Assessment, Issues, Teaching Writing

Plagiarism

6 Comments

I have been grading student essays this morning and just detected plagiarism in one of my students’ essays. It’s not the first time a student has turned in a plagiarized essay to me, and I am sure (sadly) that it won’t be the last. On the one hand, I know this student was sick when the essay was due, but I did offer her more time to complete the essay, and she declined. What is particularly troubling to me is that the essay contains sections entirely copied and pasted from Wikipedia or Answers.com. I find this distressing for many reasons. First of all, I think it is rather insulting to my intelligence that a student believes she can copy text from such well-known websites without my knowledge — indeed, I had provided students with links to the Wikipedia article she copied in order that they might find it a useful source. Second, it bothers me that the student must have believed turning in writing culled from Wikipedia was OK. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised; our current culture encourages plagiarism — you can purchase essays online. I find it frustrating that students continue to steal content from the Internet. I imagine they do so because it’s easier than stealing it from a book, but I don’t think they realize how much easier it is to catch them at Internet plagiarism.

I have learned a couple of tricks that help me catch plagiarists. First of all, look for straight quotes as opposed to curly quotes. Straight quotes often indicate copying and pasting from the Internet because web standard displays quotation marks as two small, straight lines, whereas the default font in MS Word, Times New Roman, displays quotation marks as two curly marks. Straight quotes don’t always indicate plagiarism, but they are something to look for if you are suspicious. If you suspect plagiarism, type a sentence or two from the paper word for word into Google search. You should yield a result if the language is identical to that of another site or even if only a few words have been changed (if you don’t put quotes around the sentence). I found my plagiarist using both straight-quote identification and Google search.

What should you do if you catch a plagiarist? It depends upon the nature of the assignment. I give students zeroes. If the assignment is a major assignment, such as a term paper or research paper, I think discipline needs to be taken further. I think students who plagiarize long-term assignments need to have their parents notified and possibly be referred to administration. I didn’t elect to do that with my student. I think the zero will be enough. I think she’s a sweet girl, and I hate that she’s put me in this position. I did try to be understanding about her illness, offering her more time to finish her essay. She declined.

We all make choices. Part of our job as teachers is to help students realize that plagiarism is never the right choice. Even a poorly written essay wouldn’t have received a grade lower than an F (50-59) in my class. I have a hunch she would have earned at least a C if she’d done the work herself.

[tags]plagiarism, education, writing, instruction[/tags]

Uncategorized

Professional Resumes

1 Comment

I started to write this post about a month ago. I didn’t finish it because halfway through, I asked myself, what do you know about this? Why are you writing about resumés? I have been, as they say down here in the South, hemming and hawing about the post ever since. I have noticed that many of my new readers are preservice English teachers, and I find this fact very exciting. I teach in a private school, and talking with preservice teachers online may be as close as I will get to working with a student teacher, which is something I have always wanted to do — ever since I was one myself! I am very interested in helping and encouraging new teachers.

When I was going through my English Education coursework, our professors helped us make resumés. We were told that while most professionals are advised to keep their resumés to one page in length, teachers should create two-page resumés. You should begin with your career objective. It can be as simple as “To teach English language arts to students in grades 7-12.” Mine reads “To integrate technology and English language arts and facilitate students’ communication skills through writing and reading in the secondary school.”

After my objective, I have my education background listed, including my certification.  I also included my GPA.  One thing you might want to do is include your major GPA.  Figure out what your GPA is for your major only — I selected all the English and education classes I took.  My major GPA is significantly higher (by about .15) than my total GPA.  I think including your major GPA, that is, if it’s higher than your total GPA, demonstrates how well you know your subject matter.

After education, detail your teaching experience, beginning with your most recent position backward.  If you have no teaching experience, include your student teaching and practicum here.  Also, include any work you’ve done with students.  Examples include camp counseling, youth ministry, babysitting, and the like.  I seem to remember including the fact that I had proctored the SAT when I wrote my first resumé.  Make sure you list any clubs you have sponsored or committees you were a part of.

If you are creating your first education resumé and/or you don’t have much teaching experience yet, you will want to include other work experience under a separate section from you teaching experience.  I don’t bother with that anymore, as I have been teaching for ten years and have several schools listed under education experience.

You can put Honors and Awards with education, but if you’ve received honors related to your job, you might want a separate section.  I list my Dean’s List awards and honor society memberships here.

