Plagiarism has long been a canker on the intellectual landscape, and many students feel powerless to resist the siren song of readily available content provided by others. The Internet presents an especially tempting bounty of fast and convenient pre-packaged prose and ideas. So, just how does a teacher, or a school system, stem the tide of plagiarism?
Do your students understand the different types of plagiarism? Do they understand how to cite sources properly, and how closely they can safely paraphrase another writer’s work without trespassing into plagiarism territory? What’s the cultural climate at your school? Does your school promote academic integrity as a true expectation, and reward intellectual and academic honesty? It’s impossible to create honest students in a vacuum; the entire faculty must guide students through the ins and outs of plagiarism and the proper citing of sources. Intellectual honesty and high expectations breed more responsible students.
This week’s Joann’s Picks column on the Gateway’s home page focuses on resources to help your students learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it. Peggy’s Corner will discuss using lesson plans and tools to check for plagiarism in the classroom. Additional resources on the topic will be discussed on the Gateway’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Discussions will continue on last week’s theme of resources for special needs students on both Facebook and Twitter pages. All of the weekly Gateway columns and resource selections are archived on the following blog site: http://thegatewayto21stcenturyskills.blogspot.com/.
Resources covered in this week’s columns include:
Research Building Blocks: Cite Those Sources!
Subjects: Language Arts
Grade: 3-5
Children are naturally curious—they want to know "how" and "why." Teaching research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson is taken from a research skills unit where the students complete a written report on a state symbol. Here, students learn the importance of citing their sources to give credit to the authors of their information as well as learn about plagiarism. They explore a Website about plagiarism to learn the when and where of citing sources as well as times when citing sources is not necessary. They look at examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing. Finally, students practice citing sources and creating a bibliography. This lesson is a product of ReadWriteThink, which offers free resources in reading and language arts instruction. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing
Subjects: English/Language Arts
Grade: 6-8
This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism, This lesson provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism. This lesson was produced by ReadWriteThink, where all lessons are reviewed by at least two teachers prior to publication. This lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA content standards.
Plagiarism Workshop
Subjects: English
Grade: 8-12
This Webquest provides an introduction to the issue of plagiarism, including an overview of copyright laws and fair use provisions. A demonstration of techniques to avoid plagiarism, focusing on paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources, is also included. This online workshop was developed by Janice Cooper, a teacher at Northern Valley Regional High School in New Jersey, and is aligned to New Jersey state standards.
About The Gateway to 21st Century Skills
The Gateway has been serving teachers continuously since 1996. It is the oldest publicly accessible U.S. repository of educational resources on the Web and the oldest continuously operating service of its kind in the world. The Gateway is sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA) and supported by over 700 quality contributors. The Gateway to 21st Century Skills is the cornerstone of the Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC) which is a JES & Co. program.
About Joann Wasik- Author of Joann’s Picks
Joann is the Metadata Cataloger for The Gateway for 21st Century Skills. Her primary responsibilities for The Gateway include locating and cataloging standards-based K-12 lessons and activities for The Gateway, as well as writing the “Joann’s Picks” weekly column. Before joining The Gateway in 2006, Joann had been involved with numerous projects at the Information Institute of Syracuse at Syracuse University, including virtual reference with the Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) project; virtual reference competencies and education with the Digital Reference Education Initiative (DREI) project; and metadata cataloging with the Gateway for Educational Materials (GEM). Her previous experience also includes technology training and positions in academic libraries. She also conducts freelance research for business and educational clients. Joann holds B.A. and M.A.T. degrees in English from Boston College, and an M.L.S. degree from Syracuse University.
About Peggy James- Author of Peggy’s Corner
Peggy received her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from The University of Arizona, and continued on to earn her M.Ed. from the U of A as well. She has taught Physical Science and Chemistry at the high school level. She is working toward her endorsement in Gifted Education, and has been actively involved in coaching and volunteering in Odyssey of the Mind and Academic Decathlon. She has a passion for teaching critical thinking and creativity in the classroom. She has done work evaluating and aligning lesson plans to standards as a curriculum consultant with the National Education Association Health Information Network. She is very excited to help create a collaborative environment for educators to discover new resources that will enhance their teaching!
About the GLRC
The Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC) is a public-private collaboration which brings to fruition ongoing work between JES & Co., a U.S. 501(c)(3) education research organization, corporate sponsors and education agencies worldwide. Leading the initial corporate involvement are founding worldwide partners Microsoft, Cisco, Cengage/Gale, the National Education Association (NEA), and other leading corporations in process. The GLRC ties together several significant semantic web technologies developed through funding from the National Science Foundation and is designed to support cyber learning. The GLRC supports the implementation of the mapping of major collections of learning resources in systems around the world to the machine-readable expressions of the learning outcomes based on the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) modeling and technical framework. The work will implement the international linking of those resources through trans-jurisdictional mapping of learning outcomes by means of Semantic Web/Linked Data principles for teacher/learner access and use. For more information about the GLRC, contact Terry Smithson at
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or visit us www.JESandCo.org.
About JES & Co.
JES & Co., a publicly funded 501(c) (3) education research organization, is a leader in research and deployment of education programs based on open standards. With 20 years of experience in interoperability and portability of educational resources, organizations around the world come to JES & Co. for leadership and guidance on education programs and initiatives. Since its establishment in the early 1990s, JES & Co. has led and managed The Achievement Standards Network (ASN), The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, The Gateway to 21st Century Skills (formerly known as GEM), the Dell Academy, the Intel Student Certification Program, and Microsoft’s Partners in Learning. For more information about JES & Co. or the Global Learning Resource Connection, visit www.JESandCo.org.