ALAN Foundation Research Grants

Members of ALAN may apply to the ALAN Foundation for funding (up to $1,500) for research in young adult literature. Proposals are reviewed by the five most recent presidents of ALAN. Awards are made annually in the fall and are announced at the ALAN breakfast during the NCTE convention in November. The application deadline each year is September 15th .

2013 Call for Promising Researcher Award

Eligibility

The 2013 Promising Researcher Award Competition is open to individuals who have completed dissertations, theses, or initial, independent studies after the dissertations between December 1, 2010, and January 31, 2013. Studies entered into competition should be related to the teaching of English or the language arts, e.g., language development, literature, composition, teacher education/professional development, linguistics, etc., and should have employed a recognized research approach, e.g., historical, ethnographic, interpretive, experimental, etc. In recognition of the fact that the field has changed in recent years, the Committee on Research invites entries from a variety of scholarly perspectives.

Procedures and Deadlines

1. Entrance: Candidates must submit two (2) copies of a manuscript based on their research. Manuscripts should be written in a format, style, and length appropriate for submission to a research journal such as Research in the Teaching of English, College Composition and Communication, Curriculum Inquiry, Teaching and Teacher Education, or Anthropology and Education Quarterly . Normal manuscripts range between 25 and 50 double-spaced pages. (Tables, figures, references, and appendices are considered part of the manuscript.) All pages must be on standard 8 ½" x 11" paper, must have at least 1" margins at the top, bottom, and both sides, and must be in a standard font. Manuscripts in any other form (abstracts, dissertation reports, reprints, or published articles) cannot be considered in this competition. Although manuscripts should conform to the publication standard of the above-mentioned journals, selection as a Promising Researcher does not guarantee eventual publication in those journals.

2. Manuscripts: Manuscripts should be sent to: NCTE, Promising Researcher Award Competition, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1010, Attention: Felisa Mann. Manuscripts must be received on or before March 1. Accompanying all manuscripts must be a written statement verifying that the research was completed within the specified completion dates. This letter must come from someone other than the candidate (e.g., the major professor or a researcher knowledgeable in the field) who agrees to sponsor the candidate.

3. Contact Information: The name, current address, position, and telephone number of the entrant should be transmitted along with the manuscript to facilitate communication between the selection committee and the entrant. This information should be on the cover page only.

4. Judging: Manuscripts received on or before March 1, 2013 , will be transmitted to members of the selection committee for evaluation. Results of the judging will be available after May 15, 2013, and entrants will be notified of the results shortly thereafter. Manuscripts will not be returned to the authors.

5. Summary of Dates and Deadlines:
   

   December 1, 2009 – January 31, 2012	Completion dates for research entered
   March 1, 2012	Deadline for receipt of manuscripts (two copies)
   May 15, 2012	Results of final judging will be available

Call for Student Reviews for Voices from the Middle

Voices from the Middle is NCTE’s journal for the Middle Level Section. The Student to Student feature runs in each of the year’s four issues and contains five short book reviews written by students who have enjoyed a book and want to recommend it to others. This has been a popular and motivating element of VM since its inception.

Wendy Ranck-Buhr, principal at the San Diego Cooperative Charter School, serves as department editor for this feature. She invites teachers from across the nation and the world to submit their students’ book reviews. We know from teacher feedback that these reviews motivate students to write with care, help readers pick out new books, and generally support our students as readers and writers.

Please send Student to Student submissions as Word files to vmstudenttostudent@gmail.com . Keep in mind that reviews should be 200 words (including bibliographic information—title, author, publisher, year of publication, number of pages, non-discounted price, and 13-digit ISBN number), the student’s grade and school must be identified, and the book reviewed should not have appeared in VM within the last three years. (For an easy reference, check the annual indexes appearing in every May issue, both print and online.) You will be required to secure a parent’s signature on a consent-to-publish form and fax or email that form to Dr. Ranck-Buhr.

We hope you will encourage your students to write reviews for consideration. Publication has made a difference in so many student lives!