“Can I copy and paste?” That is a question I get on a constant basis from students. My response is, “When have I ever told you it was okay to do that?” Most cases of student’s plagiarism is done unintentionally and for reasons such as not knowing how to properly cite sources, when to cite their sources, they don’t know enough about the topic or they waited too long to start an assignment and panicked (Frey, Fisher, Gonzalez, 2010 p. 59).
First, students do not know enough about plagiarism, copyright and fair use. Copyright and fair use can be a difficult concept for students to understand. Students also have a difficult time knowing how to cite sources. This topic can be simplified for students and citing sources can be made much easier with all the citation tools available online. I found a Google Slide presentation that helps explain the topic of copyright to students (http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/07/what-students-need-to-know-about_24.html).
Students also need to be taught how to summarize their information. Most of the time when I tell my middle school students to summarize or put the information in their own words, I get a blank stare from them. With as many students as I have at their various ability levels, tools such as Text Compactor (http://textcompactor.com/) can help students summarize their information so they are not plagiarizing.
Last, students need to know how to find appropriate resources online for research and what questions to ask when using a search engine. Students should be able to identify a credible resource from one that is not. A checklist such as this (http://www.lib.umd.edu/binaries/content/assets/public/usereducation/evaluating-web-sites-checklist-form.pdf) will assist students in finding these reliable resources.
These simple steps teach students how to appropriately do research on the Internet.
Frey, N., Fisher, D., & Gonzalez, A. (2010). Literacy 2.0: Reading and writing in 21st century classrooms. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Image from Referencing & Plagiarism . (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://guides.library.vu.edu.au/referencing
Kimberly,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the google slide presentation. I think it would be a great resource to share with my students.
I can relate to your comments about copying and pasting straight from the Internet. From all the project I have had students work on over the past few years, I have found that my middle school students really don’t understand what is wrong with copying and pasting or not citing their sources. To try to prevent this, our team of middle school teachers has come up with a quick checklist on citing sources using the MLA format. We all use the same checklist and our students have come to know that we all have the same expectations about citing sources and not plagiarizing. This doesn’t mean that they don’t still make mistakes or try to get away with copying
and pasting when trying to just get an assignment finished, but I think it has helped to open their eyes to our expectations. Do you think your students would benefit from using a handout or checklist on citing properly?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Sara V
Sara,
DeleteI think a checklist would be a great idea! I never really thought of that. It would definitely help and is a great suggestion.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing those excellent resources.
Dr. Dell
It was like a breathe of fresh air reading your blog! I have a 19 year old sister that is struggling writing research papers in college because she was never taught the correct way to site her sources. It is nice to see teachers in the upper levels realizing the need to take the time to teach students this in junior high and high school.
ReplyDelete