How do ELA teachers create moments of joy for their students, their communities, and themselves? How do ELA teachers support learning that centers justice in today’s classrooms, especially in this current political climate? What other questions, insights, and ideas about joy and justice do you have as an ELA teacher? We enthusiastically invite classroom teachers, department leaders, building and district administrators, teacher educators, preservice teachers, and students to submit manuscripts.

Submission Deadline: March 9, 2026

Please submit your manuscripts as a double-spaced Word document to englishrecord@nysecteach.org and list your article or column type.

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EMPIRICAL ARTICLES
Peer-reviewed articles that detail original research. Empirical articles should be no more than 6,000 words, inclusive of references, tables, and figures. Empirical articles should include a literature review, theoretical framework, methodology, findings, discussion, and implications sections.

TEACHING ARTICLES
Peer-reviewed articles that detail a classroom practice, including instructional moves, curriculum outlines, and reflective pieces on practice. Teaching articles should be no more than 4,000 words, inclusive of references, tables, and figures. Teaching articles should include a summary of the teaching idea, reflections from implementing the idea, and curricular materials when available.

CONCEPTUAL ESSAYS
Peer-reviewed essays that explain, narrate, think through, and/or advocate for a new approach to teaching English language arts and/or literacy. Conceptual essays should be no more than 2,000 words, inclusive of references, tables, and figures.

BOOK, MEDIA, AND TEXT REVIEWS
Short articles that offer critique, praise, and/or other thoughts on a text, which we broadly define to include books, graphic novels, film, television, music, and other media. Book, media, and text reviews are reviewed by the editors and additional reviewers if necessary. Book, media, and text reviews should be no more than 2,000 words, including references, tables, and figures. Book, media, and text reviews by secondary and college students are also encouraged.

COLUMNS are short pieces that succinctly document an idea or argument. Columns are similar to op-eds and should be between 1,000-1,400 words.
Current columns include:

EN MEDIA RES
We invite preservice teachers, early career educators, as well as those whose scholarship centers these voices and experiences to contribute. Inspired by English Journal’s “The Future is Now” column, this column centers the ideas and questions of ELA teachers navigating the early stages of their professional learning journeys.

DIALOGUE AND DISCUSSION
We invite NYSEC members to interview an English educator or author in the field that they want to highlight. Interviewers should introduce the interviewee and their work to readers before moving into a formatted interview of four to six questions.

THE ART OF THE PROMPT
We invite English teachers and teacher educators to share their favorite writing prompts. These could be prompts that invite creative writing, essay writing, poetry, or another form of writing. Teachers should share their prompt, providing context to help readers understand the writing it inspired and the teaching philosophy from which it arises.