Plagiarism Confession

Guest Blogger: Bill Donohue

I have a confession to make. I have plagiarized. On Friday, January 20, 2017, at approximately 11:23 a.m., I committed an act of plagiarism—right in front of my composition students. I am a plagiarist. Turnitin told me that my writing submission was 80% similar, to use Turnitin’s term, to resources that that Turnitin used to check against my writing. As a matter of fact, all my students plagiarized that day.

Before you go snitching on us to the plagiarism police, the act of plagiarism was a demonstration. For the first time in my teaching career, I am using the Turnitin software as a component of the teaching of writing. And thanks to the Turnitin workshop sponsored by CETL and ATS (Thanks Anna and Nancy ;-), I have a solid understanding of how the program works, and I how I can avoid the pitfalls that kept me from using Turnitin in the past.

 This post is going to get long; so if you have had enough reading for a Saturday morning, here are a few discussion questions:

 What is your experience with plagiarism in your courses?

How have you handled plagiarism?

How do you teach students to engage with sources?

What advice do you have for a teacher who has not used Turnitin?

 To be clear, my aim has always been to teach students how to write; how to gather, understand, and use information; and how to use information responsibly. My courses have defined plagiarism, discussed plagiarism, reviewed examples of plagiarism, focused on citation conventions, and generally expanded the student’s knowledge about plagiarism. (Students are always surprised by the issues of minimal citations for paraphrases and self-plagiarism). I create assignments that limit the opportunities to plagiarize. I try to reason with the students by telling them that to become better writers, they need to do the work and receive feedback on that work. If I am giving feedback to work that someone else did or that was copied and pasted from an internet source, then the students are not becoming better writers. I also develop grading systems so that students are not focused on the grade but the writing itself. Finally, I do give the penalty lecture. I talk about how a professor’s job isn’t just to teach, but to create new knowledge. If someone steals those ideas as their own, they are stealing from me. And I review the sanctions for someone caught plagiarizing that can lead to expulsion!

 The notion of plagiarism as theft, and using detection software to police that crime, has never sat well with me as it puts the teacher and student in an adversarial position that does not aid in the teaching of writing. When I have caught someone plagiarizing, the most egregious examples are intentional plagiarism, which is not difficult for me to detect. A google search provides the evidence for me to confront the student. This is never a pleasant experience for both the student and myself. It can provide a teachable moment, and I do my best to work with the student.

Unintentional plagiarism, if it is considered plagiarism at all or rather the misuse of sources, is easier to contend with, although more difficult to detect and labor intensive in some cases. Most often, the citation convention is not employed correctly and the feedback mechanism can indicate to the student the issue without having to be adversarial. The adversarial positioning is one reason why The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) passed a resolution denouncing the use of plagiarism detection software (http://www.ncte.org/cccc/resolutions/2013). Other issues with the use of the software are undermining student agency, threating privacy and intellectual property, ineffectiveness of detection, and distraction from teaching students how to write from sources.

Research, such as the Citation Project (http://site.citationproject.net/), has shown that instances of intentional plagiarism are quite low and that the larger issue is how students are engaging with the source material they are trying to use. Students need to be taught how to use source material. A focus on reading skills, especially when the subject is unfamiliar or complex as in upper division major courses, can aid students in synthesizing sourced ideas into their own arguments in deep and meaningful ways. Better understanding of the topic being written about and what the research says about those topics leads to better integration of ideas and less patch-writing. This approach is more labor intensive as class time, written feedback, and individual conferences may be needed to provide the proper amount of instruction. (Writing Centers are also useful for this instruction.)

 So why am I using Turnitin this semester? Partly, I am doing so because other professors are using the software. As a composition teacher teaching a subject that has a heavy burden of service, I want to make sure students have an awareness and an understanding of the tool so they can use it effectively to aid in their writing. Similar to my warning that plagiarism can have consequences, the use of Turnitin may dissuade a student from intentional plagiarism and compel them to give a more honest, if flawed, attempt at the writing assignment that creates a space for learning.

