Lesson: Whose Is It, Anyway? (4-5)

Introduce

TELL students to write a brief paragraph on a specific subject (use a topic you are covering in class). Collect the paragraphs, and give each student someone else’s work. Have students cross out the writer’s name and put their name in its place.

ASK: Have volunteers to read the paragraphs aloud, pretending that it is their own work. Praise them for their work and say that you would like to publish “their” work in a school newsletter, or submit it to a writing contest.

INVITE both the true owner and the person pretending the work is theirs to comment on how the situation makes them feel. (Guide students to grapple with their feelings of being angry or frustrated when another student took credit for writing the paragraph.) 

Teach 1: Is It Okay, or No Way?

DISTRIBUTE the Okay or No Way! Student Handout, one for each student. Have students work in pairs to complete the handout. (Note: Postpone discussion until students have read the information on the Respecting People’s Work Student Handout and learned the information in Teach 2.)

Teach 2: Plagiarism vs. When It's Fair to Copy

ASK: What words come to mind when I say the word plagiarism? Get a feel for students’ familiarity with plagiarism. They may have heard the word and know that it’s bad, wrong, or that it has a negative connotation.

INTRODUCE the Key Vocabulary word plagiarism.

SHARE with students your school’s official policy on plagiarism and its consequences. If there is no official policy, explain how you handle plagiarism in your classroom. The following are talking points to help explain plagiarism.

• Plagiarism is copying and pasting text, images, video, or anything that someone else created without giving them credit. Plagiarism is cheating, and it’s against school rules.
• If a teacher asks you to write a report or project, the teacher expects you not to copy, whether it’s from a webpage or from your best friend. Even if you copy something into your own handwriting or retype it yourself, it’s still plagiarism.

(Note: Copyright laws protect the ownership of authors’ written works, photos, drawings, videos, and other graphics by requiring that people who make copies do so only with the permission of the owner. However, certain uses of such works for schoolwork is considered “fair use” and does not require copyright permission, only that credit or a citation be given.)

ASK: Why is it important not to plagiarize? Sample responses:

• So you don’t get in trouble.
• So you can give credit for others’ work and ideas.

TELL students another reason it is important not to plagiarize is so that they show respect for work and ideas
that others create.

DEFINE the Key Vocabulary word respect.

EXPLAIN to students that one way they can show respect is to give credit when they use other people’s work. And one way to give credit is by providing a citation.

DEFINE the Key Vocabulary word citation.

TELL students they should use citations as a formal way to give credit to other people’s work they use, especially for school. Citations also help others find the information that students have drawn from in their work. Walk students through creating a citation for a book, website, and an image. (Note: The following examples are in Modern Language Association style. For more information on MLA citations, visit the MLA.)

INTRODUCE students to each component of the citation, and point out where they might find that information. For instance, the author, publisher, and publication date of a book can be found in the first few pages. For a website and an image, students will have to look carefully to find an author and publication date. Write the following examples on the board:

Book: Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Publication Date.

• Example: Thompson, Sarah. Amazing Whales! New York: Harper Collins, 2005.

Website: Author’s Last Name, First Name, if given (not webpage creator). Title of Page or Site. Publication or Update Date. Name of Institution or Sponsoring Organization. Date of Visit to Site <URL of Page>.

• Example: “Amazing Facts.” 2009. The Whale Center of New England. 18 Aug. 2010. <http://www.whalecenter.org/information/facts.html>.

Image: Author’s Last Name, First Name, if given. “Name of Image.” Type of Image. Title of Site or Page. Name of Sponsoring Organization. Publication or Update Date. Date of Visit to Site <URL of Image>.

• Example: Murray, Seamus. “Bar Harbor, Whale Watching.” Photo. Seamus Murray’s Photostream. 3 July 2005. 18 Aug. 2010. Flickr. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/seamusnyc/347748290/>.

(Note: For images and websites, if there is no publication date, students can just list the date they accessed the website.)

DISTRIBUTE the Respecting People’s Work Student Handout, one for each student. Have students work in pairs or small groups at a computer and complete the activity. Students can then volunteer to write their citations on the board and show the class the website where they found the information. Students can critique whether or not their classmates provided the right citation format. (Note: While students complete the handout, explain to them the citation policies of your school or classroom. Some schools, for instance, require full citations for images, and some do not.)

Teach 3: Revisit and Revise ... Okay, or No Way?

Have students revisit the Okay or No Way? Student Handout and discuss changes or additions to their answers. Guide students to consider the following in their discussion:

• David’s homework: Email makes it easy for students to share their work. However, unless the teacher tells them to work together and turn in the same paper, she expects David’s work to be his own. Even though Justin gave David permission to copy his work, it is still plagiarism when you copy from someone else.
• Manny’s paragraph: Copying someone else’s’ work from the Web in his own handwriting does not make it Manny’s work. This is plagiarism.
• Samantha’s work: Using the exact words of someone else is plagiarism, even if you add your own topic sentence. Samantha should restate the passage in her own words, or she can use a quote from the author (and then provide a citation).
• Ming and the illustration: It is okay for Ming to use a drawing from a website for a school report because she gave credit to the illustrator. Ideally, Ming should provide a citation for the photo at the end of her report.

Wrap Up & Assess

You can use these questions to assess your students’ understanding of the lesson objectives.

ASK: What is plagiarism? Sample responses:

• Copying someone else’s work and calling it your own.
• Copying stuff from a website and saying you wrote it.

ASK: Why is it important to provide citations for the work you use? Sample responses:

• So you can avoid plagiarism.
• To give credit to the person who made it.
• So other people can find the sources you used.
• Citing work shows respect for other people’s work.

ASK: When is it okay to use someone else’s words or ideas? Sample responses:

• When you use quotation marks around the words you use and give a citation.
• When you use someone’s ideas or words to help you say something in your own words and provide a citation.

ASK: Why is it important to show respect for other people’s work? Sample responses:

• It’s the right thing to do.
• It shows them we admire and appreciate their work.

Extension & Homework

EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Teach students the importance of paraphrasing – putting something in your own words – as a way to avoid plagiarism. Have students print a passage from a webpage, read it, put it aside, then write the information in their own words, and provide a citation. Next have students exchange their webpage and paraphrased passage with a partner. Students can use the following criteria to critique their partner’s paragraph. (They can score their partner by the number of items they completed correctly.)

• Did the student use his or her own words?
• Did the student use quotation marks when using a direct quote?
• Did the student provide a citation?

HOMEWORK
Can musicians plagiarize? Students and parents watch the following clip on YouTube comparing the band Coldplay’s song “Viva la Vida” to three other musicians’ songs. After watching the video, students and parents should discuss the question, Did Coldplay plagiarize from the other songs? Optional: Parent and child can post their comments in response to the video on YouTube. (Teachers: Send parents a link to the video and homework assignment. You may want to warn parents of possible inappropriate words in comments on YouTube.)

Watch the clip “Coldplay-Satriani-Verdes-Stevens Viva La Vida Plagiarism?”