OK, so I have an ethical question for anybody who's interested in responding...
I teach seventh grade-you know, the age when everybody is just starting to realize that limits are testable. So last week, in one of my lower-level classes, I caught a girl copying off another girl's homework. They were entirely traumatized by the whole get a zero/talk to the dean/phone call home process, and I'm sure they'll think before doing it again. I get that their reasoning was that they didn't really think it was wrong because it was homework definitions copied from the book, so why not copy from each other? Once they understood that it was an integrity issue, they were both mortified. So, one problem reasonably well-handled.
So here's the real issue: Today I'm grading journals the kids have made from a unit we've just done about the Galapagos Islands. As part of their assignment, they had to come up with several questions they originated during the unit. I'm grading my top honors class, and I come across the journal of a student whose questions were great, and I made a comment on her paper to that effect. A few minutes later, I came across her lab partner's paper, and she had most of the exact same "original" questions. Now, both of these girls are favorite students of mine because they are sweet, smart, and have always held very high standards of integrity for themselves. I think that maybe I didn't make myself clear about the questions, and if I asked them to redo them, they would with no problems be able to appropriately correct their work. However, I can't seem to get away from the idea that if I treat these girls differently than the other two, I'm being entirely unfair. What should I do?? I don't want to be ridiculous and make a fuss over a mistake, but I also don't want to unfairly show favoritism.
HELP!?! Please??
9 comments:
Even though it's going to kill you, you need to confront the students. Make sure you do it with them individually (they could try to gang up on you), or maybe even do it in the presence of another teacher (after fully explaining the situation to the teacher). Also make sure you alert the dean ASAP since these are Honors students, and you may get parental concerns before you even have the time to contact the parents.
These kind of situations are truly sticky, but if you're going to maintain YOUR integrity, you have to treat all students fairly. I remember when I had one of my favorites in tears because I stressed that she had disappointed me by taking advantage of me. Bless your heart...good luck with it!
I would ask them individually to tell you what their perception of the assignment was.
This is a tough one.
The two cases could be distinguishable from each other in the following way: In case A there seems little doubt that you made clear that this was a homework assignment and not a group project. In case B that assumption doesn't seem as clear. If the students were working on the journals in class and the two in question were lab partners perhaps they did think it was a collaborative assignment.
However, if you didn't have this problem with the rest of the journals that were turned into you (ie all the other lab partners turned in individual and original questions) then that would indicate to me that there's a real issue.
Perhaps your department head would be a good person to talk to. Which ever way you go with this you'll want to make sure that the dept head is in the loop (as well as in your corner) and so maybe you discuss it with him/her on Monday morning and hold off returning the journals right away.
I don't know if any of that advice helped. I'll ask D. what he would do if it were his kids, though his kids are much older and so I suspect I'll get the, "I would read them the riot act because they know better" speech. :)
As a former teacher - I would agree w. Libby's husband. I would read both sets the riot act because they should know better. I do agree that the 2nd situation was a LITTLE ambiguous - it's reasonable that a group project might result in a single set of answers. You are in a position to truly influence how these students feel about cheating, cutting corners, etc. I would definitely get a dept. head or similar involved in case you end up w/ angry parents, etc.
Tough week!
It looks like you've gotten some good advice here, Donna! I know you'll do the right thing.
Doesn't this kind of behavior just frustrate you to death though?! Remember, that the parents may be more of a problem than the students. I say this from experience with working with teens & their parents. Teens often do things that mirror their parents actions. But I'm sure you know that.
I know if I were the student and I was put through all the trauma for "cheating" when I didn't understand it wasn't a group project I would my lose respect for my teacher. I would become resentful of authority at a young age and I personally wouldn't believe in fairness anymore. Maybe ask them if they worked on the questions together and if they answer yes it most likely means they truly didn't know they weren't supposed to. And if they lie, well...
If I'm getting all the facts straight, you actually witnessed the first two girls cheating and did what was appropriate. In the case of the second two girls, you didn't personally witness anything, so asking them (individually so they don't feed off each other's story) to explain is fair.
Argh, sorry but I had to delete my comment above. Essentially what it said was:
I just asked D. about this. He suggested talking to the girls.
Have a great night! :)
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