I use many of the best practices for teaching writing in regards to source work as outlined by CCCC and the Writing Program Administrators (http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf). One of those is the creation of assignments that resist plagiarism. An example is from the Integrated Writing and Reading course. Students read A Lesson Before Dying, and an assignment is to write a characterization of five main characters. The intention is for students to use their reading skills to gain an understanding of who those characters are in the narrative. The characterization assignment has students use writing-to-learn in order to examine the characters and use the information for the essay they will write about the transformation of a dynamic character in the novel. In the past, students have copied and pasted from internet resources such as SparkNotes to complete the characterization. While some students realize this is intentional plagiarism, others think that the information is so basic and common that it is fine to copy it.

A way to change the assignment to resist plagiarism is to change the nature of the assignment. Instead of a straightforward assignment that calls for summary of a character’s position, the assignment could engage in higher level thinking such as asking students to write from the perspective of each character. They may write a brief letter from one character to another about an issue in narrative. A reflection assignment would focus on why the writer made the choices that they did in the letter. The problem with this assignment maybe that students struggle to complete it and miss the opportunity to gain a base understanding of one or multiple characters in narrative that are important for the essay they will write. Using Turnitin with the straightforward characterization version of the assignment may help students engage in the true intention of the assignment, which is the application of their ability to read and understand the narrative.

We shall see. And I will write a blog post later in the semester to update you on what happened. 

Learning from Each Other

I love to attend teaching conferences where I have the opportunity to talk to other faculty members from across the country. My favorites are conferences with workshops attendees from other Minority Serving Institutions or smaller colleges and universities. We all have something to talk about and inevitably end up sharing and comparing notes on administrative decisions and student behavior.  It feels great to know that there are comrades out there enduring the same struggles that I do on a daily basis; cell phones are an issue everywhere, and so is plagiarism, attendance, literacy - the list is endless. It feels good to know that we are in the same boat and I am always astonished at how much I have to learn from others. Workshops at Lincoln often have the same effect: whenever a group of faculty get together, lively discussions about student behavior and successes, classroom management, and pedagogy erupts. I regularly hear the comment “we need more opportunities for this type of discussion”.

 This semester, CETL is offering multiple opportunities for faculty to interact and learn from each other; next week holds a Tuesday afternoon webinar titled Unpacking Relationships: Instruction and Student Outcomes. On Wednesday, we are kicking off classroom visitations for the semester. This will be an informal discussion to talk about how and why peer classroom visitations can be both helpful and intimidating. The emphasis will be on the peer aspect. Classroom visitations is a great opportunity to learn from each other because you can choose to observe another instructor who you may or may not know for a certain skill. If you are experiencing a particular difficulty in the classroom, you can ask for somebody to come to your class to help you figure out what you can do differently.

Last spring, I visited another science professor’s classroom and re-discovered the power of stories in teaching. It also gave me an appreciation for how different our individual teaching styles are and what our students must learn to adapt to as they transition from classroom to classroom and department to department every day. This realization in turn made me much more conscious about making my classroom expectations clear to my students.

Here’s what another former participant said about her classroom visitation experience:

“The observation experience was both informative and thought-provoking.  After observing Dr. X’s three-hour class, I found myself amazed at how well she held everyone's attention with just well-structured whole-class discussion, and I began to rethink my assumption that I needed to break students into smaller groups to keep them involved during our longer classes. “

 Peer classroom visitations are meant to be relaxed and informal. This is not a time to show off to your colleagues how well you know your subject area, but rather an opportunity to receive honest feedback on your teaching. In addition to discussing the peer-visitation concept in general, on Wednesday we will generate a list of interested faculty and their availability to be a visitor or be visited. CETL will then help match instructors based on interest and availability and the classroom visitations will take place in February and early March. We have a few examples of rubrics that a classroom visitor may choose to use during a visitation – but there is no required form that has to be filled or record generated. However, if you would like to have a peer visitation report included in your tenure and promotion or similar application, this is a great opportunity to ask your visitor for written documentation. One recommended best practice is to make sure that you have time to talk to your visitor immediately after the class, when the experience is fresh in both participants’ minds. In the middle of March, we will have a follow-up meeting to report back and discuss improvements for next year’s visitation program. I warmly welcome all faculty members to participate and I guarantee that you will either learn something new or learn more about yourself – or both – as you participate in the classroom visitation program.

