Learning and Teaching Center (Old)

Tuesday, October 19: Bush Writing Scholar

David Joliffe

Advanced Placement versus Advanced Exemption: The Pleasures and Perils of the High School-to-College Transition in English

David Joliffe, Professor of English and
Coordinator of the Writing-in-the-Disciplines Initiative, DePaul University
Chief Reader for Advanced Placement English Language
and Composition

Co sponsored by the College Writing Program

Executive Summary by Drew Dara-Abrams '05

David A. Jolliffe (of DePaul University) serves as the chief reader for the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition exam. This position has afforded him an intimate view of how high school students are taught to read and write. Jolliffe described how the exam works, what the numerical scores are intended to represent, and how college professors can best make use of this knowledge. Also addressed in Jolliffe’s talk and the subsequent discussion were techniques for teaching students to become independent readers and to synthesize their findings into papers that aren’t constrained by the standard five-paragraph form.

Complete summary by Drew Dara-Abrams