Cheating Results
I decided to do more than just reprimand the cheaters in my class. I did this partly because I did some research on cheating, found that it is rampant, and that students are rarely punished severely. I decided to take a stand and make sure my students knew that I would not tolerate it. I'm not sure that this will modify their behavior significantly, though I hope it does. Whether they change or not, at least I can say they have had someone in their life model for them intolerance toward dishonesty. And they can't justify cheating by saying that nobody will ever catch them.
Out of 68 students who had the opportunity to cheat, 20 of them did. That is almost 30 percent, and is sickening. I suspect it would have been higher, except for the fact that some of the students in classes at the end of the day didn't have any friends from earlier classes. You might be surprised to know that many of the cheaters are some of my best students. In addition, the proportion of cheating males to females was 2 to 1, despite the fact that the ration of males to females in these three classes is about 3 to 4. So shame on the men.
For the first class, which had students who shared answers, I told them that if the other classes had done poorly, then they would have all received 100s on their quizzes. But since I knew that some of them had cheated by sharing answers/information with other classes, they now had a pop quiz to replace the other one. This was the best way I could handle a class in which I didn't know specifically who the cheaters were.
For the other three classes, I read a lecture I had written the night before. For at least two classes I told them that some of their professors would deliver lectures like this in college, and hopefully they wouldn't have many who did, but it was a formal method of delivery. Word of this lecture spread fast. I heard one cheating female in my last class of the day warning a boy who had not yet taken the quiz about the lecture they were going to get. I had given this lecture for the first time just two periods previous. In my talk, I laid into the cheaters like I had never done before. I read the lecture, and made eye contact with students throughout various parts. I didn't yell or do anything dramatic. It didn't take anything like that to communicate my message. After I got going, and students realized what this was about, the room was deathly silent.
For those of you who are curious to know just exactly what I said, here is the draft of the words I wrote up. I modified them slightly for clarity, or if I thought I was going to run out of time I skipped a couple of things (it would have been bad to be engaged in the most serious lecture of the year, and have the bell save them from hearing the rest of it!) I won't keep the words of my speech up for long, so read them now if you wish.
Out of 68 students who had the opportunity to cheat, 20 of them did. That is almost 30 percent, and is sickening. I suspect it would have been higher, except for the fact that some of the students in classes at the end of the day didn't have any friends from earlier classes. You might be surprised to know that many of the cheaters are some of my best students. In addition, the proportion of cheating males to females was 2 to 1, despite the fact that the ration of males to females in these three classes is about 3 to 4. So shame on the men.
For the first class, which had students who shared answers, I told them that if the other classes had done poorly, then they would have all received 100s on their quizzes. But since I knew that some of them had cheated by sharing answers/information with other classes, they now had a pop quiz to replace the other one. This was the best way I could handle a class in which I didn't know specifically who the cheaters were.
For the other three classes, I read a lecture I had written the night before. For at least two classes I told them that some of their professors would deliver lectures like this in college, and hopefully they wouldn't have many who did, but it was a formal method of delivery. Word of this lecture spread fast. I heard one cheating female in my last class of the day warning a boy who had not yet taken the quiz about the lecture they were going to get. I had given this lecture for the first time just two periods previous. In my talk, I laid into the cheaters like I had never done before. I read the lecture, and made eye contact with students throughout various parts. I didn't yell or do anything dramatic. It didn't take anything like that to communicate my message. After I got going, and students realized what this was about, the room was deathly silent.
For those of you who are curious to know just exactly what I said, here is the draft of the words I wrote up. I modified them slightly for clarity, or if I thought I was going to run out of time I skipped a couple of things (it would have been bad to be engaged in the most serious lecture of the year, and have the bell save them from hearing the rest of it!) I won't keep the words of my speech up for long, so read them now if you wish.
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 11:50 AM
7 Comments:
Well done! After reading your lecture, I think you got it exactly right.
Me too. I had absolutely no advice when you asked for it, so it's good to see how the Holy Spirit gave the wisdom you needed!
Hurray for you! Your students are lucky to have a teacher who really cares about them. Hopefully they'll be truly convicted.
I have to hand it to you, you are truly nefarious! That whole scheme was AWESOME! Is word getting around to other teachers at Central?
I hope you get a whole bunch of apology notes tomorrow when you go back to school!
that's cool. I understand the whole cheating thing to an extent... ahhh... they even do it when there's a sub and sometimes the work may be busy work, but they still cheat!
Thanks for taking a stand! That is great.
Nicely said C-man. I pray it helps some of them...
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