Length: 2 programs --
- Cheating Yourself: 14 minutes
- Cheating Yourself: Plagiarism 11 minutes
Introduction Cheating can be a difficult and confusing issue for young people. This video helps students to recognize and understand different forms of cheating in school. It also shows alternative responses and behaviors for students who feel pressured to cheat for grades or friendship.
The video contains two programs. The first, "Cheating Yourself", addresses different types of cheating, pressure and consequences. The second program, "Cheating Yourself: Plagiarism", includes definitions and descriptions of plagiarism, and explains how to credit references. Throughout both programs, the host, an older sister character, provides definitions, explanations, and insights based on her own experiences.
The first program uses reenactments and dramatized interviews to identify cheating and possible conflicts and consequences. The settings and characters could be in middle school, junior high or high school. The scenarios depict students faced with parental pressure for good grades and peer pressure to copy. Girls and boys are presented struggling with questions about fairness, justice, friendship, and relationship.
Using the same format, the second program focuses on plagiarism from books, other papers, and the internet. The settings and characters are both middle or high school and college. The scenarios, with both male and female students, address forgetting citations, copying college essays, buying research papers, and the possible consequences of plagiarism. The host also presents a general explanation of how to credit other authors through citations, footnotes and bibliographies, that could introduce a classroom lesson or unit.
The 14-minute and 11-minute videos include breaks for discussions or activities. The programs are appropriate for use in any classes, particularly English, Social Studies, Research, Orientation, Health, or Guidance classes for grades 5 through 12.
Glossary Cheating:
To deceive or defraud. To take someone else's property by false pretense or trick. To deliberately take unfair advantage of someone.
Plagiarism:
To use and pass off as one's own the ideas or writings of another. To use passages from another's writing without giving proper credit.
Before Viewing 1. Preparation
- When you preview the video, you'll be able to decide if one or both programs fits the needs of your class. The first program addresses general issues for any student from about the fifth grade. The second program addresses more specific citation issues and may be appropriate for students from about seventh grade.
- During and after viewing, be prepared for questions about your school's policy on suspected cheating. Have copies of your school handbook or policy manual available.
- What is your classroom policy? What do you do if you suspect that homework was copied from another student, a paper was copied from the internet, or a test was shared? Do the students know your policy? Is it the same for all students? In every grade? The first time? The second or third time with the same student?
- Expect questions about different teachers' responses to cheating and specific incidents. Students can be asked to omit individual students' and teachers' names from their questions and discussions.
2. Let students know that:
- learning about cheating does not mean you think all students cheat.
- adults usually think cheating means someone is being dishonest.
- some researchers have found that many students plagiarize unintentionally, because they do not understand plagiarism.
- it seems that when many students cheat, they are really trying to help a friend. They often don't know that they are cheating if they give someone answers.
- some researchers have found that students tend to cheat less and take cheating more seriously as they get older.
- some students are confused by the differences in the rules for cooperative learning in pairs or groups, helping each other with homework, and copying individual assignments or tests.
3. Suggestions for previewing activities
Prepare students:
- to watch and listen carefully for the definition of plagiarism.
- to watch and listen for situations that may be similar to what they see in their school.
- by asking if they know which adult(s) in their school are available to them if they need to discuss cheating or report an incident.
- by asking students to discuss the most effective ways that teachers prevent cheating in their classes.
- by surveying the class or giving a pre-test to determine what they know about plagiarism, copyrights, school policy, and their resources.
- by asking students to be video critics and rate the video on a scale of 1 to 10 for the importance of the material to their grade level, the quality of the presentation, and what they learned.
While Viewing the Programs After each topic is presented in a reenactment or interview, a graphic screen appears with a definition or discussion question. When a graphic screen appears, pause or stop the video in order to give the students time to discuss the topic.
Program 1
Segment One: Introduction and first scenario: about 5 minutes
Graphic 1: When the screen appears with "Agree or Disagree? ", stop the video briefly. You might repeat the student's question, "What difference does it make if I know what's on the test? I'm still studying the answers, so I am still learning the stuff." Do the students agree or disagree?
Possible discussion questions:
Is this cheating? How do you know what cheating is?
What kinds of pressure are there on students for good grades?Segment Two: about 4 minutes
Graphic 2: When the screen appears with "Agree or Disagree? ", stop the video briefly. "If I'm copying off of you, why should you care? It's not affecting you. It's not lowering your grade. You're not doing anything wrong." Do the students agree or disagree?
Possible discussion questions:
What kind of friendship do Chris and Mike have?
If your friend asked to copy your work, how would you decide what to do?
Can you say no to a friend?
Does it make a difference if one of the students is more popular? How?
How do you know when you're uncomfortable with something? Where in your body do you feel it? Do you trust those feelings?Segment Three: about five minutes.