I have a separate section on my resumé for publications because I have published an article for English Journal, a study guide for Beowulf, and a YA novel.

I have a section detailing my technology skills.  In this day and age, I think technology skills might be very attractive to prospective employers.

I would like to ask that professors, successful teachers, or principals post their tips for crafting education resumés in the comments so that preservice teachers might benefit from your advice.

P.S.  When you hand your resumé to a principal, don’t pronounce it like “re-ZOOM.”  I was within earshot of a teacher who did that, and it made me cringe.

[tags]resumés, education[/tags]

Assessment, Teaching Literature

Socratic Seminar

3 Comments

I don’t often apologize for a lack of posting.  Contrary to conventional wisdom, my philosophy of blogging is that one should only do so when one has something to say.  This philosophy is freeing, in that I don’t litter my blog with posts I don’t care about just so I can keep readers.  The year is winding down, which is stressful anyway, but it doesn’t help much when external stress is brought to bear by someone who could control him/herself if he/she wanted to.  Such is the education life, though, no?

With that inviting introduction, we move into what I really wanted to talk about, which is the beauty that is the Socratic Seminar.  You may recall my students participated in a Socratic Seminar earlier this year centered around the question of who was most responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s deaths.  You can read about that seminar here, along with my reflections about the amazing job they did here.  Another class of mine recently participated in a Socratic Seminar centered around the question “What’s wrong with Holden?” after reading The Catcher in the Rye.

A Socratic Seminar can be based upon any book.  All you have to do, as the educator, is figure out what larger theme or question you want the students to discuss.  Students do all of the other work, but they need guidelines.  First of all, in my experience, students have never heard of a Socratic Seminar, and even those who have heard of one are not sure what to do.  Just outline it for them.  You can use my handout, changing all the relevant information: Socratic Seminar handout.  I culled some of the information on this handout from Greece Central School District’s website.  I think if students are given a similar handout, they will know what they need to do to prepare.

I try to give students at least some class time to prepare.  If the truth be told, it isn’t strictly necessary, but it allays some of their concerns if they can run questions by me first before the seminar.  It also gives those who are having a hard time with the task a chance to see what other students are doing to prepare.  You may need to do some modeling with middle school students, but I haven’t found this to to be necessary with my college prep and honors ninth graders — of course, your mileage may vary, so keep in mind who your students are and what they will need.

The most beautiful thing about Socratic Seminars is that they enable the teacher to assess a student’s understanding of the book, while at the same time ensuring that the student does all the work him/herself.  It is hard to bluff through this assignment without having read the book.  Students have to mark passages so they can defend their assertions.  Their audience is their toughest one — their peers — and their peers will call them on it if they try to BS.

One thing you may notice, as I did, is that Socratic Seminars will give students a chance to shine — a quiet girl who rarely talked in class until the Socratic Seminar simply came out of her shell and contributed a great deal.  I think the Socratic Seminar helped her realize she has valid and interesting things to say.  Another thing that may impress you is how hard the students will work.  They will look up quotes, read criticism (even if it is just online), jot down notes, and the like.  One student told me that even though he’s read Catcher twice, he basically re-read the book just to prepare for the seminar.

Tips for conducting a successful Socratic Seminar:

  • If you’re like me, it will be hard for you as the teacher to remain quiet while the students talk, but it’s essential.
  • Allow students to use hands if they can’t restrain themselves.
  • Supply post-its if students can’t mark in their books.
  • Make sure students are aware of expectations — that each of them must contribute both as a speaker and a listener.
  • Put chairs in a circle.  My chairs are not connected by desks, but if yours are, put desks in a circle.

You might be surprised with what your students come up with when they are put to the test, and the best thing about it is that they do all the work — you just have to listen.

[tags]Socratic Seminar, literature, education[/tags]

Blogging

Light Blogging

2 Comments

I have been swamped lately, but I have a post in mind for this weekend.  I appreciated the fact that so many of you continue to stick around even though I don’t post every day (or even every week).

[tags]blogging[/tags]

Blogging

Venting Online

7 Comments

I debated with myself about writing this, but I decided to go ahead. I am about to vent about venting.

