My class has started this year with Google accounts (first time, very excited). They have been working on docs for writing and this day was to be the first day we shared our doc with a buddy for feedback comments.
Aside from forgetting our email addresses or not finding the 'share' button it was all going well. Next, overhear some threads of conversation along the lines of, "I love that song" and "that's not about an island." Investigating what all the fuss was about I soon discovered that one of my students had copied and pasted their favourite song lyrics in place of their story.
Some would argue that this showed great resourcefulness. The student was utilising the tools and information at her disposal. Unfortunately, not only was the text off-topic but she had tried to pass it off as her own writing. She had plagiarized.
I am thankful that the buddy editor had been vocal in their feedback. Although I would have seen the writing eventually, the well timed peer critique offered me the opportunity for some just-in-time teaching about acknowledging sources.
As a class we had previously talked about the importance of acknowledging the owner or source of an idea. This is something we practice in analogue during our face-to-face maths discussions. We acknowledge a person's thinking before we add on, question or challenge it. A fellow student made the connection to the song lyrics by suggesting that the girl could have copied the lyrics, acknowledged the owner and then added her own text to them, or changed some of the existing text.
We also made connections to our school values of high expectations, respect, honesty, effort and perseverance and kindness. The class identified how each value could be applied to the situation.
The class agreed that by using and changing the lyrics, we would show our thinking and learning. By simply copying them we did not show any learning (or added value).
The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certficated Teachers (https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0) lists teachers' commitments to learners, whanau, society and the profession.
I chose to respond to the student's ethical breech around plagiarism in a restorative (what will we make better next time) way, and ignore the off-task, off-topic component. By doing so I encouraged learners to think critically about significant social issues (commitment to learners). I was also able to teach and model those positive values which are widely accepted in society and encourage learners to apply them and critically appreciate their significance (commitment to society). In addition to the just-in-time teaching I phoned the student's parents to inform them what had happened and remind them about our commitment to online safety and security. They were pleased to be informed and happy that the problem was resolved positively. I fulfilled my commitment to parents by involving them in decision-making about the care and education of their child.
Like all lessons about values and ethics I am sure that this is one I will have to repeat in my classroom, however we now have another example to link to.
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