CITE

PLAGIARISM: THE CUT AND PASTE GENERATION

April Faculty Meeting

What is plagiarism? According to Webster’s dictionary,

plagiarism is…

Do you think it’s happening in your classroom?According to the website Plagiarism.org

• “Recent studies indicate that approximately 30 percent of all students may be plagiarizing on every written assignment they complete.”

•“A national survey published in Education Week found:

-54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the internet;

-74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in "serious" cheating;

-47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating.”

South Middle School’s Plagiarism Policy

Let’s take a look at our current school policy…

• At the beginning of every year, students and parents are required to sign and return this form to the English department.

• It is located on South Middle’s website if you’d like to further review the policy.

Intentional vs. Unintentional

• Even though the students are aware that intentionally plagiarizing is against school policy, students and parents need to know that unintentional plagiarism is just as serious.

• Unintentional plagiarism usually results from poor note-taking, lack of paraphrasing skills and not knowing how to properly cite sources.

Prevention is easier than prosecution• Redesigning projects/assignments• Emphasizing and repeated practice

of note-taking and paraphrasing skills• Checkpoints • Emphasis on avoiding plagiarism as a

life-long skill– Examples of real life

situations/consequences

Want to be scared?

HPP vs. LPP• High Probability of Plagiarism

– Does not emphasize higher level thinking• Requires only facts, not analysis• Often starts with “tell about…”

– Generic, lack relevance to student – All information can be retrieved

from a single source

Luscre, Anthony. Technology Ethics, 2010

HPP vs. LPP• Low Probability of Plagiarism

– Stress higher level thinking skills/creativity• Use terms such as: compare, contrast,

evaluate, effects of, interpret, document, etc.

– Involves a variety of information finding activities/sources

Luscre, Anthony. Technology Ethics, 2010

HPP vs. LPP• Low Probability of Plagiarism

– Gives students choices/relevant to students life

– Can be collaborative

– Include a technological element (ie. Graph, video, photos, etc.)

Luscre, Anthony. Technology Ethics, 2010

HPP vs. LPP • Utilize formats that use multiple

senses

• Provide students with a rubric detailing performance and expectations

Luscre, Anthony. Technology Ethics, 2010

Examples of HPP vs. LPP

• HPP– My research is about

an assigned animal.

– My research is about an assigned state.

– My research is about any subject of my choosing, I do not need to accomplish a specific task with my report. (research questions not defined)

Luscre, Anthony. Technology Ethics, 2010

• LPP– How can our school stop

the growth of the population of unwanted and abandoned pets in our community?

– How might middle schools change or enhance their curricula to better prepare students for the challenges of our digital world?

– My research draws conclusions, weighs possible solutions and describes potential actions.

Note-taking and Paraphrasing

• Don’t assume students have these skills

• Need to be practiced and implemented into many different lessons

• Encourage students to take responsibility once these methods have been taught

• Use the library as a resource!!

Checkpoints• Ask students to hand in pieces of the

project/assignment at different times.

• If plagiarism is suspected at the checkpoints, address it as a learning opportunity and give student a chance to correct mistakes.

• May create more work for the teacher but the end result will be of higher quality and the likelihood of plagiarism will be much lower.

Why do I need to know this?• Use real life examples to prove to students that

this is a serious subject.– NY Times journalist, Jayson Blair, was accused and found

guilty of plagiarizing from another journalist’s story. He was forced to resign from the newspaper.

– Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan, was accused of plagiarizing in her novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. She lost her publishing contract and all copies of her book were destroyed.

Help control the pet population. Have your pets

spayed or neutered!