Picturebook Makers”
(2012) Melody Zoch, University of Texas, Austin, Crafting theoretically defensible literacy teaching practices while supporting students with test preparation.
(2011) Nathan Phillips and Blaine Smith, Vanderbilt University, Multimodality and Aurality: Sound Spaces in Students Digital Book Trailers.
(2011) Michael Manderino, Northern Illinois University, Disciplinary Literacy in New Literacy Environments: Expanding the Intersections of Literacy Practice for Adolescents
(2010) Amanda P. Goodwin, University of Miami, Does Meaning Matter for Reading Achievement? Untangling the Role of Phonological Recoding and Morphological Awareness in Predicting Word Decoding, Reading Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Achievement for Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners
(2009) Susan E. Bickerstaff, University of Pennsylvania, Authoring Lives: Youth Returning to School to Narrate Past, Present, and Future Selves
(2008) Gary Paul Moser, The Effects of Repeated Readings Using Independent-Level Narrative and Informational Texts with Fourth-Grade Readers
(2008) Margarita Zisselsberger, Boston College, Performing Persuasion: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners Write their Script
(2007) Elizabeth Stolle, Arizona State University, Teachers, Literacy, and Technology: Tensions, Complexities, Conceptualizations, and Practice.
(2006) Antony T. Smith, University of Washington, Seattle, The Middle School Literacy Coach: Considering Roles in Context
(2005) Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Utah, “So That You’ll Be Good Readers”: ESL Teachers’ Classroom Discourses About Reading
(2004) Rebecca Deffes Silverman, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Investigating Methods of Kindergarten Vocabulary Instruction: Which Methods Work Best?
(2003) Yoon-Hee Na, University of Texas, Austin
(2002) Kim Bobola, University of Maryland
(2001) Nancy A. Place, University of Washington, Seattle
(2000) Rebecca Rogers, University of Albany, State University of New York
(1999) Emily E. Rodgers, The Ohio State University
(1999) Patrick Manyak, University of Southern California
(1998) Josephine Peyton Young, University of Georgia
(1997) Susan Dymock, University of Waikato
(1997) Lawrence R. Sipe, The Ohio State University
(1996) Katheryn H. Davinroy
(1995) Jane West, University of Georgia
(1994) Ann Watts Pailliotet, Syracuse University
(1994) Janet W. Bloodgood
(1993) Janice F. Almasi, University of Maryland
(1992) Debra K. Meyer, University of Texas, Austin
(1991) Sarah J. McCarthey, Michigan State University
(1991) J. Michael Parker
(1990) Douglas K. Hartman, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(1990) Joyce Holt-Jennings, Northeastern Illinois University
(1989) Joyce Many, Louisiana State University
(1988) Sally Hague, University of Georgia
(1987) Maribeth Cassidy Schmitt, Purdue University
(1986) Deborah Wells Rowe, Indiana University
(1985) Peter Afflerbach, The University of Albany, State University of New York