Need help with a situation


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For those that may not know.....I am both an Athletic Trainer and a teacher. Currently I teach senior high school composition class. As the last big project before 1st semester finals, the students were asked to to write an argument paper that was 5-7 pages long. I have two students in my class that have yet to write a paper this semester that was worth more than a 'C'. They turned their papers in before winter vacation and I have been grading them over the break.

My problem comes in that the papers those students turned in were obviously not their work. These argument papers that were turned in were 'A' work. The writing style and word composition were completely different from the previous papers already turned in. I know that this was not their work but I can't prove it. All the sources that were used for the paper check out and every source used was properly citied in the paper.

After spending more than two days searching the internet using google and various other search engines (i.e proquest) I still can't find where they got the information from.

So, I am left with two options. One, that older siblings wrote these papers for them and they are taking credit for somelses work or two, that they bought these papers off the internet. Either way, I can't give them credit for work that was plainly not done by them. My hope is that by confronting them with this evidence, they will tell me the truth. I would rather give them an incomplete for this project and not have to report them for plagerism and flunk them for the semester as they are good kids.

Without getting anyone in trouble here, can anyone point me the direction of some sites that sell papers, but might also show some previews of them, as I might be able to get a better idea of how they obtained them?

Thanks,

Mike

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Or, you could schedule a 2 day in class writing exam that would average the grades of the work they turned in with the ones that they wrote in class

That would stop them cold in their tracks....

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Or, you could schedule a 2 day in class writing exam that would average the grades of the work they turned in with the ones that they wrote in class

That would stop them cold in their tracks....

Do that. And tape it for us to see. :D

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Or, you could schedule a 2 day in class writing exam that would average the grades of the work they turned in with the ones that they wrote in class

That would stop them cold in their tracks....

I had thought of doing something like that, but I didn't think that was fair to the students who had actually done their work on this paper and have received good grades.

Besides, this paper was an in class project for the most part. We spent the last three weeks of class before break in the computer labs typing this paper and teaching them what was/was not a good internet source to use.

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:rolleyes: You will never find exact text from term papers off the Internet, at least not without paying out money. Give the students a surprise test on the papers they turned in. Grade them on what they actually know :happy:

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Hmmm. Have yuo approached the principal about this? And / or conferred with other teachers?

I am not ready yet to take this to the dean of students (who at my HS handles student matters like this), but have talked with other teachers. I have even gone so far as to talk with those students other teachers from different departments and asked if they have noticed anything. They all agree that this work is not done by these students. I kind of am not sure what my next step will be as I am only a second year teacher and this is my first as a senior composition teacher.

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:rolleyes: You will never find exact text from term papers off the Internet, at least not without paying out money. Give the students a surprise test on the papers they turned in. Grade them on what they actually know :happy:

Thats what I was thinking. And with papers of this quality, the papers would have to be expensive.

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or, as you said, the work of siblings.

an inclass asssignment / test seems to be the best way to go.

I am leaning toward actually throwing out this paper and instead giving them an one-time in class writing assigment on the subject they choose for this argument paper and using that as the grade.

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It definitely wouldn't be fair on the other students to have an inclass exam.

I don't suppose you can just give them a C, or what they normally get for this paper?

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It definitely wouldn't be fair on the other students to have an inclass exam.

I don't suppose you can just give them a C, or what they normally get for this paper?

I realize that this would be not fair to the other students, but how can I objectively grade a paper that was done by someone else?

Besides, I still need to clear what ever plan I decide on with the head of the department.

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I look at it this way. if the other students wrote their own papers, then hopefully *some* of the knowledge that they wrote about filtered into their brains. I would test them - after all, the exercise, I am sure, was not just to make them aware of the different avenues out there, but to actually make a judgment call - and that would require making an informed decision based upon facts that they would have had to research.

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The other students should be able to match their paper mark on an exam assuming they wrote their own papers. The students who didn't won't be able to. I'd say that you should give them an exam.

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just give them an in-class test, and use this formula to determine their marks:

Mark=Max (paper, exam) if pass exam

else, Mark=Min (paper, exam)

or something along those lines

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The other students should be able to match their paper mark on an exam assuming they wrote their own papers. The students who didn't won't be able to. I'd say that you should give them an exam.

