625 Week #4 - Mid-Term, Academic Integrity; Plagiarism

​I liked the design of this assessment quite a bit.  Not only did it mandate expression of our mastery because it put us in Dorothy Heathcote’s “Mantle of the Expert” but it gave us an artifact that who knows, just might come in handy one day!  Once my colleagues and I complete this program, why wouldn’t our districts lean on us to share the wealth?  Why wouldn’t they ask us to do PD’s etc.  If I were a superintendent and I knew that several teachers within my district were in this program, I’d absolutely want them to share the wealth to all the others within the district who did not have the same opportunities as the teachers in question.  This assessment actually inspired me to experiment with an alternative assessment in my own class.  Instead of giving a quiz to check for understanding that students paid attention to the movie I showed in class “Beetlejuice,” I’m going to ask them to conceive and bring to life a “Cutting Room Floor Scene.”  That is, a scene that was cut from the final edit of the film.  I’m providing specific criteria that they have to plug in to 3 Google Slides.  In the first slide they must identify where their scene happens and how it fits into the flow as well as what part of dramatic structure their scene falls into (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) and they have to give accurate examples directly from the film.  In the second slide they have to describe the setting (time & place) and describe the things in that setting as they’ve witnessed them from the movie in a way that meets provided criteria.  The third slide they will produce simply has an active URL link to a Google document with a properly formatted (example provided) script of the edited out scene they’ve conceived.  I’m thinking I’ll have students put their slides into a collaborative slide deck as we do for Fallen Stars (like Sir Sean Connery) and present.  I’m thinking I’m also going to ask students to chime in and give feedback, based on criteria I provide, to at least 2 student’s Cutting Room Floor Scene.  In their critique they need to address at least 1 direct, accurate reference from the movie probably in a threaded conversation format.  I’m only asking for 1 this time because it’s the first we’re doing things this way.  This assessment will become available later when they take on their final which has everything to do with self-assessment and self-grading with SPECIFIC EVIDENCE OF LEARNING.  I had to do this when I was at NYU in one class, and it was a pivotal experience for me!  As for this assessment being “built in a fashion that supported academic integrity” I’m not so sure I agree that this assessment was cut and dry doing that.  I feel like I could have plagiarized the words of others pretty easily actually.  Since we had to write the bullet points for 5 slides, I could have pasted the words of others then changed a few words around, aligned formatting and probably would have been good to go.  I spent WAY more than 4 hours doing this midterm assignment and plagiarizing might have taken less time.  I’m good enough with academic language that I could have pulled that off had I wanted to.  Just being real.  I don’t think there is any way to always prevent all plagiarism all the time.  I just don’t think that is, for the most part, doable especially in the times we’re currently living and teaching in.  Though, I do think that the assessment strategy I’m testing out right now comes pretty close to doing that – I’m looking forward to facilitating that assessment!  As for do I have any suggestions or not, no, I don’t.  I think the activity and assessment we took on was a powerful experience and I liked it.  I think it’s as plagiarism proof as can be, but again, not sure assessments can be totally squeaky clean when it comes to academic integrity and plagiarism prevention, again, especially in the times we’re currently in.