Submission Guidelines

 

Talking Points, a peer-reviewed journal, is published in May and October by WLU, the Whole Language Umbrella, a conference of NCTE. Talking Points helps promote literacy research and the use of whole language instruction in classrooms. It provides a forum for parents, classroom teachers, students, and researchers to reflect about literacy and learning. We invite submissions from professionals across the educational spectrum, including classroom teachers, teacher educators, researchers, and educational advocates/activists.

Manuscripts submitted should: (1) be on a topic or issue related to holistic teaching and learning; or (2) 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. Reference lists should follow APA guidelines.

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.

 

October 2019: Powerful Whole Language Pedagogies
Submission deadline: May 1, 2019

For this issue, we call for manuscripts on a range of whole language teaching and learning topics. We particularly invite submissions that detail whole language instruction that flies in the face of some prevailingly negative impressions of whole language classrooms. How do whole language experiences and practices empower students’ literacy identities and represent high expectations for their literacy learning? How do educators enact instruction consistent with whole language principles, in the face of mischaracterizations in the press and among literacy educators, school decision makers, and the public? What student successes can be shared that contradict these negative portrayals of whole language classrooms? We encourage manuscripts that reclaim whole language beliefs and practices as powerful pedagogies that support children’s lifelong literacy understandings and perspectives.