Okay or No Way? with 5th Grade

Commonsense Media has lots of great lessons for teaching kids about digital citizenship. As the 5th graders are working on a research project for Social Studies, Mrs. Manera asked me to cover citations with them. In addition to talking about formatting, we discussed WHY we need to give credit to our sources.

The kids worked in groups to discuss the scenarios in the "Okay or No Way?" lesson.  ​

Scenario #1: David had basketball practice last night and didn’t have time to do his homework. Justin offers to let him copy his, and sends it to David in an email. OK or No Way?

Responses - NO WAY: It's cheating; He is copying someone else's paper; He is copying someone else's hard work

Scenario #2: Manny has to write a paragraph about water resources for science. He finds a paragraph on a website that is just right. Manny copies it in his own handwriting. OK or No Way?

Responses - NO WAY: He is copying a web site and gave no credit; He doesn't have permission from the person who put it up, and he is not putting effort into it; That is plagiarism, and plagiarism is illegal; It is called copying and you get credit for someone else's writing

Scenario #3: Samantha copies a webpage into her book report and adds her own first sentence. OK or No Way?

Responses - NO WAY: Even though she adds her first sentence, there is still plagiarized content in the writing piece; She copied someone else's work and did not change any words; The page that she copied is still the same

Scenario #4: Ming spends a lot of time searching the Web. She finds a great drawing on a site. She prints it for the cover of her social studies report and gives credit to the illustrator in her report. OK or No Way?

Responses - OK: She gave credit to the actual illustrator​; She said that she didn't do the illustration; She is copying but she gives credit to the person who made it