Recently in my placement, we went over the issue of plagiarism with our students. We made it rather clear that both my CT and I do not tolerate it on any level. Since it won't be tolerated on the college level and we are working with seniors, I feel this is a pretty reasonable expectation to have. Why teach them bad habits if we can avoid it? Now, it is required that we deal with cases of plagiarism in certain ways. The very worst that is allowed is a zero on the assignment. Make up work is optional. We made it clear we won’t be offering make up work for any cases of plagiarized material. This is for couple of reasons.
One, it isn’t acceptable academic behavior at all. It used to be that students could be expelled for incidents like these, so the blow has been lessened significantly over the years. However, it is still grounds for expulsion in college and can put a mark on your transcript that may prevent other colleges from accepting enrollment applications. Second, it is somewhat personally insulting to the teacher to think that plagiarized work is going to go completely unnoticed. It takes a certain low amount of expectations from a student of their instructor to assume that the teacher can’t tell the difference between their own work and something clearly cribbed from another source or friend/family member.
Having told our students this, imagine my surprise this week when I run into the following scenario. I am passing out a new assignment that will be completed over a week’s times. A few students groan as they tend to do, but one in particular makes quite a scene. I ask her what is the matter and she relates that she feels the work load has been far too heavy and they have too many things to do. I remind he that they actually have no other assignments to do currently, seeing as how all of them were due already. It is here that she reveals she had not completed the project they had spent the last week on (it was due today). I asked her why, and he response was as follows: “Because I couldn’t get anyone to do it for me.”
Now, I was a little taken aback by that. Keep in mind that we just very recently went over the plagiarism issue with these students, and here I am being confronted with a bold statement that a student would not bother to complete her work unless she had somebody complete it for her (the obvious flaw there being that then -she- didn’t complete it, did she?). I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. She was quite serious about it. Who would tell a teacher that? How could you expect to turn in any work then and have it not be looked at with more scrutiny to make sure it is yours from then on out? A better question is why show up to class at all if you refuse to do the work to pass?
I eventually told her that I didn’t feel trying to get others to do your work is a good way of going about trying to get anything done. She should try completing the assignment on her own. I was met with a series of grumbles and grunts and a flat refusal to utilize any of the day’s class time to work on the assignment she had just been given. This is bearing in mind that her complaint was about not having time to work on the assignments while being given time to work on it. I’m currently at a loss as to how I should proceed with this situation. If she continues to refuse to complete work I fear she will most likely fail the course (which is a shame for a senior to do when so close to graduation).
Well, that IS a difficult situation! I agree with you and your CT: when students plagiarize and think they'll get away with it, it is pretty insulting.
ReplyDeleteFrom what you've written here, it sounds like this student has some part (buried pretty deep down) inside of her that wants to be in school. The only problem is that she doesn't want to put forth any effort.
I would suggest that you continue to talk to her about her issues with the classwork; perhaps there is something going on in her home that is truly bothering her, and she doesn't see the point in school anymore. It could be that she has had someone make her feel inadequate or stupid, and this is the reason why she doesn't believe she has the ability to do the work herself. Saying that she doesn't have enough class time to finish anything is probably just her excuse of choice.
One small ray of sunshine here is that she actually told you the truth! She CONFESSED the real reason why she didn't do the work, which sounds to me like a type of cry for help. Otherwise, she would have either lied to you, saying she left the assignment at home, forgot, etc., or she would have just shrugged you off and avoided the question altogether.
One thing is clear: this student wanted you to know the truth for a reason. It's up to you to figure out what that reason is! Good luck!
I understand your frustration. However, I believe that there are a few things that could be done to help this student.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you need to have a one-on-one conference with this young lady. You need to set expectations for her, so she knows that you expect more from her personally. In this conference you should not show anger for her obvious attempts to plagiarize, but you should show concern that she might not be headed down the path she wants. Explain to her that even if she should choose not to go to college that it is also unacceptable to plagiarize in the work place. Perhaps she does not see herself as college material, and so you relating plagiarizing to only that career choice may be offsetting to her.
Second, you should call or e-mail her parent/guardian(s) to discuss this issue. Find something positive to say about her first. This will show them that you notice more than just the bad, and that you care about his student. Then tell the parent/guardian(s) what she said and how that concerns you as her teacher. Hopefully they will back you up, but of course there is always the chance that they will not.
As a side not I would like to comment on one of the things you said. “A better question is why show up to class at all if you refuse to do the work to pass?” I feel that as teachers we should never feel this way. I know it is frustration talking, but you can never let your students feel that this is an option. You must show that you care, and offering them a way out, through ditching or dropping out, is not the way to do so. Every student is full of potential and every teacher must recognize and nurture this potential.
It is part of our job to believe and act this way, otherwise why would you want to be a teacher at all?