Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College

by Todd Ruecker

Transiciones is a thorough ethnography of seven Latino students in transition between high school and community college or university. Data gathered over two years of interviews with the students, their high school English teachers, and their writing teachers and administrators at postsecondary institutions reveal a rich picture of the conflicted experience of these students as they attempted to balance the demands of schooling with a variety of personal responsibilities.

Todd Ruecker explores the disconnect between students’ writing experiences in high school and higher education and examines the integral role that writing plays in college. Considering the almost universal requirement that students take a writing class in their critical first year of college, he contends that it is essential for composition researchers and teachers to gain a fuller understanding of the role they play in supporting and hindering Latina and Latino students’ transition to college.

Arguing for situating writing programs in larger discussions of high school/college alignment, student engagement, and retention, Transiciones raises the profile of what writing programs can do while calling composition teachers, administrators, and scholars to engage in more collaboration across the institution, across institutions, and across disciplines to make the transition from high school to college writing more successful for this important group of students.

229 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2015

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. Some of the methodology seemed odd to me (tracking student progress but also participating in it by offering academic support) but that made me realize that I really know nothing about how to do research in education. I would like to learn more.

My biggest take-away from this study, which uses the cultural wealth framework to look at student lives and comes to conclusion that there is a lot outside of a professor or teacher's control when it comes to student retention--is that it mattered to students, if they disappeared from class, if professors took the time to check in with them.

This study also made me think about the balance between higher order concerns and grammar-based feedback. It seemed that the students in the study, who were bilingual and some ELL, really wanted this sort of grammar feedback--or the author had a bias toward explicit grammar instruction--or a little of both. This challenged my own approach which is mostly implicit and got me thinking about this balance.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Case study

Good stuff here about high school students transitioning to college and their preparedness as writers. I appreciate the depth and detail present in the numerous factors that complicate student “success” and the general call to action to teachers k-16 to be more adaptive and aware of student lives outside of the classroom.

[Joanne Stiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Research addresses the difficult transition between high school and college writing courses, particularly for English language learners. High schools often provide a learning structure to English language learners to guide them to be successful academically. Although colleges provide support services for ELL's, these services are often not mandatory. The author stresses the need for more active discussions to occur between high school and college writing faculty, in order to put an end to the one-size-fits-all English only curriculum.