![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/8A6E696F54594378B5AA849E036B8D4A.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\nWhen it comes to rating students\u2019 writing skills, it is the English\/language arts teachers among this sample of AP and NWP teachers who again have a more positive view.\u00a0 They were more likely than teachers of other subjects to give their students ratings of \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cvery good\u201d on most of the specific writing skills asked about.<\/p>\n\n
\n As noted above, the skill for which these AP and NWP teachers give students the lowest rating is \u201cnavigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition\u201d and most of these teachers also rate their students \u201cfair\u201d or \u201cpoor\u201d on their ability to \u201cappropriately cite and\/or reference content.\u201d\u00a0 With so much material available publicly in digital form, the temptation for students to copy and paste others\u2019 work into their own is a concern for many teachers, as is the difficulty many students have discerning the source of material they find online and citing that source correctly.<\/p>\n\n Clearly, AP and NWP teachers feel students need to improve in these areas, and large majorities are devoting class time to developing these skills.\u00a0 Across teachers of all subjects, 88% spend class time discussing with students the concepts of citation and plagiarism, and 75% report using class time to discuss the concepts of fair use and copyright.\u00a0 The focus and time spent on these issues reflects not only one of the key skills teachers say students need to improve, but also one of the unique challenges these educators face teaching writing in the digital age.<\/p>\n\n \n While overall, large majorities of this group of AP and NWP teachers report spending class time teaching about both fair use and plagiarism, the burden falls mainly to English\/language arts teachers.\u00a0 Virtually all of the English\/language arts teachers surveyed (99%) spend class time teaching their students about plagiarism and proper citation, while 83% work with students on understanding the concepts of fair use and copyright.<\/p>\n\n \n [students]<\/p>\n Whether accidental or blatantly intentional, there is a tremendous disconnect with how to correctly use and cite outside research. I’m very much at a loss for this quagmire as well.<\/em><\/p> The biggest challenge has been getting them to analyze sources for credibility. Also, citation and plagiarism are issues.\u00a0 It seems because the information is so freely found, copied, and pasted, students don’t stop to think about what needs to be cited.<\/em><\/p> The media person has put together a ppt on plagiarism, so the first two days of the semester, we spend time going over these two topics so we are all on the same page. (We have a two\u00a0 day drop and add period then). In a perfect world, the students would come to us with these skills, but in reality they don’t have them.<\/em><\/p> What everyone else has stated is what I believe.\u00a0 Being able to verify the accuracy of the sources is important.\u00a0 Students use the first few sites they come across and don’t verify the information from additional sites.\u00a0 They should start learning this during elementary school so by the time they get to high school, it becomes second nature.\u00a0 The other part is being able to put this material into their own words.\u00a0 Everyone, including parents, believe that copying and pasting into a report is doing research, even after the concept of plagiarism is explained to them.<\/em><\/p> [about plagiarism and fair use]<\/p>\n Amazingly, I think students understand things a whole lot better than we teachers often give them credit. Students intimately understand the desire to be given credit for what they produce. Starting from that recognition helps solve most problems from the start. I definitely address issues of fair-use, where appropriate and have spent a lot of time over the last few years invested in deepening my own understanding on this. There continues to be so much misinformation and misunderstanding on copyright issues.<\/em><\/p> Nearly all plagiarism issues that I have encountered are more learning experiences than efforts to get over on anyone. The incidents have more to do with subtle distinctions. The biggest issue I see is that there are too many tasks given to students that are invitations to plagiarize. I try really hard to create tasks and assignments that require more of them, synthesizing something new. Approaching things in that way preemptively addresses a lot of copyright and plagiarism issues.<\/em><\/p> We talk about this as we design projects together; we keep track of sources; we give increasingly detailed credit as we learn how and why to recognize others’ contributions to our works. We talk about how much more likely we are to plagiarize when we don\u2019t understand what we’re reading, so we work hard to find texts that make sense to us and that we can paraphrase and credit.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n\n In focus group discussions, teachers disagreed as to whether most plagiarism and violations of fair use are conscious choices to misuse content based on willful disregard or laziness, or if these concepts are generally misunderstood by well-meaning students. Some AP and NWP teachers questioned their own understanding of these complicated and ever-changing concepts\u2014as well as the norms that stem from them\u2014and said they were not surprised to see middle and high school students struggle with them.