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Jill Howard Allor, Ed.D.
Associate Professor

Dr. Jill Allor, Ed. D., has been an Associate Professor of Literacy and Language Acquisition and a Fellow of the Institute for Reading Research at SMU since 2004. A former special education teacher, her research is school-based and focuses on reading acquisition for students with and without learning disabilities. She received her Ed. D. in special education with an emphasis on reading and reading disabilities from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1996. For the next two years, Dr. Allor served as a Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at Florida State University where she worked with Dr. Patricia Mathes and Dr. Joseph Torgesen on large-scale classroom-based reading intervention research. In 1998 Dr. Allor accepted a faculty appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Louisiana State University.

Dr. Allor is the author or co-author of numerous articles and several curricular materials. She was awarded the 2000 Award for Outstanding Research by the Council on Learning Disabilities and is the co-recipient of the Best Article in Learning Disabilities Research and Practice for 1999. She is also the co-recipient of the 1999 Outstanding Proud Project, which was awarded by the Learning Disabilities Association of America. She has delivered numerous teacher/staff development programs on a wide variety of topics, including peer tutoring, early literacy development, phonemic awareness instruction, literacy assessment, and other literacy instructional techniques.

Recent Publications

Allor, J.H., & McCathren, R.B. (2004). The efficacy of an early literacy tutoring program implemented by college students. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 19, 116-129.

Allor, J.H., & McCathren, R.B. (2003). Developing emergent literacy skills through storybook reading. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39 (2), 72-79.

Allor, J.H. (2003). [Review of the book Literary practices as social acts]. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 34 (1). Retrieved September 6, 2003, from http://www.aaanet.org/cae/aeq/br/lewis2.htm

Allor, J.H. (2002). The relationships of phonemic awareness and rapid naming to reading development. Learning Disability Quarterly. 25, 47-57. *2000 Award for Outstanding Research, The Council for Learning Disabilities. Presented at the International Conference on Learning Disabilities, October, 2000.

McCathren, R.B., & Allor, J.H. (2002). Using storybooks with preschool children: Enhancing language and literacy. Young Exceptional Children, 5(4), 3-10.

Allor, J.H., Fuchs, D., & Mathes, P.G. (2001). Do students with and without lexical retrieval weaknesses respond differently to instruction? Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34, 264-275.

Mathes, P.G., Torgesen, J.K., & Allor, J.H. (2001). The effects of Peer Assisted Learning Strategies for First Grade Readers with and without additional computer assisted instruction in phonological awareness. American Educational Research Journal, 38, 371-410.

Howard, J.K., Fuchs, D., & Mathes, P.G. (1999). What is lexical retrieval and why might it be important? In T.E. Citro (Ed.). Parenting the Child with a Learning Disability: The Experts Speak (pp. 77-82). Weston, MA: Learning Disabilities Association of Massachusetts. *Recipient of the 1999 Outstanding Proud Project by the Learning Disabilities Association of America.

Mathes, P.G., Grek, M.L., Howard, J.K., Babyak, A.E., & Allen, S.H. (1999). Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for First-Grade Readers: A tool for preventing early reading failure. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 14(1), 50-60. *Winner of the Samuel Kirk Award (for the best research-to-practice article in Learning Disabilities Research and Practice for 1999), awarded by the Council for Exceptional Children, Division of Learning Disabilities.

Mathes, P.G., Howard, J.K., & Allen, S.H., & Fuchs, D. (1998). Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for First-Grade Readers: Responding to the needs of diverse learners. Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 62-94.

Published Curriculum

Mathes, P.G., & Allor, J.H. (2001). Teacher-Directed PALS: Paths to Achieving Literacy Success. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

Mathes, P.G., Torgesen, J.K., Allen, S.H., & Allor, J.H. (2001). First-Grade PALS: Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.