Any Great Ideas on "Cheating" for High School Age Students

I taught high school and college English for nearly 30 years. Each year right before our first big paper, I had the students read an article on plagiarism, and we had a big panel discussion. I made sure it contained information about getting kicked out of college, losing academic scholarships, and losing one's self respect. I also told them about the software college and high school teachers were routinely given that could pick up on plagiarism and tell the exact source if a few lines were typed in.

FYI: I had one G/T senior girl who "used" info from six different papers off the internet. I started typing in sentences and the computer told me from where every line had been stolen. It was lucky she only did it in high school and only failed the composition. Since that event, every year we had a great discussion about the cost of a college education and what it would mean to lose a scholarship to the students and their parents.

I also told them that no matter how well they write, they will not sound like a Harvard PhD. so don't even think about stealing from an educated source.

Make sure your students know the camera phones have made it necessary for teachers to mark one "gimme" answer wrong on the key for computer graded answer sheets. It's obvious when a large number of students miss that one because they obviously copied or were sent the answers by phone.

Another good point is that if students cheat their way through high school, they will not be able to pass the college entrance tests. I've had students who never made a "B" on a report card, and could not score high enough on the SAT or the ACT to get into a party school in Texas.

It's a huge problem and the camera phones have made it worse than ever. It's almost become acceptable to the students. If they don't get caught, then it's okay. Also teachers are the best source for recommendation letters for college. If a teacher hears of a cheating incident, it has to color her opinion for writing a rec. letter for that student.

Once students hit high school, they are capable of making bad choices that could change the courses of their lives.

Think before you act.
Hard work pays off.
Cheaters never win.
Winners never cheat.
Self-respect rules!

My nephew told me about something that they did in his High School. He said his teacher set up a "fake" doctor's office. She had someone pretend that they were the doctor and then she acted like the patient. She told the doctor the symptoms she was having and told him to tell her what was wrong. Obviously he didn't know. She then had another student come up and she had a doll on a table. She told the student to pretend that the doll was a person and to do some surgery and pull out one of its kidneys. Obviously again, the student didn't have a clue how to do it. She then asked us if we were sick and went to the doctor, or if we were going into surgery, if we would want someone who cheated their way through medical school working on us. The teacher then explained that not everyone was going to be a doctor, but that life is full of situations where the students will have to remember and use what they learned. How scary and hard life would be if you tried to cheat your way through it. How scary would it be to have a surgeon who truly had no idea how to do surgery! Anyway, I think my nephew and his classmates thought twice about cheating!

Maybe take a few sentences from each of your students paper and compose a single paper. See if anyone recongizes their work...and how did they feel having someone else claim their work?
On a personal note, I just want to thank you for your hard work and dedication to your students...teachers are our nations most under appreciated resource!!!

kerru

hey why not have the children write a short story about the same subject take the papers home take something from each of their papers and the next day tell them that you wrote about the same subject and you're going to read it to them. see how they feel about you claiming their work as yours!!!

Hi A.....If you are in the Houston area, you might find it worthwhile to contact someone on the Rice University Honor Council. This is a group of students who are elected to uphold the honor code at Rice. It would be great if you could get one of the students to come by and give a talk to your students about the importance of learning early the consequences of cheating/plagiarism in an academic setting. These are great kids, and I think they would peak the interest of your class. You can contact the Honor Council at 713 348- 2426 (probably get a recording), or at 713 ###-###-#### which would be Dr. Ostdiek's office..He is the Dean of Student Judicial Programs, and can be helpful. Good Luck! H. K

ask 'is there a difference' in cheating/plagiarism? What is it? Why....reasons for doing either (not preparing, fear of failure,laziness,looking smart / creative) Let them come up w/ some reasons why 'you cheat'. Plagarism.......what if Shakespeare or great writers did that? Cheating..what if your doctor/dentist/teacher cheated? Will you cheat in other ways down the road? How would they feel if their work was copied by someone and passed off as their own? What if someone cheated and it kept them from getting a college scholarship, or a job, etc It's sure time for them to think about things as they go out into the world...

