Monday, November 15, 2010
Plagiarisms
With the use of computers, I am finding students are having a harder time putting information that they need to research into their own words. I explained to my students what it means to plagiarize, what the consequences are etc., but they just don't care. Last week the social studies teacher gave the students an assignment to do a Diaspora on any country they wanted. They needed to look up the information and then put it into their own words. I have some of her students in my study skills class so I went over it with them again, how to put it in their own words. Gave them some examples and pretty much done it with them. I felt that they worked hard on it, but then when they turned it in, I found that they just copied and pasted right off the wikipedia website. I was so disappointed in them, after I worked on it with them, and felt they had it all done correctly. I think that most of them or just lazy and want the teachers to do all the work for them. I don't know how else to make it clear to students that it is just wrong. They got zeros on their assignments and they had to do them over, but they still didn't get it. Does anyone have any ideas on this subject?
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Wow...how frustrating! This is something that I too have battled and we have discussed this same scenario in our cohort. I will have to agree that I think many of them are just lazy and they don't want to do the work. One of my classmates did a powerpoint and worked through examples just like you did. My campus choir students write a paper on the Beatle that they think is most influential. It doesn't matter how many times I tell them...I am going to check for plagiarism and every semester I have 2 or 3 that end up with a zero. This year I have weighted grades and it will make a huge impact on their final grades. I think we just need to keep talking, sharing, giving examples and demonstrating and hopefully soon they will catch on! I will try to find the contract that this teacher has her high school students sign. You may have to remind me though!
ReplyDeleteDON'T get me started on this. Our "media specialist" was "teaching" my students how to make a Powerpoint and was having them copy and past HUGE chunks of information and paste it onto the slides. I said, "Um...you do realize that they cannot do that, right?" He had no idea.
ReplyDeleteI can sure understand your frustration Amy. Don't give up the fight Amy~ eventually, maybe one will see the value in the lesson.
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteI would love to see the contract that the teacher has her students sign. What a great idea. I will have to share that with the other teachers. Thanks for your input, and I'm glad I'm not the only frustrated teacher!
Janine,
ReplyDeleteThats crazy that the media teacher wouldn't know that was wrong to do. Maybe he figured that was the easiest way to show them how to make a powerpoint. But still.....
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI really don't think many teachers in our district check for "cut and paste". Last year when I had the kids use google docs for a little short 1 paragraph on native bead work, over half copied and pasted. They had to list their sources of information. I opened each and bingo, BUSTED! Maybe if they are caught they have to hand write it..I don't have an answer.