I understand teaching is a difficult job with few rewards. I understand many of us are working in schools that offer us little support and with colleagues who drive us crazy. I understand the occasional need to vent. But every post? After a while, I start to wonder why you continue to work under such conditions and don’t try to find something more satisfying. You’re obviously unhappy in your thankless job, and understandably, you need to vent your frustrations, but I have reached the point at which I wonder if you like anything about your job, and I’m frankly worried for your health. You sound a lot like I did when I was teaching middle school in a nearby district, but the difference is that I didn’t spew forth all my frustrations online. Reading your blog is a little like watching a train wreck before it happens — if your employers ever find your blog, which I hope they don’t, I can’t see how you’ll escape being fired. To your credit, I don’t think I can ever remember you complaining about the students, but you really seem to hate your co-workers with a passion. It’s my hope you’re not blogging from work at all, or you’ll have some real trouble on your hands if your blog is discovered.

Quite aside from the point I made that you are playing with fire — complaining online about your colleagues — your posts are a real downer to read. Is there nothing energizing, interesting, or exciting going on at your school? In your classroom? If I can lay it on the line, you’re depressing. You kind of remind me of Debbie Downer on SNL. The trouble with that assessment is that it isn’t congruent with what else I know about your personality. You can be pretty funny. You seem to enjoy life. You strike me as an outgoing person.

I don’t think it’s possible to always be happy with your job, especially if you’re a teacher. This time of year is especially difficult as teachers look at the calendar and freak out over what wasn’t covered and students look at the calendar and think it says June, not May. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that teacher bloggers will never complain on their blogs, but frankly, I don’t want to read anymore when that’s all they do.

[tags]venting, blogging, teachers[/tags]

Professional Development

Schools Attuned: Finished

Back in June 2006, I returned from a week-long professional development program authored by Mel Levine known as Schools Attuned. All year I have been working on the practicum part — the application of what I learned back in June in my classroom. I think I am finished. I just sent my portfolio to my facilitator.

It took an amazing amount of willpower for me to keep at it. Without the meetings as an impetus to finish, the only carrot I could use to dangle in front of myself was the promise of PLU’s that I desperately need in order to renew my certificate next month (yikes!).

I was pleased to learn that a grace period exists from the end of June until September so I can get all my items in for certification, but I must say that Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission website is really difficult to navigate on the issue of renewal.  I suppose that’s because a lot of systems take care of that issue for their teachers.  My school doesn’t, and it can’t be the only one.  I just hope I can get it all done.  This will be the second renewal, which feels like a milestone for me — it somehow means to me that I’m a veteran teacher.  I’ve been teaching long enough to have to renew twice.  That feels like a long time to me.

[tags]education, Schools Attuned, professional development, teacher certification[/tags]

Technology

Laptops in Schools

2 Comments

The New York Times reported yesterday that Liverpool High School in Liverpool, New York is phasing out its student laptop program. The article is a perfect illustration of exactly what schools do wrong when they issue laptops to each student.

[T]echnology is often embraced by philanthropists and political leaders as a quick fix, only to leave teachers flummoxed about how best to integrate the new gadgets into curriculums.

The article’s refrain seems to be that teachers didn’t know what to do with the laptops, students only played with them, and nothing of any educational value happened as a result.

I am fortunate to teach at a school where students can reasonably be expected to have access to a computer at home. We have a wonderful computer lab at school. In fact, I am currently debating with myself whether it’s feasible to require my students to purchase a USB flash drive as part of their school supplies for my class next year (they are currently available online for as low as $9, which is certainly less than the graphing calculators required in math). I mention this because I think it illustrates the level of comfort our school community feels with technology. Many of our students bring their own laptops to school.

Because access to technology is not a problem for my students, I am perhaps not the best person to comment on whether laptop programs are valuable or not, as they are not relevant to me. I was disturbed by some elements of the article. Was there not one teacher who used the laptops in innovative, educationally sound way? No use of wikis or blogs, no research? No composition using word processors or presentation software? I just can’t believe no one found the laptops valuable at all.

Second, I am confused about what the school authorities hoped to accomplish in issuing laptops without first offering professional development to educators. I also cannot understand why the school didn’t anticipate the problems that ensued with students’ misuse of the laptops. In the photograph at the top of the article, it looks as though the student using the laptop has even applied stickers to it. What sort of discussion about how the computer should be handled was generated? The stickers are not exactly small, and if the student has been using the laptop in class, surely someone has seen them. I probably shouldn’t even get into the appropriateness of the student’s attire, but did a school that allows students to wear shirts that seem to advocate underage drinking actually expect its students to know how to take care of and properly use a school-issued computer?