Maybe a story from real life- about someone who failed or was expelled from college, or journalist losing their job due to making up stories, or someone being sued for copying lyrics or prose.

Search plagiarism on youtube.com There are some great videos about it. Using a media that they frequent would resinate well with them and show that people from their generation care about this issue. Maybe have them make a skit of their own to presnt in class using these videos as "insperation" See how many of them understand the difference, or if the plagiariz the videos themselves.

Hi A. - love your name!

I would consider actually asking them - the kids, where they have seen problems, personally or with friends on cheating or plagarism (spelling?). It will keep it on their level, their thinking, etc... Just a thought.

A. N.

The Aggie code of Honor is - Aggies do not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do.

Maybe talk about how Aggie college students take this pretty seriously! High school kids probably look up to college kids and will hopefully be impressed that college kids don't think it is cool to cheat.

Hi A.,
I am a teacher, as well and I have had to try hard to "reach" my students about plagerism and cheating on numerous occasions! One trick that has worked before was to explain to them that at their age, their word is all that they truly own and if they lose that, many people will misturst and doubt them. It sounds harsh but really most teens do not make enough money to support themselves, even if they work, so they only own a handful of things they can legimately call their own. I also remind them that in a college and/or work environment, cheating and plagerism can get you expelled and fired! It might be funny to cheat on a test now, but in the long run, they will be the ones who pay because they will lack the knowledge and confidence that comes with learning and knowing the correct answers. If you have a fairly honest crowd, you can also talk about their conscience and how it knaws at you when you know that you have done something dishonest! This has worked well in some cases, too! I hope these hints help!

Cris Tovani's book called I Read It But I Don't Get It has a chapter where she talks about "faking" reading. She talks about how she faked book reports as a student because she was a poor reader. (She could read the words but not comprehend what she was reading.) This opened a lot of good discussion with her students and would probably do the same for yours. The book is written for/about adolescent readers.

Make it personal to them. A situation they can identify with.
Not sure if this is the right situation but here is an example:
What if you were shopping with a friend. You had your mind set on buying a particular purse. You were saving all your baby sitting money to buy the purse. You told your friend. When you got to school on Monday, your friend showed up with that very same purse. Your idea stolen right out from under you. Imitation is a form of flattery but now you probably wont get the purse. And for the guys. Perhaps it is his idea of asking out a particular girl and his friend asks her out instead. Like I said these may not be the exact. Perhaps give them all a small writing assignment to turn in and then return a graded one that was not theirs (switch it up)and they are stuck with the grade on the paper. For some it will be a better grade others a bad grade. But they have to stand up in the classroom. Read the assignment and then share their grade. (so that the real author can see what their grade was.)

I am almost positive there was a movie about this situation! Either in the late 80's early 90's.

Good Luck!

I think that what Jennifer J said was perfect.
I just wanted to add Roger Clemens to the mix. Since he has not been a "proven" cheater, there may be some good debating material there.
Margaret

Seems like i remember a couple of people of "authors" who wrote books not that long ago that got in trouble for plagiarism. I think even Oprah was very embarrassed by it - b/c she had had one of them on her show and recommended their book. I don't recall their names - maybe you can google it or something. Anyhow, I think the Today Show did a story on it, and I think even Oprah had the person back on after they were caught. May want to find the news shows / talk shows and show them to your class on DVD to show that it is a really big deal.

Here's a lesson I found on introducing the idea of plagiarism. It's for upper elementary, but I'm sure you can adapt it to your needs.

It calls for the students to freewrite on a topic of interest, and the teacher praising or publishing one students work but giving credit to a different student. The teacher follows up with a discussion and activity.

http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/lesson_plans/45_08.asp

A., I'm not certain if you would consider this a "Wow" idea; but, could you possibly find someone that has gone through some amount of school, but, is unable to read, or get into college or whatever ? If this person could be found, and would be willing to participate and speak to your classes, that could be a big eye opener perhaps for your students.

Good luck and best wishes.

