We are working on informative writing using text evidence. Reminder: I teach second grade. We read a story about penguins and were going to write what we learned about penguins.
My class is known for copying text exactly from the text. Word for word. I told them about Plagiarism and that is was illegal. I told them that you can’t copy someone else’s work and say that it is your own.
“Why is that illegal??” Second grader
“Because you are taking someone else’s writing and saying you wrote them. It’s stealing their work that they worked so hard on!” Me
“But why is that bad?” Second grader
“Imagine if I took a Taylor Swift song and sang it. I told everyone I wrote it and sold it. I made lots of money off of it. I would be stealing Taylor Swift’s song and selling it.” Me
“Yeah but Taylor Swift is actually important…” Second grader
Apparently we need a lesson on why authors are important.
Sometimes my life lessons fail miserably and go right over their heads.
Confessions of a Real Teacher 
Wow! Don’t you love it when something seems so simple and clear to you, and they just don’t get it?
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Hysterical! Some days the kids just make us smile even when they don’t mean to.
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Oh, those second grade perspectives! Gotta love how they keep us on our toes! ❤️ I’m having this same conversation with my kiddos next week. 😬
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Got a chuckle from your students reply. Even with my gr. 3 students, some just never seemed to see the issue with copying someone else’s work. Fun post!
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Dang. Last year all I had to say was it was illegal and my students to me seriously. Good luck with this one.
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They know they can’t go to jail cause they’re too little. I think that’s why they don’t care.
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