It sounds to me as if the faculty was resistant to the idea of using the laptops, but the school authorities were convinced the computers would be a panacea — test scores and grades would magically rise just because students had 24-hour access to a laptop. That is simply not the case, and of course studies coming out now showing no difference between schools who have embraced laptops versus those who haven’t are going to bear that out. However, standardized tests cannot very well measure some of the learning that takes place in Web 2.0 classrooms:

Mark Warschauer, an education professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of “Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom” (Teachers College Press, 2006), also found no evidence that laptops increased state test scores in a study of 10 schools in California and Maine from 2003 to 2005…

But Mr. Warschauer, who supports laptop programs, said schools like Liverpool might be giving up too soon because it takes time to train teachers to use the new technology and integrate it into their classes. For instance, he pointed to students at a middle school in Yarmouth, Me., who used their laptops to create a Spanish book for poor children in Guatemala and debate Supreme Court cases found online.

“Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research,” he said.

Integrating technology comes with its own set of problems, and if you really expect positive results, you have to address those problems head-on. The overall tone of the article is clearly biased against the laptops — it does not appear to me that much effort was expended to find examples of innovation and creativity in learning with laptops. I have to agree that throwing laptops at the students and expecting something great to happen as a result is foolish at best, but schools have to decide what results they would like to achieve and actually work toward achieving those results, just as they do with any set of standards in any field of study. We don’t check out books to students and expect them to learn course material themselves. Why should we expect that tactic to work with laptops?

[tags]laptops, education, New York Times, Web 2.0[/tags]

Professional Development

Professional Development Lending Library

1 Comment

I had either a brain wave or a brain fart, and I’ll let you decide which.  Professional development books are expensive.  Sometimes our schools have good libraries, sometimes they don’t.  Sometimes our schools will pay for our professional development books, sometimes they won’t.  I have a modest proposal.  If you have a title you would be willing to lend to or give to another teacher, sort of like Bookcrossers do, you can add it to a list of available titles.  Check out Bookcrossing and see if this is something you think is viable and interesting, and I’ll set it up.

[tags]Bookcrossing, library, education[/tags]

Professional Development

Preservice Teachers

10 Comments

I have been pleased to see many preservice English teachers and their professors are finding my blog useful.  I welcome new teachers to the profession and thank their professors for guiding them.

I have been trying to think of something preservice teachers in particular might find useful, but I’m not sure what that might be.  Why don’t we start a conversation, here or on a wiki (tell me which you prefer, I’ll set it up)?  Preservice or new teachers could post questions, and veteran teachers could answer.  My gut tells me that a wiki would be great for this purpose.

[tags]preservice, educators, advice, mentoring[/tags]

Assessment, Teaching Writing

Rubrics

5 Comments

One last post, and I’m off to bed.  I do, after all, have to teach tomorrow.  I had a discussion with my principal about rubrics the other day, and today I read an article entitled “Why I Won’t Be Using Rubrics to Respond to Students’ Writing” by Maja Wilson (in English Journal, March 2007 — read it here if you are an EJ subscriber).  My only real issue with the article is that Ms. Wilson focuses on personal narrative, which is much harder to look at with an objective rubric.  I would have liked to have seen what she would have done with a persuasive essay, expository essay, or literary analysis, where I think more objectivity in the form of “looking for certain things” certainly exists.  I do, however, think she has some very good points.  I have been a staunch believer in the rubric, and have even written defenses on this very site this year, but my discussion and this article are really making me think.  I do think rubrics have helped me become more objective, but I think I have taken the objectivity too far and some of the human element in what my students are writing has not been considered.  I have ideas about how I will approach things differently next year.  If I had my way, I wouldn’t grade student writing at all, but simply give them feedback so they could improve.  School doesn’t work like that, however, and I have to assign grades to written work.  Instead of being a tool, my rubrics have become my crutch, and I think I could have given more tangible, valuable feedback this year.  I do plan to stick to my resolve about portfolios and typewritten feedback (at least every other essay) for next year.  It’s too late for me to collect data and see what sort of quantifiable impact this approach will have on my students, but I will keep you posted.

Maja Wilson is also the author of the Heinemann book Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment.

[tags]rubrics, writing, assessment, Maja Wilson, English Journal[/tags]

Issues, ideas, and discussion in English Education and Technology