I like the ideas you've gotten so far. I'd also include a bit about that movie "21" where the professor has a group of kids learn to count cards in Vegas. A discussion on whether counting cards is "cheating" or not would be good! Also, it brings up a good discussion of the "end justifying the means" as this kid was supposedly doing it for tuition money.

Years ago there was a Volkswagen ad where the bug was driven off a pier into the water. The voiceover said something like this, "The Volkswagen will definitely float but it won't float indefinitely." I have based a "cheating" lesson on this with upper class kids in public high school. I talked to them about the fact that they will definitely "float" by cheating but that you can't "float" indefinitely. Sooner or later you will realize that all you get to take into college, or into life work, with you is everything you can pack between your ears. If they only knew how desperately they will be needing the info they're cheating through, I've always thought it would make a difference. Unfortunately, sometimes there is none so blind as s/he who WILL not see. It's hard to get kids to live outside the here and now. Best of luch on your lesson.

M.

Just make the topic relevant to the issues of today. Like for example presidential candidate Obama was accused of using parts of someone elses speeches. His response was "They borrow from each other from time to time". Make copies of the artical that hit all the news stands and start a open discusion.Have them read the artical and ask them if it is ethical.It doesn't really matter what the answer is but you can intruduce the rules of plagiarism. Then explain the rules of plagerism.

I would think that any form of cheating would work. Look at the atheletes that have "cheated" to get to the top only to have it taken away when they were found out. Maybe do a google search on famous plagarists (sp.) I am glad you are doing a unit on this. Good luck and thank you for being a teacher.

The New York Governor was recently caught in a scandal about
using a "Call Girl" service! All your kids are familiar with
this, if not, they never watch the news! It wasn't the fact
that he was using the service, it was the fact that he was
"Cheating" on his wife!!
If you the student, use the answers to a test that your
friend wrote on his/her test, then you are cheating! It is
important that you "Think" for yourself! You may not get caught because you used your friends answers, but, you have
cheated YOURSELF, You failed to use your own intelligence!
When an Author of a book, article or speech uses someone else's words and does so with out giving credit to the person that first wrote it or spoke it without permission that is Plagiarizm and if caught they can be sued!
Sorry, maybe not as dramatic as you had hoped for!!

Personally, the lesson isn't about cheating or plagarism, it is about "INTEGRITY" (make them look up the definition! Make it based on that. Also have them each write a short 200 word essay. Then have them switch essays, limiting the changes to less than 100 of the words. Once that is complete have them read the stories and see how the person who wrote the original feels about the changes made to their short story. This will give them an idea of the effects that plagarism has, not just the intergral portion of it.

If you have computer excess in your classroom, google the word plagerism. Then talk about the word. Whatever topic you are currently working on, google word and maybe do a google for research papers to demonstrate how an instructor can find plagerism.

Cheating? Tell your students you have cameras installed in various parts of the classroom. You will view them at the end of the day and if anyone is caught cheating, they will have to stand in front of the classroom with their nose in a circle for the entire class period. The humiliation alone should do the work.

That is a difficult one. Maybe introduce what is happening with the olympic medalists. That is major cheating and the lying that goes with it. I know that is not the same as plagiarism, but it does have some major consequences. Show the results of such cheating and possibly compare to results of plagiarism. Just a thought. Great subject and Good Luck!

Kimberly L.

A.,
Hi!..hope this idea helps:

Write a very small paragraph on the board. Tell the students that they need to write one also OR let them know they can use yours as an example (stress it however so they will copy it instead of writing there own..but don't just come out and say "copy it") Have them hand it in...explain that it is for a future asignment. The one's that copied put a big red zero (0) on the paper and then hand it back. The one's who wrote there own get a 100. Don't really take the grade but it might just "wake-them-up" about cheating using other folks' work.

hope this works....and good luck!
-D.

Just a suggestion.....how about the recent news regarding the Food Network Star (Robert Irvine-Dinner Impossible), lying on his resume (form of cheating) and all the negative and very public things that have come from his actions.

Also, the baseball stars (Bonds, Clemens, etc.) cheating by taking illegal meds to play better.