Submission Guidelines

Talking Points is a peer-reviewed journal published in May and October by LLA, Literacies and Languages for All, a conference of NCTE. The journal focuses on holistic education that fits the LLA belief that all children deserve personally meaningful learning contexts in which their languages and cultures are valued and recognized as assets for learning.

Submitted manuscripts should be on a teaching and/or learning topic or issue important to researcher, practitioner, social, and family communities. We welcome manuscripts grounded in present theory and/or research that contributes to the knowledge base for holistic, democratic, and inclusive education. Manuscripts should be no more than 15 pages in length (standard margins, double spaced) and, to ensure a blind review, contain no information identifying the author except on an attached cover sheet. Please number the pages. Manuscripts and reference lists should follow the latest APA guidelines, and the manuscript should be consistent with NCTE’s Statement on Gender and Language (https://ncte.org/statement/genderfairuseoflang/).

To submit a manuscript, register as an author at our online manuscript submission system, Editorial Manager, and then follow the indicated steps. Manuscripts are accepted at any time. Questions? Contact the editors at talkingpoints@ncte.org.

Call for Proposals: Negotiating Prescribed Literacy Curricula

Deadline: May 15, 2026. Publication: May 2027.

There is a national shift toward adopting Science of Reading initiatives in the United States. In response, school districts have acquired packaged curricula from big publishing companies and required teachers to implement them with fidelity. We worry that these pre­scribed curricula prevent teachers from making curricular and instructional decisions tailored to their students’ funds of knowledge, experiences, and interests. In this sense, these mandated curricula may hinder opportunities for practicing culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies. We are aiming for content reporting on pedagogies that support all students, including multilingual students and learners with special needs, as full participants in literacy practices.

For this themed issue, we invite proposals for content addressing the Science of Reading while also challenging mandated curricula. Where are the gaps in these curricula? What modifications or accommodations have schools and teachers made? How are schools and teachers being responsive to their students and supporting their social and emotional learning? How are schools and teachers enacting culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy? How do schools and teachers continue to build bridges between home and school?

We invite you to submit an abstract for a proposed article or Classroom Voices piece. The abstract should be about 500 words long (not counting references, tables, and figures). Please submit your abstract via email to talkingpoints@ncte.org using the subject line Special Issue Submission.

Ongoing General Call for Article Manuscripts

Talking Points seeks manuscripts on a range of comprehensive literacy teaching and learning topics. We invite submissions that address research and practice reflecting the goals and mission of Literacies and Languages for All (LLA), a constituent group of NCTE. This is a general call for manuscripts on topics of interest to literacy and language researchers and practitioners who align themselves with the principles of holistic education that characterize LLA. Examples of timely topics include discussions about foundational literacy practices and policies that are prevalent in the media; practices that celebrate students’ multiliteracies and multilingualism; critical literacy practices as student tools for civic engagement; equity and access to high-quality literature in light of book bans; global engagements involving students across borders; LGBTQIA+ issues in education; and the education experiences of youth and families undergoing chosen or forced relocation or war trauma. Presenters at the NCTE Annual Convention, especially those included in the LLA Strand, are encouraged to develop their presentations into manuscripts.

Ongoing Call for Classroom Voices Manuscripts

In some issues of Talking Points, a Classroom Voices section provides space for shorter alternative pieces that highlight the richness of comprehensive literary practices in the classroom. We invite classroom vignettes, photo essays, book reviews, samples of students’ work, teacher interviews, and anything else that helps us situate the principles of comprehensive literacy in real classroom contexts. These pieces should be approximately three to five double-spaced pages of text; accompanying photos should be submitted in a standard graphics format (e.g., TIFF, JPEG) in high resolution (300 DPI) and will require signed permissions from any photographer and subjects (or their parents or guardians). Student work will also require permission to be included.

For All Pieces

Please rely on LLA’s Whole Language Beliefs statement (http://www2.ncte.org/groups/lla/beliefs/) to demonstrate how your work draws on and contributes to whole language principles and teaching practices.