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November 3, 2009 |
| ...news | |
| News links are provided for informational purposes, do not imply endorsement by
the National Council of Teachers of English, and were live when this issue was
published; free registration or a paid subscription may be required for some news articles. |
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Conflict of Interest Arises
as Concern in Standards Push The Literacy Research Association sent a letter to the Common Core Standards producers expressing concern that some writers of the standards have strong connections to commercial entities that stand to profit from the materials and assessments that will be produced to complement the standards. NCTE members Kylene Beers and Kathleen Hichman are quoted. Education Week, November 2, 2009 |
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"Censorship" at
Chattooga High: Photos Too Hot for Yearbook? Students received their yearbook two months late with four pages cut out of it -- the new principal and the new yearbook advisor didn't like the photos of shirtless boys playing basketball. NCTE member Alan Perry is quoted. WRCB-tv.com, November 2, 2009 Quoth the Raven: "Baltimore" This year Baltimore's Halloween celebrations of Edgar Allan Poe included an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Morning Edition, NPR, October 30, 2009 An Alabama High School Makes Literacy a Schoolwide Job Literacy is part of every teacher's and student's curriculum at Buckhorn High School, a participant in the Alabama Reading Initiative. Education Week, October 30, 2009 Parents: Focus More on 21st Century Skills Parents, students, and schools all agree that learning technology skills in school is vital -- they just don't agree on how well schools are doing in this area, according to an analysis of Speak Up data. eSchool News, October 30, 2009 Many L.A. Students Not Moving Out of English Language Classes Nearly 30% of students placed in English language learning classes during their elementary years were still in those classes when they began high school. Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2009 Some States Drop Testing Bar A new study confirms that many states lowered their standards of proficiency in recent years, and nearly all state assessments fell below national test benchmarks. The Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2009 Study: 2 in 5 Teachers "Disheartened" with Profession The nationwide study found that 40 percent of teachers are disheartened, 37 percent are content, and only 23 percent of teachers are idealists. eSchool News, November 2, 2009 . . . Quick Picks "Colleges Axing Student Email Accounts": eCampus News, October 30, 2009 "'Platooning' Instruction": Harvard Education Letter, November/December 2009 "New Orleans Students Write, Act Out Their Own Katrina Odysseys": The Times-Picayune, October 27, 2009 The New Diagnostics Using the data collected by online course management systems, schools can tell with high accuracy which students will and which won't succeed in a course. Inside Higher Education, October 30, 2009 |
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We Can Learn If We Listen
to Our Students
As NCTE member Arnetha Ball notes
in "The
Thinkers: Teachers Offered a Lesson in Urban Vernacular" (Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, November 2, 2009), African American vernacular
should be seen "not as something wrong, but as a different
variety of language."
She adds that teachers who understand the patterns of African
American vernacular can better teach their students. |
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| ...blog | |
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What's the Best Plagiarism Detector? |
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| ...ideas | |
| Free
access to journal articles mentioned in this INBOX is provided for 21
days. After this free access period expires, articles are available to
journal subscribers only. Articles are intended for personal use only and
may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without
permission in writing from NCTE. Initials in annotations indicate academic
level of the resource (E=Elementary, M=Middle, S=Secondary, C=College,
TE=Teacher Education, G=General). |
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Exploring Plagiarism On Tuesday, November 10, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EST, NCTE will host Barry Gilmore's Web seminar Write from Wrong: Strategies for Addressing Student Plagiarism. During this session, participants will learn strategies that help students want to write original work, build research and note-taking skills that will help them avoid the need to plagiarize, and evaluate their own study habits and pressures to avoid bad decision making. For more resources for your classroom and students on plagiarism and copyright, see the following resources from NCTE and ReadWriteThink.org. The NCTE book Preventing Plagiarism: Tips and Techniques (S,C) by Laura Hennessey DeSena argues for creating assignments that emphasize students' original thinking through freewriting and the use of primary sources. In doing so, we can help build their confidence and critical thinking skills so that they are less likely to rely on online paper mills or to copy and paste from other sources. The ReadWriteThink.org lesson plan Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing (M) provides a background for students on copyright, fair use, plagiarism, and paraphrasing. Guidelines for copyright and fair use are discussed, as well as strategies for paraphrasing and the consequences of plagiarism. In the 21st century, it's important for students to look at the history of copyright law and generalize about how and why it has changed over time. In the ReadWriteThink.org lesson plan Copyright Law: From Digital Reprints to Downloads (M), students then apply this information to recent copyright issues, look at these issues from the perspective of a particular group, and create persuasive arguments to convince others to see the issue from their perspective. The English Journal article "Of Flattery and Thievery: Reconsidering Plagiarism in a Time of Virtual Information" (S) provides a framework for discussing plagiarism and calls on us to avoid overly simplified policies. After considering various perspectives on intent and the purposes of documentation, the author advocates developing standard definitions and guidelines for plagiarism in the department or the classroom. We should also offer professional development opportunities to help teachers transfer abstract concepts of plagiarism to classroom instruction, discussion, and assignments. The problems of plagiarism in a digital age continue to challenge the teacher-student relationship and may require more aggressive teaching strategies and student-teacher dialogue instead of more aggressive electronic detection and punishment, as discussed in the Teaching English in the Two Year College article "Another Look at Plagiarism in the Digital Age: Is It Time to Turn in My Badge?" (C).
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| ...announcements | |
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Write from Wrong: Strategies for Addressing Student Plagiarism
This contest offers cash awards and laptop
computers to the national finalists, and the top winner will take part in a VIP
Capitol ceremony that may include President Barack Obama. The underlying purpose
of the contest is to motivate high school students to take a serious look at
what it means to be black or white in America today, how this has and hasn't
changed since the days of the Civil Rights Movement, and what lessons we have
learned about how to further the quest for genuine racial equity. In addition to
NCTE, the contest is supported by the Congressional Black Caucus, the National
Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Council
for the Social Studies, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, among others.
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