Spurred by burgeoning racist and xenophobic immigration policy and rhetoric, we analyzed the writing of seven second-grade children about their experiences of living connections that span the United States-Mexico border. Informed by research on children's "testimonios" in literacy classrooms and Anzaldúa's concept of the border/lands, we…

Arguing an idea from evidence is not an easy task. Lori Fulton and Emily Poeltler found that their second grade students could make claims about an idea and sometimes provide some sort of an explanation, but they struggled to support their claims with evidence. They noticed that as students were talking and writing about science, they were focused…