Of all the things I teach with regard to the research process, teaching students how to avoid plagiarism is probably the most challenging.  

As edtech blogger Med Kharbach notes, with the "boom in digital technology, plagiarism  has been elevated to the ranks of serious epidemics. In academia it gets even worse. More students are growing dependent on copy paste culture."

He's right.  Our digital natives, having known only the Internet their whole lives, see absolutely nothing wrong with copying and pasting information from the Internet and into their word-processing document.  Of course, they don't yet understand the consequences of their actions because they don't really take it seriously.  Can "borrowing" someone else's words be considered a crime?  Simply put, yes, I tell my students as I share with them plagiarism's clear definition.  If caught plagiarizing, I explain to the my students that, at best, they'll receive a failing grade for their hard work; at worst, a failing grade for the class, suspension, or even expulsion.  

I save the plagiarism lesson for the end of the unit, right before I take the reins off the kids and let them get started on their research project.  After devoting five-plus lessons to proper research techniques (understanding copyright, fair use, and public domain; citing sources; evaluating websites, and keyword searching), we finally arrive at discerning the subtle differences among summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting.

With younger students in 4th and 5th grades, understanding the pitfalls and dangers of plagiarism can be an abstract concept, which is why I use this simple and age-appropriate lesson from Common Sense Media called "Whose is it, Anyway?"

For students in grades 6-8, however, fully and clearly understanding what plagiarism is and how it can--even if you're unknowingly guilty of it--have lasting and deep-reaching consequences, is a necessary skill.  The need to break the kids of the "copy-and-paste" mentality before they get to high school is critical.  So here's how I approach the concept for students in grades 6-8:

Research Chunk #5
Paraphrase, Summarize, or Quote?

Pre-Class (aka "flipping the classroom")

1. Watch this video about paraphrasing & summarizing.
2. Test yourself by Paraphrasing Topic Sentences.  Complete the interactive only once and then email me your score!
3. Practice summarizing by doing these three activities. 

In-Class

1. Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting: What's the Difference?  (see image below)
2. Incredible Shrinking Activities: Paraphrase, summarize, & quote this passage and using the "Incredible Shrinking Notes" idea from Randy Seldomridge's blog.

Post-Class (homework)

1. Review what we learned today by watching "Paraphrasing: What You Need to Know"
2. Practice: Do the Paraphrase Craze interactive.
3. Continue working on your note-taking for your research paper.  For each source used, submit (1) summary, at least (5) paraphrases, and (2) quotations.
4. As you research, remember to cite your work!

This is the lesson plan that has worked for me.  I've tweaked it over the years.  Of course, you may want to tweak it for your own use, so here are some other resources you might want to review for use in your classroom:

• Paraphrase Examples from the Purdue OWL
• Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing from the Purdue OWL
• Plagiarism tutorial from Simon Frasier University
• Plagiarism quiz from Simon Frasier University
• Plagiarism scavenger hunt for middle school students
• Top sites for teaching students about plagiarism
• Plagiarism video from Common Craft
• Citation video from Easy Bib

If the students still feel the need to plagiarize, the following are some free plagiarism checkers for teachers:

• The Plagiarism Checker
• Plagiarisma

And, finally, students will need to cite their work, as I've discussed in a recent post.  Luckily, in this day and age, they've got a plethora of bibliography generators to do it for them:

• Ottobib
• Citation Machine
• BibMe
• EasyBib

One final note: the image below is something I created on my own, but it's loosely based on an image a colleague forwarded to me about a year ago.  If anyone out there knows the origin of the image, please let me know ASAP so I can give that person credit...I don't want to be guilty of plagiarizing!

image above via BLaugh

If you follow me, you know I've been blogging lately about my research unit for grades 4-8.  

​Because it's such a time-consuming yet very important process, I like to take it slooooowwwly with the kids.  

All too often there's just not enough time to go through the painstaking process of teaching our students the logical, organized, and linear method of properly conducting the research process.  I think we've all assumed at one time or another--and I've been guilty of this myself!-- that our students know enough about Googling things to figure it out for themselves, or we've (sort of) addressed the issues--plagiarism, citing, etc.--as they arose.

I cannot stress enough the need to allow you and your class time to properly follow the necessary steps of the research process.  I myself like to "chunk" the process into manageable steps: understanding copyright, fair use, and public domain; citing sources; evaluating websites; keyword searching; and avoiding plagiarism (to be addressed in a future post).  

Today, I'd like to address keyword searching.  Obviously, with the Common Core State Standards stressing critical-thinking skills, reasoning, and evidence collection skills, it makes sense to teach the research process instead of simply assigning a research project.  Our students are going to be expected, as mandated by the CCSS, to "gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources" (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.8).

Keyword searching, then, is important for gathering "relevant information."  And frankly, it saves a lot of time when done correctly, and that's usually how I sell it to my students--who resent having to do research in the first place, anyway! 

I also like to use the Internet to my advantage: there are others before me who've created some amazing lessons to teach students how to conduct a proper keyword search, so why reinvent the wheel?  