Graphic 3: Plagiarism: To use and pass off as one's own the ideas or writings of another. To use passages from another's writing without giving proper credit.
Possible Discussion questions
What surprised you about cheating or plagiarism?
What is the difference between getting help and copying?
Is there a difference between copying homework and copying tests?
What does it feel like when you work hard on something and it turns out well? What are the consequences in your school for cheating?
Program 2
Segment One: about three minutes
Graphic 1: Plagiarism: To use and pass off as one's own the ideas or writings of another. To use passages from another's writing without giving proper credit.
Graphic 2: Plagiarism? You Decide:
Paraphrasing information from a book.
Copying information from the Internet.
Buying an essay from another person or organization.
Possible discussion questions:
How is copying from the Internet like copying from a book?
What about copying from a magazine? A video?
How is buying or copying someone else's work plagiarism?Segment Two: about three minutes
Graphic 3: When the screen appears with "Agree or Disagree? ", stop the video briefly. "Everything that can be said about Moby Dick has already been said, so anything I write will be plagiarism."
Agree or disagree?Possible discussion questions:
What is the difference between a citation and a footnote?
What has to be in the bibliography? Who needs that information?
What is the difference between paraphrasing and quoting?Segment Three: about five minutes
Graphic 4: When the screen appears with "Agree or Disagree? ", stop the video briefly. "Ok, so I plagiarized something. What's the big deal? It's not like I stole money or something."
Agree or disagree?Possible discussion questions:
How is plagiarism like stealing?
Think of a project you did that earned a good grade. How did you feel when you were working on it? How did you feel when you were finished?
What prevents students from cheating?
Paraphrasing, Quoting and Summarizing: Examples
1. Paraphrase
Maida Heatter's directions for melting chocolate warn that it will burn over direct heat (18).2. Direct quote
"Chocolate should melt slowly, never over direct heat - it burns easily" (Heatter 18).3. Summary
Some experts, including Maida Heatter, provide directions for handling chocolate with their recipes.4. Reference
Heatter, Maida. Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts . New York: Warner Books, 1977.
Bibliography Information: Patterns and Examples
1. A book by one author
The pattern is:
Author. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Date.Example:
O'Neill, Catherine. Let's Visit a Chocolate Factory . Mahwah: Troll Associates, 1988.2. A book by two authors
The pattern is:
Author 1, and Author 2. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Date.Example:
Weil, Andrew and Winifred Rosen. From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything You Need to Know about Mind-Altering Drugs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.3. A book by an anonymous author
The pattern is:
Title . Place of publication: publisher, date.Example:
Hershey's Chocolate Cookbook . Lincolnwood: Publications International, 1989.4. An encyclopedia article signed by an author.
The pattern is:
Author. "Title of article." Title of encyclopedia . Date of edition.Example:
Applebaun, Rhona S. "Chocolate." World Book . 1994 Ed.5. An anonymous encyclopedia article
The pattern is:
"Title of article." Title of encyclopedia . Date of editionExample:
"Chocolate." The New Grolier Student Encyclopedia . 1991 Ed.6. A magazine article
The pattern is:
Author. "Title of article." Name of magazine . Date: page numbers.Example:
Schuler, Betty Jo. "For the Love of Chocolate." Teen . Feb. 1996: 30.7. A video
Video information is not as standard as book information. Consult the MLA Handbook for guidance. Generally, you will find all the information you need on the video package. Notice that the length of the video is included:Mesopotamia. Videocassette. Prod. Robert Gardner. Time-Life Video and Television, 1995. 48 min.
Skeleton . Videocassette. Eyewitness Video Series. Dorling-Kindersley, 1994. 35 min.8. Internet sources
In citing an Internet site, you include similar kinds of information as in other bibliographic citations -- author (if known), title, and date of publication. You also want to let your readers know how to access that site themselves, so include the Internet address. The date that you accessed the site is also important, because sites change or disappear frequently. Here are some examples:Walker, Janice R. "MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources." Vers.1.1 Jan. 1995 (Rev. Aug. 1996). http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla/html (23 Jan. 1997)."Cadbury's Chocolate History and the Growing of Cocoa." http://www.cadbury.co.uk/cocoa.html (10 Feb. 1997).
Other Resources:
Achtert, Walter S. The Mla Style Manual . New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1985.
Gibaldi, Joseph. Mla Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th Edition . New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995.
Sierra, Patsy. "The Distribution List." Teen . March, 1997: 44.
A short story about having the questions the night before the test, popularity, and conscience.
Cheating Yourself
Producer/Director Mary Makley
Produced by WGBY, 1997. 25 min.
Teacher Guide: Judy Boykin McCarthy, M.A.
Bibliography examples: Diana Maher, M.Ed., M.L.S.
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