When reading the article about cheating, I began to get a little worried about what I would be eventually facing. I hadn't really thought about whether or not I would use tests, and if I did, what type of tests I would create. I feel that for the classes I want to teach (creative writing, literature, etc.) tests do not serve as the only means of assessing student understanding, knowledge and improvement. I believe that discussions and portfolios are better tools for assessment.
However, if I did implement tests in my classroom, how would I handle cheating? I never really thought about this before, since I never cheated in school myself. Until Sessums mentioned it in his eblog, I didn't even believe that my students would cheat! I guess that is because I tend to believe the best in people. That being said, I have a lot of thinking to do about my reactions to cheating in my classroom...
Secondly, after reading two articles on twitter, I have come to the depressing realization that I will be expected to tweet in this class. I have used twitter before, but mostly as a source to organize my news sources into one page. Instead of receiving various newspapers in the morning, I could sign on to twitter and click on the headings I was interested in reading. That being said, I did not use twitter as a source of informing the world of my whereabouts (in 140 characters, no less!). I also do not know how I will use it in the classroom. If anyone has any ideas about how twitter could be used in the classroom, let me know!
Molly, I definitely share your apprehensions about dealing with cheating in our classrooms. As a fellow English person, I know plagiarism is something I will inevitable have to deal with down the road. All my life I have been instilled with the belief that plagiarism is the most serious of academic crimes, and I sincerely believe it is up there. I've never done it, or had the experience of seeing someone else punished for it, but just about every teacher I've had has told me they've dealt with it, and it's never pretty.
ReplyDeleteI hope that when the time comes for me to address such academic dishonesty, I will be able to maintain the type of perspective needed to help my student learn not only THAT what they did was wrong, but WHY.
Academic dishonesty is such a big issue! There are so many different levels of it, too. There are the students who will be so bold as to buy a paper off of the internet, but there are others who might plagiarize in a paper without knowing they did anything wrong. It gets tricky, that's for sure. I think it's important that we educate students about these issues and really talk about their moral implications. Students cheat for different reasons--some feel they have to in order to get a good grade, others are just lazy.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you about Twitter. It's something I've never been able to get in to. I hope we get some good ideas about how to use it constructively!
I'd like to second Jen on the hope of learning how to use Twitter in a meaningful way. I think that part of developing an idea of the uses of such a tool is to actually use it. It's going to take practice and experimentation, but if we can learn enough about its potential, we can discover how to use it effectively. Also, we're all in this together: we are a collaborative community and we can share and learn together. Take heart!
ReplyDeleteLike you, Molly, I tend to presume the best about people - unless they prove themselves unworthy. I think if we're not too naive about it, this could be a big benefit for us. Kids appreciate adults who trust them.
ReplyDeleteAs for Tweeting, I always said "Never!" And now I'll be one of them too. How things change. We have to stay current! No choice.
Kids come up with the most creative ways of cheating. I remember in grade school, one of my friends proposed the idea of a coughing system for cheating on a test. One cough was A, two coughs meant B, and so on. I said no, but the creativity of it all.
ReplyDeleteBut my thought on cheating: if the students put that effort towards actually studying or attempting to learn the material, they wouldn't have to worry about getting caught. That's just me thinking out loud.
Anyways, I don't know how I'd handle cheating. It's a tough situation to handle. If you simply fail kids for cheating, they wouldn't get the lesson. For even if you tell the students that or raise the stakes (suspension, expulsion), you're still going to get students who cheat. I really think its a no win situation.