I am in agreement with you. Those that did the work will be able to at least put down some knowledge of what they learned and write something intelligent. The two that I know didn't do their work, will not be able to complete the in class exam.

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Now, that is not necessarily true either. I have a rather good memory, and if I were to turn in something like that I would at the very least make sure I was familiar with the subject matter.

Then again, the sort of person that would resort to such a trick in the first place is probably not going to be as smart as I am, so....moot point.

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If you want to make the in-class assignment fair, but you don't want to show suspicion, you could grade the students objectively.

For example, first question on the test should be to summarize the paper they wrote. The students who actually wrote their papers should be able to do this fine.

Another question could be to accurately choose one example from the paper from their memory, and choose how it would affect them, and so on.

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Now, that is not necessarily true either. I have a rather good memory, and if I were to turn in something like that I would at the very least make sure I was familiar with the subject matter.

Then again, the sort of person that would resort to such a trick in the first place is probably not going to be as smart as I am, so....moot point.

I don't think though that the two students really have looked at this before they turned it in. If they did, I would think they would be at least smart enough to change some paragraphs around to at least look somewhat like what they would have/have written.

I had another thought of not confronting them directly, but addressing the whole class without giving any specific details and letting the class decide what should be done.

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yea i agree that seems kinda fishy but someone tried to have my expelled from my school on the notion of cheating on a huge paper...they thought they had all the evidence against me to get me expelled, and then i proved myself innocent. they looked like arses but at least i still have my integrity in tact...just goes to show...against all odds maybe they tried really hard on this paper, more so than the rest...ive been known to actually do that once ina while.

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If you want to make the in-class assignment fair, but you don't want to show suspicion, you could grade the students objectively.

For example, first question on the test should be to summarize the paper they wrote. The students who actually wrote their papers should be able to do this fine.

Another question could be to accurately choose one example from the paper from their memory, and choose how it would affect them, and so on.

Your idea sounds about as fair as it can get. I have to let my department head know my decision by the start of school on Wednesday and I now think I have narrowed it down to either doing your idea or letting the class decide.

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yea i agree that seems kinda fishy but someone tried to have my expelled from my school on the notion of cheating on a huge paper...they thought they had all the evidence against me to get me expelled, and then i proved myself innocent. they looked like arses but at least i still have my integrity in tact...just goes to show...against all odds maybe they tried really hard on this paper, more so than the rest...ive been known to actually do that once ina while.

But what was the quality of your previous papers? Had your other work been as equally good, then I could understand why you could prove yourself right. But these students have consistantly throughout the semester turned in 'C' work at best and then suddenly submit a paper that is of 'A' quality.

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i say test them on the papers that they did, is the only way. if is not fair for the rest of them, then theres nothing you can really do. Test them all, and see how those two students do, obviously if they don't do well then they didn't really do the papers. I pretty sure the rest of the class won't object since for the rest of the class it should be pretty easy...

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i say test them on the papers that they did, is the only way.  if is not fair for the rest of them, then theres nothing you can really do.  Test them all, and see how those two students do, obviously if they don't do well then they didn't really do the papers.  I pretty sure the rest of the class won't object since for the rest of the class it should be pretty easy...

I am pretty sure that this is what I am going to do. I am looking at a two part test. The first part will be to summarize the paper that they have written. The second part will be to tell me how their position on the subject would affect them if it were to happen (say changing the legal driving age here in Illinois to 18).

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id be pretty careful about in class assessment, on the one hand they should know the stuff and should be able to rattle off loads and write a good essay but on the other hand im assuming that they had several days if not weeks to write this essay. The students could find stats, facts, sources and information about their chosen subject but when they have an in class essay randomly given to them they might not remember all the information or they may simply choke.

Its really unfair to everyone in the class to give them an in class assessment as it may help you determine whos cheating but it might also lead to major under performance from those who genuinely did well in the first place. Your best bet is to keep checking, perhaps typing up some clearly plagarised sentences from suspicious essays and let neowin help you out with your search. Failing that i would recommend that you compare the current essays with past essays and those who clearly have changed their writing style too much should just be giving a Fail or D, whatever suits you.

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