Research Chunk #4
Effective Keyword Searching

1. When my colleagues ask me for online resources related to the research process, I always direct them to this incredibly helpful video from the Teaching Channel: "Improving Research Skills with Effective Keywords."  The teacher in the video, Olga Ramos, uses some fun and interesting scaffolding strategies with her students to help them identify and use precise vocabulary to improve Internet searches.  You could certainly adapt these ideas for use in your classroom.  
2. If I'm teaching keyword searching to students in grades 4-5, I like to borrow the ideas found at the Common Sense Media website.  This is a simple introductory lesson that shows strategies to increase the accuracy of keyword searches.  As a cooperative learning activity--or homework--assign this activity from ReadWriteThink.
3. For students in grades 6-8, I use this lesson plan from the New York Times Learning Network, specifically the Warm-Up and Activity.  If time permits, and depending on skill level, I like to accomplish the final activity described, creating a page "for a class guide, in booklet or wiki form, on how to use Internet search engines effectively for research, to be made available to the school community to help other students."  The students enjoy the creativity aspect of it as well the authoritative aspect of it.
4. Of course, it's always beneficial to go right to the source, so I've been exploring the lesson plans found at the Google Search Education site and developed by Google Certified Teachers and the Search Education team.  Lessons are categorized as basic, intermediate, and advanced, so they can be tailored to the abilities of your different classes.  Keep in mind, however, that these lessons are Google-specific, so if you're using Bing or Yahoo!, then this site may not be for you.

For fun and daily practice, I LOVE this site, A Google a Day.  Google provides the question, and you provide the answer, applying your newly-developed keyword search techniques!  You could make this a competition for your students, and they'd love it.  It's pretty addictive!  
If you're interested in having your students complete research modules on their own, then read this.  Finally, they can Google like a boss with this handy cheat sheet.

This is what I do in the classroom.  What have you tried that works?  Please share your ideas and suggestions.  I'm always ready to try something new!

Image via Pixabay

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm currently teaching my research unit to students in grades 4-8, and past experience has taught me the benefit of "chunking" the research procedure into bite-sized, manageable pieces for my kiddos.  

After we complete our opening lesson on copyright, fair use, and public domain, and since the idea of giving credit where credit is due is still fresh in their minds, we next dovetail into our lesson on citing sources.

While it may seem out of sequence--as most teachers address plagiarism and paraphrasing before anything else--I like to teach citations before we tackle the concept of note-taking.  As I just mentioned, it's a natural extension of the copyright lesson and the idea of resisting the temptation to take what's not yours.  I also think it sets the precedent that citing sources as you find them is crucial.  All too often, students find information, note it, and then move on.  Then, the works cited page becomes an afterthought--something they'll assemble when the research paper is finished.  As we all know from experience (having made that same mistake ourselves when we were young and dumb), this is a baaaaad idea.  Trying to locate research sources after the fact is like trying to herd cats: you'll end up frustrated, angry, and wondering why you even tried in the first place.  

Most of you will agree that source citation is a very abstract and outdated idea to our students, and trying to make it relevant to them goes over like a pregnant pole-vaulter.  (I'm really full of figurative language today.  Sorry.)  More often than not, student demand to know why anyone would care or even want the minutia of the details involved in citation.  However, saying, "Because that's the way it's done" isn't the most clarifying of answers, and that's why you might want to read this extremely helpful post by K-M the Librarian.  She makes the analogy that citations are the addresses where the resources reside, and without them, the reader is left with a set of very unclear directions.  

Of course, if that analogy doesn't work, I always kindly point out to my students that if I can't read their "address" and get to the correct destination, then it will most definitely affect my "rating" of their "mapping" services.  That always seems to drive home the point. :-)

Research Chunk #2
How to Teach Citation of Sources

1. Before you do anything, have students come to class with some understanding of the citation process.  Assign this short video for homework the night before you teach the lesson.
2. In class the next day, provide a brief quiz to show student understanding of the material.
3. Share with  students this SlideShare presentation by K-M the Librarian in which she uses the address analogy to explain the importance of citing sources.  (If you can't access the slideshow from the link above, view it directly from her site.)
4. Show this sample of an MLA Works Cited page and discuss with students, clarifying and taking questions.
5. Teach students how to use EasyBib, an online citation maker.  Walk them through a few examples with different media.
6. If time permits, there's a great hands-on activity to try called Conquer Citation Chaos Kits.  This could be used to have students show a cursory understanding of citations.
7. If you have the facilities and the technology to do so, this lesson plan from EasyBib works great for students in grades 6-8.  I have the teams travel with a laptop in which they've created and saved a Word document to be used as their works cited page.
8. For students in grades 3-5, this lesson plan from Common Sense Media provides a less overwhelming overview of the process of citing.
9. And because I'm a big fan of the game-ification of education, I love to play MLA Master Blaster with the students to round out the lesson.  We do it together so I can check for understanding.
10. For individual practice, students can play MLA Drag and Drop with a partner.
11. They can also practice and learn on their own with Citation Tic Tac Toe.  I encourage students to continue playing until they've learned from their mistakes and mastered the formatting questions.  Click the "Click to Play" button to get started.
12. For homework, assign a website, a book, and a magazine article for students to cite using EasyBib.   Direct them to put this list of sources into proper citation style format for a bibliography/works cited page by using this reference guide or their citation style guides. They should create their own works cited page from the information provided.
13. Citing online images is just as important as citing reference works, too, so a separate mini-lesson should be imparted in that regard, and this again is a natural extension of the first "chunk" of this unit.  If you scroll down to the "Picture Citations" heading on this site, students will get a clear idea of what information they should record.  Show students how to search for fair use images using this helpful, informative guide from Google.  An image interactive from EasyBib will help them cite their web graphics.  To make it easier on my students, I direct them to visit my Symbaloo site with a plethora of links to public domain websites for images, video, and audio.
14. When all is said and done, after the research has been compiled and just before students submit their final work, I have them complete this citation checklist.
15. Remind your students to keep a running works cited document in Word as they research and to immediately copy and paste the bibliographic information from EasyBib as soon as they record a note from a source.

