There will be some teachers using Turnitin.com this semester as a teaching tool to help our students learn how to use research sources effectivley and avoid plagiarism.
Students will be submitting papers through the Turnitin.com website. Turnitin.com then produces an originality report that looks for material found on websites, in newspaper or magazine articles, or within papers that have been previously submitted to Turnitin.com. The students will be able to see this originality report as soon as they turn in the assignment. The student will then be able to see whether they have effectively paraphrased sources and used quotes where necessary. They will then be able to revise their paper if there are clear mistakes they have made in using sources.
Here is a link to an example of an originality report that was generated for an essay where I purposefully mixed original thoughts with sections copied from NY Times and Wall Street Journal articles. The plan is to prevent plagiarism and use this submission process as a teaching tool rather than try to catch plagiarism after it occurs.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Academic Council Response to Concerns About Exams
Below is a summary of the Academic Council response to questions/concerns presented by Planning and Support Committee of the Parent Council on semester exams. If you would like to read the full response or look at the data compiled on exams, you can find links to those two documents below the summary:
The concerns and suggestions about possible exam exemptions brought to the Academic Council from the Administrative Planning/Support Committee generated a lot of discussion prior to, as well as during, the September meeting. The easy assumption to make would be that the Council had predetermined answers and that none of the points brought to them were taken seriously. That was not the case.
The result of our discussions is that we will keep our current exam structure, while discussing the possibility for a second semester senior exam exemption at our next Academic Council meeting. This result is based on our commitment and responsibility to have all of our students prepared for the college or university they attend.
The Committee provided valuable information on end of course exams, tests, or projects given for some of the universities our graduates have attended as well as exemption policies of independent and public schools around us. In a first for the Council, Michael Arjona provided us data based on all 3,667 first semester exams taken by our current students and how those exams affected their end of semester grades. Although we have discussed this topic before, this was the first time the Council has had such information. The main findings are that exams tend to have a negative effect on semester grades, but the overall effect is very small. This small, negative effect holds true whether you look at the 100 point numerical grade scale or the 4 point GPA scale.
Based on these inquiries, we have a strong belief that our current exam structure, while not perfect, does not put our students at an academic disadvantage in the college application process and provides the needed experience for college courses, as well as AP exams while in high school, when they will be expected to pull together large amounts of material for one test.
1. Full list of concerns and Academic Council responses
2. Summary of the data collected on Semester Exams and their impact on Semester Grades.
The concerns and suggestions about possible exam exemptions brought to the Academic Council from the Administrative Planning/Support Committee generated a lot of discussion prior to, as well as during, the September meeting. The easy assumption to make would be that the Council had predetermined answers and that none of the points brought to them were taken seriously. That was not the case.
The result of our discussions is that we will keep our current exam structure, while discussing the possibility for a second semester senior exam exemption at our next Academic Council meeting. This result is based on our commitment and responsibility to have all of our students prepared for the college or university they attend.
The Committee provided valuable information on end of course exams, tests, or projects given for some of the universities our graduates have attended as well as exemption policies of independent and public schools around us. In a first for the Council, Michael Arjona provided us data based on all 3,667 first semester exams taken by our current students and how those exams affected their end of semester grades. Although we have discussed this topic before, this was the first time the Council has had such information. The main findings are that exams tend to have a negative effect on semester grades, but the overall effect is very small. This small, negative effect holds true whether you look at the 100 point numerical grade scale or the 4 point GPA scale.
Based on these inquiries, we have a strong belief that our current exam structure, while not perfect, does not put our students at an academic disadvantage in the college application process and provides the needed experience for college courses, as well as AP exams while in high school, when they will be expected to pull together large amounts of material for one test.
1. Full list of concerns and Academic Council responses
2. Summary of the data collected on Semester Exams and their impact on Semester Grades.
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