How have your interactions with colleagues from Lincoln or other institutions changed your teaching?

Parallels among Dictators, Parents, and Teachers

“Sometimes, it’s okay to be a dictator” – those are words of advice given to me by my husband as he saw me struggle with our one-and-a-half-year-old twins fourteen years ago. He didn’t want me to turn into a Stalin or Mussolini, but he saw my frustration and called on my leadership skills. Being a natural consensus builder, I was frustrated as a parent when one twin wanted to go to the pool and the other to the playground, or one pointed to Good Night Moon and the other to The Itsy Bitsy Spider for the bedtime story. I wanted them both to be happy and come to agreement on an activity or book. But you don’t build consensus with toddlers! I had to learn to accept that I was in charge and sometimes needed to be the “dictator” – or at least a unifying and determined leader.

At this point you may be wondering what raising twins and being a dictator has to do with teaching. I think teaching is a lot like parenting. Both involve unfolding malleable minds to infuse common sense, wisdom, skills, interests, passion, and more. As educators, we are often passionate about our subject areas and willing to share our knowledge with our students endlessly. But how informed are we about the skills of teaching, of transferring information and generating knowledge in the classroom? How prepared are we to transform our classrooms into well-managed and bustling hubs of learning? Just like I had very little formal education in parenting before I had children, I never took a course in pedagogy or classroom management prior to teaching. I learned most of what I know about teaching from my mother, who was a school teacher for over 50 years. I also learned from my colleagues, from being a student myself, from parenting, participating in workshops, and from experiences in the classroom. Classroom management is not an easy task and it is not something that just happens without effort. However, with some directed energy into classroom management, you can achieve teaching and learning experiences that are rewarding for both yourself and your students.

Here are my seven tips for classroom management:

1.     Model behavior: This is the most important aspect of both parenting and teaching: they will copy what you do.  If you want your students to be on time, you need to be on time and ready to start the class when the bell rings. When you give the students respect, they will respect you in return – well, at least mostly. If you are organized and have a well-thought-out lesson plan, students will take the classroom experience seriously and organize their notes, learning and participation accordingly. If you have a no-cellphone policy, that means that you also need to put away your cell phone and not answer texts or calls during class time – or even use the phone to check the time. If you expect students to turn in assignments on time, you need to return assignments, exams and quizzes on time.

2.     Set clear expectations: Many experts of classroom management will tell you that it starts with the syllabus. If your syllabus spells out clear expectations and you follow it, the students know what to expect in your class. Taking attendance is always a great idea – it helps you learn the students’ names and it signals to the students that you expect them to be in the classroom. Take attendance at the beginning of class and mark latecomers tardy if you expect students to be on time.

3.     Be consistent and fair: Treat everybody the same, give everybody a chance to participate, don’t change policies midstream; if an assignment is due at midnight on Monday that is when it is due – not the next morning, not the next day and not at a different time for a privileged few.

4.     Don’t take it personally: Students that act up in class are usually not reacting (only) to something that you did or didn’t do; they are likely bringing in baggage from their life to the classroom. We all have good and bad days. Students that are stressed because their relative is in the hospital, their partner is cheating on them, or their car broke down may not be the best student that day, or even that week or month. None of this is your fault or something that you have control over. You only have control over the classroom and yourself. By letting go of resentment you can focusing on how your behavior may help the student manage him or herself better in your classroom.