Like anything, this is going to take practice, so be patient with yourself and with your students.  Students have quite a bit of trouble citing their sources (or even remembering to) because they're not familiar with citation style guides, and because they haven't had much practice.  To ease their stress, it's not a bad idea to collect and comment on their works cited rough drafts in the middle of the research process so that they can make the necessary corrections and learn from your feedback.

I'm always open to new ideas when it comes to how to teach citation to students, so if you have any resources that work for you, please share!

Image via LiMSwiki

I don't know if this is true of your students, but my students are certainly under the impression that if it's on the Internet, it's free and it's true.

Which is why I dread the approach of my annual research unit.  

​Teaching kids how to research on the Internet is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things to do, precisely because of our students' belief that the Internet has everything they need (which it does), and that everything is truthful (which it isn't isn't).  

In order to overcome these misconceptions, I've made very deliberate attempts over the last few years to create a linear and organized "chunked" procedure for guiding students in grades 4-8 through the research process, and I'll write about each of those "chunks" in the upcoming weeks.  

The research unit begins with an overview of understanding Copyright, Fair Use, & Public Domain, since this is the lesson that establishes the precedent that we can't take things from the Internet just because they're there.

If you're confused about the difference among the three terms, you're not alone, so here's primer: Copyright is the law that protects the works of authors, artists, and composers from having their work copied without permission.  Fair use allows the use of a limited amount of copyrighted material for educational purposes as long as the user uses only a small part of it and doesn't use the material for profit.  Finally, works that are part of the public domain aren't copyrighted and can be used without permission, although credit should be given.  (If you'd personally like to learn a little more about these terms, check out this site from the Provo Library site or this one from Copyright Kids.)

What follows is the result of quite a bit of trial and error on my part, as it took me a few years to figure out the subtle differences between these terms AND how I could effectively teach them so my students could discern the difference, too.  The best thing I've found?  Keep it simple!  Don't overload your students with too much information, as they'll inevitably tune you out and do the exact opposite of what you're trying to teach them. 


Research Chunk #1
How to Teach Copyright, Fair Use, & Public Domain

1. Show students this introductory interactive from Cyberbee.  Clarify for and discuss with students any misconceptions they may have about these terms.
2. With students in grades 7-8, we play the Copy Quiz Game Show and I sometimes modify the questions.  With students in grades 4-6, we do a hands-on activity that effectively drives home the point about taking things that aren't theirs. 
3. I show this creative commons video from Common Craft to students in grades 7-8, and this one to students in grades 4-6.
4. I review this graphic with the students, make it available on my class website, and print out a copy for the students to keep in their research binders.
5. Finally, all students take this online quiz to assess what they've learned.

After all of this, the students generally get a pretty good sense that they have to stop and think before they grab something off the Internet.  They also tend to become a bit despondent, asking "Well, what CAN I use?"  To make it easier on them, I provide two resources:

1. My Symbaloo site with a plethora of links to public domain websites for images, video, and audio.
2. This helpful, informative guide to searching for licensed images on Google

If you'd still like to sample more of what's out there, I'd recommend the following sites:

• Copyright Confusion -  Lesson plans on copyright and fair use for grades 6-8
• Greeley Schools - Perfect for grades 4-6, and provides links to classroom handouts
• Copyright Kids - Not the most easily-navigated site, but a useful reference tool
• Teaching Copyright - This five-lesson curriculum guide for junior high and high school students is thorough and comprehensive, and it take the guess work out of it for you.
• Copyright Flowchart - The end-all and be-all of copyright, creative commons, and fair use.

What works for you in your classroom?  Do you have any resources to share when it comes to copyright, fair use, and public domain?  Let me know!

Feel free to share my resources with others as well.  But also please remember to give me credit, too!  It's only fair.    :-) 

UPDATE 4/20/2022: Thank you to Katie, from the Lyndhurst STEM Club for Girls, for sharing with the world a more recent site she's discovered to help with Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents for Websites and Beyond. One of the best things about the Internet, Katie, is the collaboration that comes from good people sharing great things. Keep up the productive struggle!

Image created at MemeGenerator