My response to Plagiarists
A few of my coworkers seemed surprised at my response to plagiarism, so I’m blogging it.
Briefly:
- I don’t punish the student for plagiarizing (no yelling, detentions, or suspensions). Plagiarizing students obviously want a good grade and generally don’t have the confidence in their ability to produce it. So I make them start over and monitor their work more closely.
- Actually, that’s it.
Some teachers might ask when I’m going to teach about plagiarism.
The next unit is Romeo and Juliet, which I think the best unit of the year for discussing responsible ways to use online ideas to amplify a student’s thinking. There are always one or two students that plagiarize before this unit, but I just reference these cases as examples when introducing the role of the Internet.