<\/p>\n\n The AP and NWP teachers surveyed also note the value of digital tools in helping them detect and combat plagiarism by their students.\u00a0 This \u201cdigital monitoring\u201d can be done in many ways, the most common being requiring students to submit all assignments in digital form so that they can be easily checked for lifted passages using tools such as Turnitin.com.\u00a0 Survey data reveal that 71% of this group of AP and NWP teachers check student work for plagiarism using tools like Turnitin.com and\/or entering student text into search engines.<\/p>\n\n I give them essay prompts where they’re required to have at least three bibliographical entries.\u00a0 They then submit their work through turnitin to check for plagiarism.\u00a0 Since I have juniors and seniors, they come to me with whatever research skills they’ve acquired in their English classes.<\/em><\/p> Going online, typing in key words, and finding so many different sources makes research so much easier today.\u00a0 But sometimes I long for the days of going to the library and actually doing research by looking up information, reading, taking notes and then writing things in your own words.\u00a0 At least you know that the students did much of the work themselves.\u00a0 It is too easy to just cut and paste somebody’s work and call it your own.\u00a0 Even with great programs like turnitin which allows you to check authenticity, the concept of research today is not what it used to be.<\/em><\/p> Our English teachers have really led the charge on teaching good research habits (thank you to all English teachers!), I only need to echo what they’ve learned from their English teachers and remind them of academic honesty and turning in a product that is really their own.\u00a0 The English teachers have been wonderful about teaching students to distinguish reliable sources from those that are not, and knowing to use sites with .edu and .org as a starting point.\u00a0 Knowing that I will check their work for plagiarism and there will be severe consequences for the grade if there is plagiarism helps students take seriously the task of making a product that is original work.<\/em><\/p> My gut instinct tells me that resources like turnitin.com aren’t solutions, but band aids. Personally, I tend not to opt for the scare tactic…”if you plagiarize I’ll catch you!” Again, I’d rather have them research and write in smaller chunks more often about different subjects–teach the skill, make it manageable and recursive. As an 8th grade teacher I feel responsible for the skill \u2013 practice with the larger research project or paper can come later.<\/em><\/p> When I first started teaching at the middle school level, our media specialist came in and delivered an awesome lesson on fair use and plagiarism. Now, with budget cuts, that service is not provided. When I begin our research project in the spring, I take time to discuss with my students what plagiarism is and how I can find it within their papers. Fair use is addressed when the issue comes up in class. Our school doesn’t have the funding to use an online resource such as turnitin.com. I simply type in a few words of a student’s paper if I suspect plagiarism. Usually I can find if they have been plagiarizing.<\/em><\/p> It is kind of interesting, the only time I have had a real problem with plagiarism is when the student felt so short on time and feels completely under pressure to perform that they feel as though cheating is the only way. We do talk about fair use and plagiarism in my classroom, but I have found my students, the few who have done it, to be pretty poor plagiarizers. I usually recognize it pretty quick and can copy and paste it just into Google and it will pop up.<\/em><\/p> While technology is great and has given students access to much more information, I am concerned with the information overload students encounter. Too many sources available, too much information, and students need to learn better how to evaluate a source to determine whether or not it is valid and reliable. I also yearn for days when kids would use the good old periodical guides in the library. Kids are much more likely to download and print sources and then highlight passages instead of taking notes over sources. And yes, many merely cut and paste passages into their papers and try to pass it off as their own. Thankfully our school uses TurnItIn and this helps catch those plagiarizers pretty well.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asked to assess their students\u2019 current writing skills, these AP and NWP teachers give students modest ratings.\u00a0 Despite seeing many positive effects of today\u2019s digital tools on student writing, teachers rate the actual writing skills of their students as \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cfair\u201d in most cases, rather than \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cvery good.\u201d\u00a0 On each of nine 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<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\nA large majority of AP and NWP teachers surveyed devote class time to teaching about fair use, copyright, and citation<\/h4>\n\n
![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/E988C91E4F564EFF9CFC0AB5C201307A.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n![\"Figure\"](\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/48937B30BF2F4C12B3CFD5CB6390A209.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\nAP and NWP teachers discuss the issues of plagiarism and citation\u2026<\/h4>
Many AP and NWP teachers in the sample also use digital tools to combat plagiarism among their students<\/h4>\n\n
AP and NWP teachers discuss using digital tools to combat plagiarism\u2026<\/h4>