5.     Be flexible: The students at Lincoln today are very different from the students ten years ago. Society changes and our students change with it. Take the example of fake news on social media. Social media was just starting ten years ago and while fake news has always been around, it was never as contagious or damaging as it has proven to be in the last several months. This means that you have to change your teaching to keep up with the times. For example, today students need to learn how to distinguish an ever-increasing onslaught of inaccurate information from accurate information. How have you adapted your teaching accordingly?

6.     Redirect behavior: Let’s say you have a student or two that always seem distracted by their cell phones – they just don’t seem to be able to let go of their attachment to these devices. Rather than yelling at them, calmly call the student out (thereby letting them know that you are watching and that you care) by asking him or her to use the cellphone to look up information for the class.

7.     Don’t be afraid to lead (because sometimes it's okay to be a dictator): The students are looking to you for direction, recognition and approval. It takes both courage and trust to stand in front of the class and direct a positive learning experience. Be brave and try new ideas in the classroom – more likely than not, your students will like it. If something doesn’t work, be honest with yourself and your students; admit that we are all fallible and tweak your next lesson plan for the better. A good leader is not afraid to fail.

What tips for classroom management do you have and where did you learn the skills of being a teacher?

Name Your Resolution

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. Maybe that is just because I have never been very good at keeping them, or maybe it is because I think we are capable of change at any time of the year. In that vein, I’m a big fan of “Beginning of the Semester Resolutions”; at the beginning of most semesters, I have resolved to try something new in one or more of my classes. Sometimes it’s been big undertakings like flipping the classroom for all my classes or revising the entire content of a course. But more often, I try to incorporate one new pedagogy or strategy into my teaching. Last semester, I used the “Jigsaw Puzzle” approach to active learning when I introduced the syllabus on the first day of class. I don’t know about you, but I usually dread going over the syllabus as it can be one of the most boring parts of the entire semester – and why start on such a mind-numbing note instead of setting the tone that your class is all about active learning and sharing information and skills? Basically, after distributing the syllabus, I divided the class into five or six groups and assigned one part of the syllabus to each group. The groups were asked to summarize their part of the syllabus, select one or two of the most important pieces of information in that part, and come up with one question. Each group then reported back to the class. It was a hit; nobody was distracted by their phones, everybody participated, the students had to talk to each other and get up in front of the class, where they also had the chance to introduce themselves. Best of all, I didn’t have to listen to myself drone on while watching the students nod off in their seats. I’m doing it again this semester.

This break I have been thinking about names. I agree with Nichole Igwe in her blog post titled “Getting Names Right; It’s Personal” (http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/getting-names-right-personal/) where she talks about all the reasons why the classroom and college experience is enhanced if faculty members take the time to learn their students’ names. It can be a struggle, but I make it a point to learn all my students’ names and with some effort I usually have it down by the second or third week of class. I definitely learn better if there is an action associate with the learning – like the simple act of handing back student papers with their names on it. As I take roll the first few times, the whole class seems to have fun as I try to pronounce names whose phonetics I would never have guessed from the spelling. Some students don’t believe that I will ever remember their names, or stop confusing their's with their best friend's. Often, I keep messing up, but students seem to forgive me and appreciate the effort. But here is where I struggle: I am horrible at remembering last names. My brain only seems to have capacity for 50+ new first names each semester. The last names remain a blur and I’m ever so grateful that the association between first and last names are held by my class roster and not my brain. My lack of capacity for last names may stem from my upbringing in a country where everybody, teachers, friend’s parents, doctors, and professors where always addressed by first name. Sweden formally decided to eliminate class differences by agreeing to call everybody by their first name long before I was born. But I have lived and worked in this country for more than 20 years! Maybe it is time that I let go of excuses and start using both first and last names. Or maybe only the last name? I am curious to learn what other faculty members at Lincoln do: Do you learn your students’ names? Whether you memorize names or not, do you call students by their first or last name? Or maybe both?

For now, I think my “Beginning of the Semester Resolution” will be to try to learn the students' first and last names and ask them what they prefer to be called. How about you? Do you have a resolution for the fresh start?