'Oigan, tengo un cuento': Crossing 'la Frontera' of Life and Books

This teacher research study took place in a bilingual second-grade classroom in the southwestern United States. The study investigates the "cuentos" told during "platicas literarias"/literature discussions and explores how five young Latinas used their cuentos to communicate meaning through intertextual connections. These intertextual connections revealed that young children from linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds are indeed capable of drawing on their cultural traditions--in this case storytelling--to make meaning. Their "cuentos" were used as the building blocks for the "platicas literarias" and provided counternarratives to the prevailing deficit view used to measure the academic potential of Latinos. (Contains 3 tables.)