Plagiarism

Plagiarism became a problem at the END of our school year--hum?!?!  I wanted to avoid a repeat, so I informed the junior high teachers that 3/4 of the junior high students (I only teach 1/2 the seventh graders, but all of the eighth graders) will have a formal plagiarism presentation the first week of school.

I did have to inform the teachers that every time a student plagiarizes, it is not on purpose.  There are those shades of gray where the student does not realize he or she should cite.  I reminded the teachers that this is a fairly new and complicated skills that needs to be taught--not assumed.  This was news to a couple of them.

I explained to my students that we would be talking about plagiarism do's and don't's all year, but they were going to get a 45 minute overview of what plagiarism is.  I asked them to define the word before we began.  The most common definition was "the stealing of someone's words and using them as your own."  Good start!

So each of my students were required to watch the following Rutger's video. Plagiarism Videos from Rutgers.  I told the students that when they use the word "footnotes," they were to insert "cite in text."  The videos are goofy and dated, but I thought they were fairly effective for my purpose.  The last video is an interactive "quiz."  It generated great discussion.  Most students felt they did not know you could steal ideas, not just words.

Phase two occurred during the same 45 min. class period.  I passed out a copy of the handout located at the following site:  Lesson and Paper . (Considering I made only six copies--one for each group--and printed it as is w/ Kid's Health logo on it, I don't think I infringed on copyright and plagiarism laws while teaching a lesson on plagiarism.  This lesson does make one paranoid!).  I kept a copy of the quiz w/ each student's signature in a file.  If a plagiarism issue comes up, I have my documentation that students had a very broad sense of what plagiarism is.

The website Read/Write/Think has a lengthy, more detailed lesson plan for plagiarism.  I may pull elements from this site when we begin working with science teachers on Science Fair projects.  See Read/Write/Think for more information.