Center News

New Peer-Reviewed Publications

Odegard, T. N., Farris, E. A., & Washington, J. A. (2022). Exploring boundary conditions of the listening comprehension-reading comprehension discrepancy index. Annals of Dyslexia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00250-0. A summary of this article is provided in the Recent Findings section of this issue.

Conferences

Several of our Ph.D. students from the Literacy Studies program presented at the Mid-South Education Research Association conference in New Orleans over November 9–12, 2021:

“A simple view of reading analysis of reading skills in diverse ethnic ELLs and non-ELLs,” presented by Ifeoluwa Popoola, Timothy N. Odegard, and Emily A. Farris. Popoola won a research-in-progress award for this oral presentation.

“Effects of teacher knowledge of early reading on students’ gains in reading foundational skills and comprehension,” presented by Susan B. Porter, Emily A. Farris, and Timothy N. Odegard.

“The effects of morphological interventions on 9th and 10th graders with word reading deficits,” presented by Jessica Dainty. Dainty won a research-in-progress award for this oral presentation outlining her dissertation study.

 Several of our center lab members presented posters at the University-wide Scholars Week at MTSU over March 21–25, 2022:

“Exploring the Equivalency of Online vs In-Person Administration of a Standardized Reading Battery,” presented by Adam Dockery, Lauren Hunsicker, Emily Farris, and Timothy Odegard. Dockery won second place for undergraduate students in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences for this poster.

“Child-Level Reading Variables and Gist-Based Memory: An Interactive Model,” presented by Dara Zwemer, Emily Farris, and Timothy Odegard.

“A Simple View of Reading Analysis of Reading Skills in Diverse Ethnic ELLs and non-ELLs,” presented by Ifeoluwa Popoola, Emily Farris, and Timothy Odegard.

“Specialized and altered fonts for dyslexia: A meta-analysis,” presented by Pamela Shewalter and Timothy Odegard. Shewalter won first place for graduate students in the College of Education for this poster.

Accolades

Congratulations to our student affiliates who have won awards!

Literacy Studies students Jessica Dainty and Ifeoluwa Popoola both received research-in-progress awards at the Mid-South Education Research Association conference held in November 2021.

Graduate assistant Kellie Payne will begin her school psychology internship this fall in Murfreesboro City Schools.

From the Literacy Studies department, Ph.D. students Ifeoluwa Popoola, Susan Porter, and Pam Shewalter were awarded the Ethel Bowden Stricklin Merit Scholarship, and Susan Porter was also named the Outstanding Literacy Studies student.

Undergraduate researcher Dara Zwemer was awarded the Tyler A. Schultz Memorial Scholarship and recognized as a Senior Honor Student in the Psychology Department. She also received the Robert C. Lalance Jr. Achievement Award from the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership at MTSU and earned a Scholars Distinction from the Undergraduate Research Center, also at MTSU. She will begin a Ph.D. program in experimental psychology at Oklahoma State University this fall.

Center lab members had a strong showing at the University-wide Scholars Week poster presentations in late March.

URECA scholar and Psychology major Dara Zwemer presented a poster based on her funded project.

Literacy Studies Ph.D. student Ifeoluwa Popoola received an honorable mention for her poster.

Psychology major Adam Dockery won the second-place award for undergraduate students in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences for his poster that was co-authored