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);
• contain page numbers;
• follow the latest APA guidelines;
• be consistent with NCTE’s Statement on Gender and Language.

In addition, to ensure a blinded manuscript, do not include a cover sheet but instead provide author information in the Comments box in Editorial Manager during the manuscript submission process.

To submit a manuscript, register as an author at our online manuscript submission system, Editorial Manager, and then follow the steps to submit your article. Manuscripts are accepted at any time.

Questions? Contact editors Patricia C. Paugh and Sherry Sanden at talkingpoints@ncte.org.

May 2023 Issue: Global Literacies
Submission deadline: October 1, 2022

Talking Points seeks manuscripts on a range of whole language teaching and learning topics. For this issue, we invite submissions that explore larger literacy connections from a global perspective. We hope to attract authors who will share insights on literacy learning across the world through the perspective known as cosmopolitanism; that is, learning from each other through the intersection of individual and cultural funds of knowledge.

This approach includes sharing literacy education as practiced in many areas of the world, as well as literacy education that connects learners globally. We are interested in how literacy beliefs that are important to LLA educators are practiced in a variety of international contexts. We are also interested in how students who are in transit across the globe, willingly or being forced, find literacy education that values their languages, cultures, and communities when they relocate to new destinations. These might be learners who have crossed borders or who are reconnecting with places of heritage across time. This perspective may also include literacy-based communities of practice that welcome relocating individuals to new places. We encourage manuscripts that envision the possibilities for holistic teaching beliefs and practices to value and sustain literacy learning across varied global contexts.

October 2023: Holistic Practices that Address the Realities of Contemporary Learners
Submission deadline: May 1, 2023

Talking Points seeks manuscripts on a range of literacy and language teaching and learning topics. For this issue, we invite submissions that specifically examine how holistic and responsive teaching meets the diverse strengths and needs of learners in contemporary classrooms. For example, many students returning to school in a post-pandemic world require highly focused, relevant, and responsive pedagogy to support their growth. In addition, great numbers of multilingual students in today’s classrooms navigate multiple languages, contexts, and expectations in the course of their daily lives. How are educators meeting all learners where they are by widening possibilities for literacy materials, technologies, and experiences, and/or by (re)considering the value of entrenched literacy instruction methods? What practices support all learners in using linguistic resources and backgrounds to advance their goals, in school and beyond? How are educators resisting a deficit perspective by using their instruction to support and extend the strengths, backgrounds, and resources their learners bring to the classroom? We welcome manuscripts related to these and other topics that demonstrate how educators value and affirm literacy and its learners in a contemporary landscape.

May 2024: Call for General Theme Issue
Submission deadline: October 1, 2023
Talking Points seeks manuscripts on a range of whole language teaching and learning topics. For the May 2024 issue, we invite submissions that address research and practice reflecting the goals and mission of the Literacies and Languages for All (LLA) Summer Institute. This is a general call for manuscripts on multiple relevant topics of interest to literacy and language researchers and practitioners who align themselves with the principles of whole language and holistic education that characterize LLA. Examples of timely topics include discussions about early reading prevalent in the media, practices that celebrate students’ multiliteracies, 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. Presenters at the LLA Summer Institute are especially encouraged to develop their presentations into manuscripts.

Classroom Voices (ongoing feature)
Submission deadline: October 1 for the May issue; March 1 for the October issue

In each issue of Talking Points, the Classroom Voices section provides space for shorter alternative pieces that highlight the richness of whole language in the classroom. We invite classroom vignettes, photo essays, book reviews, samples of students’ work, teacher interviews, or anything else that helps us situate the principles of whole language in real classroom contexts. These pieces should be no longer than 1–2 double-spaced pages of text; accompanying photos should be submitted in a standard graphics format (tiff, jpeg, etc.) in high resolution (300 DPI) and will require signed permissions from the photographer and the subjects. Student work will also require permission to be included.

Note: For all pieces, please rely on the Whole Language Beliefs (http://www2.ncte.org/groups/wlu/beliefs/) to demonstrate how your work draws on and contributes to whole language principles and teaching practices.