While this might seem like no big deal to some people, I had a situation in my classroom yesterday that really frustrated me. The students and I had a serious disagreement on what constitutes cheating. First, let me describe what happened.
The assignment yesterday was for the students to write down the vocabulary terms for our new unit while they waited to be called up for a small conference with me. The grading cycle ends next week and I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss with each student where they were at and fix any concerns.
I noticed one young man sitting at his desk doing nothing; in fact, every time I looked at him, he was doing nothing. I reminded him that they were getting a grade for the vocabulary-a simple participation grade. He replied saying, "don't worry, it's getting done." That didn't make much sense, so I was trying to figure out what he meant when another student helped me out. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it made me realize that he meant someone was doing the work for him. As I continued to investigate, I noticed the young lady in front of him had 2 notebooks on her desk. She was literally just doing the work for herself and for him. Come time find out, he offered her $1 to do it for him because he didn't feel like it.
Now we have our disagreement. I explained that turning in an assignment that you did not do is cheating. Their argument was that it was not cheating because she wanted to do it. Since it wasn't sneaky, it wasn't cheating. Even more, since it was just vocabulary it didn't matter. She was just "helping him," and he was paying her to do it.
I tried to explain in every way that I could think of that this behavior was not acceptable but they were adamant that I was just being silly and there is absolutely nothing wrong with her doing all of his assignment and then him turning it in for a grade as his own work. Forget that the purpose of writing it down is to help each person connect the new words with knowledge already in their brain and to get exposure to the words before we start using them in lessons. Forget that there was any educational purpose at all in having them write the vocabulary; let's just pretend I gave it to them merely as busy work so that I could do something else. Even then, doing someone else's work and letting them turn it in for credit is cheating.
Now I realize that we can all say it's no big deal. It is JUST vocabulary. SURELY, they understand that cheating is not okay, it just wasn't an important assignment. Whatever, whatever, whatever...
The truth is, it is just another glimpse into the minds of these young people. They really don't see any problem in behavior that lacks integrity. Lest you think I'm making a big deal out of nothing, try to extrapolate this logic. Where do they draw the line? Where does "helping someone" cross over to "cheating"?
The assignment yesterday was for the students to write down the vocabulary terms for our new unit while they waited to be called up for a small conference with me. The grading cycle ends next week and I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss with each student where they were at and fix any concerns.
I noticed one young man sitting at his desk doing nothing; in fact, every time I looked at him, he was doing nothing. I reminded him that they were getting a grade for the vocabulary-a simple participation grade. He replied saying, "don't worry, it's getting done." That didn't make much sense, so I was trying to figure out what he meant when another student helped me out. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it made me realize that he meant someone was doing the work for him. As I continued to investigate, I noticed the young lady in front of him had 2 notebooks on her desk. She was literally just doing the work for herself and for him. Come time find out, he offered her $1 to do it for him because he didn't feel like it.
Now we have our disagreement. I explained that turning in an assignment that you did not do is cheating. Their argument was that it was not cheating because she wanted to do it. Since it wasn't sneaky, it wasn't cheating. Even more, since it was just vocabulary it didn't matter. She was just "helping him," and he was paying her to do it.
I tried to explain in every way that I could think of that this behavior was not acceptable but they were adamant that I was just being silly and there is absolutely nothing wrong with her doing all of his assignment and then him turning it in for a grade as his own work. Forget that the purpose of writing it down is to help each person connect the new words with knowledge already in their brain and to get exposure to the words before we start using them in lessons. Forget that there was any educational purpose at all in having them write the vocabulary; let's just pretend I gave it to them merely as busy work so that I could do something else. Even then, doing someone else's work and letting them turn it in for credit is cheating.
Now I realize that we can all say it's no big deal. It is JUST vocabulary. SURELY, they understand that cheating is not okay, it just wasn't an important assignment. Whatever, whatever, whatever...
The truth is, it is just another glimpse into the minds of these young people. They really don't see any problem in behavior that lacks integrity. Lest you think I'm making a big deal out of nothing, try to extrapolate this logic. Where do they draw the line? Where does "helping someone" cross over to "cheating"?
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