Stepping Into Inquiry – What is Plagiarism and How to Cite Using Easybib

Note: This is a continuation of the blog series I am doing detailing the work I am doing with students in an inquiry project into how to research better. The first post detailing the set-up and our first module, How to Write an Inquiry Question, can be found here.

In 7th grade, must of my students know something about plagiarism. They know they shouldn’t copy entire sources, they know they shouldn’t pass work off as their own, that they should be the creators of their own original thought, and yet…every year, without fail, we see kids plagiarise. The most common form is structure plagiarism. They see an article and they use the same structure of it to summarize, changing only a few words here and there. For some reason, they don’t see this as plagiarism but instead as summarizing. So we knew that while plagiarism is a much larger ongoing discussion that would require a lot of discussion and practice, we wanted to establish a baseline of what plagiarism is and also give them a few tips to avoid it in order to lay a foundation for future discussion.

Before we started, I had already checked their inquiry questions from Module 1 and students were, for the most part, ready to move on. A few kids needed some discussion in the crafting of their question, but almost all were ready to move on. Those that weren’t caught up in a small group or were asked to see me. Most inquiry questions were solid, a few were too broad or too narrow, and a few needed to be rethought, but overall, I was thrilled with how brad the interests were. A few sample questions students are pursuing:

• How does being homeless affect your mental health as a child?
• Why do people become abusive?
• Why are dogs viewed as superior pets?
• How can we reduce our trash production as a class?
• How does air pollution affect everyday life in India?
• How do you re-enter the job market after experiencing homelessness?
• What is life like for a ragpicker?

I knew I wanted students to see some extreme plagiarism examples in order to hook them into the work and so we watched this classic SNL skit to much amusement. That type of plagiarism is easy to spot, but what about the instances that are not? I used headlines from recent music battles where artists have been accused of copying other artists, which helped the students see that plagiarism is a problem that permeates many aspects of life, and not just education. This also led to a discussion of what can happen in our district if they plagiarise and what to do if they iadvertently do it.

Then it was time to practice our note-taking again, this time providing us with an actual definition of plagiarism courtesy of this video from GCFLearnFree.org . Having something short and concise allowed students to have a commun definition, as well as some beginning tools of how to avoid it. We could then release them into their Student Module 2 where most of the work took place. This was a one-day event within our 90 minute ELA block with only a few students needing extra time.

In their Student Module 2, we wanted students to have further exposure to ways to avoid plagiarism, as well get some information about citations, not just why they are important, but also how they are different than say providing a weblink. We then wanted students to walk through creating an actual citation using Easybib, which is the preferred citation tool in 7th grade overall at our school, by citing an article that is relevant to our inquiry. Our geography teachers had already created easy slides to follow for how to use Easybib, so we were able to merely adapt those and have students use them.

Because we knew students came in with different skill levels for this module, we provided an extra activity for those who had time left over. At the end of the module, they would be able to play a plagiarism game created by students at Lyocoming College, an easy game that students thought was amusing and also informative.

My teacher slides for the unit can be found here

Reflection back:

This module went well, although, with viruses hitting us all hard, there were some kids that did not have their inquiry question ready. The good news was that they didn’t have to have that ready for this module, so we were able to work on these skills while still working on their inquiry skills.

Time management continued to be a hurdle for a few kids, and so we tightened up around that for the kids who needed it and I also tried to take up very little of their time in order to give them as much work time as possible. Circling around while students worked helped clear up some confusion.

While the Easybib slides were helpful, for some they were confusing and so in the future I may just have kids go to Easybib and try to follow the steps themselves rather than look at slides with steps on them like I have done in the past. I am not sure how I will tweak it, but the few kids that I showed how to use Easybib live found that demonstration easier than following the slides.

And finally, I am not sure this was enough exposure, I constantly feel like I should take the kids deeper and yet then also have to remind myself that it is exposure to level the playing field and to help them all have a more solid understanding as we continue to do inquiry throughout the year. I also have to remember that what may seem easy to me is not always easy for my amazing students and even if a few students finished quickly, it does not mean it was easy.

Next module: How to use Google Search Better.

If you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.. If you like what you read here, consider reading my latest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.