Title: Works Cited class

Team Members: Matthew McHugh

Grade: 8th Grade
Overall Goal: The objective of this unit is for students to be able to understand why and how to use
citations, as well as what plagiarism is and why it is bad. This is important because, as history students,
citations are a part of their everyday class work, and because of that, need to have a firm grounding in
their ability to perform tasks such as proper citations.

Standards Learning Objective Assessment

6-8.IC.1 Exhibit legal and
ethical behaviors when using
technology and information
and discuss the
consequences of misuse.
Students will be able to determine what Students will be
Plagiarism is and how to correctly cite assessed based on
items when needed. their ability to provide
correct citations in the
assignments given.

Key Terms & Definitions:

● Intellectual Property: anything that someone has made on their own and claims as theirs.
● Plagiarism: taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as your own.
● Citation: a quotation from a book, paper, or author, especially in a school work that gives the
author credit for the part that you are using.
● Reference: use for the purpose of information
● Copyright: the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical,
or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video
● Paraphrasing: a restatement of text
● APA Format: most commonly used during citations of social sciences
● MLA Format: most common form of citation formatting

Lesson Introduction (Hook, Grabber):

We will begin the lesson by giving each student a piece of paper and tell them to write a sentence on it. I
will then tell the students to switch papers with their peers. Once they have done this I will tell the
students to read the papers they have and to say that they wrote the sentence on it. After the first few have
gone, I will explain to them that what they have just done is plagiarize their friends. I will then talk a little
bit about plagiarism and why using correct citations is important, and will finish with how not to
plagiarise before we move on to the next task. Starting off with this activity is important because it gives
the students a base knowledge of what plagiarism is and helps them identify what plagiarism is.
Lesson Main:

Group activity- the students will get into groups of 3 and research online what citations are and how to
correctly use them. Once they have done this activity, they will discuss with other groups what they have
learned and why they think it is important.(8 minutes) http://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-citation
Youtube video- I will then show the class a short video about how and why you should cite things you
use from other people. At this point the teacher should as the class questions about citations and
plagiarism, forcing the students to critically engage with the information they are receiving.(7 Minutes)
https://youtu.be/CDGdqoCyAtw
Purdue OWL- We will then as a class explore the Purdue OWL website to see more ways on how to cite
things, and to give them a resource to use when writing their own papers. While here, the students should
also explore this website and familiarize themselves with it, as it will be very useful to them later on in
there studies.(10 minutes) https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
Board game- We will finish the class by playing the works cited board game, in which the students must
go around the board collecting different information about citations until they have all of the pieces, and
then to win they must correctly write a citation.(30 minutes) https://youtu.be/JEa4DPY2nFI

Lesson Ending:

This lesson will end with the students each writing a two paragraph paper about the attack on Pearl
Harbor, in which they will have to correctly use and cite a source from online.

Assessment Rubric:

Great Average Poor

Accurate Information All facts are reportedly Most facts are reported Accuracy of facts is in
accurately accurately question

Correct format of Citation is formatted Citation has one or two Citation has more than
citation in essay perfectly mistakes two mistakes

Correct use of citation Citation is used Citation is out of place There is no citation
in essay correctly in the paper where one is needed

Citation is written Works cited page is Works cited page has Works cited page has
correctly in works perfect three or less mistakes over three mistakes
cited page
 Citation is relevant to Citation is relevant to Citation is somewhat Citation is not relevant
the topic and fits in the topic and fits in the relevant and fits in the and does not fit in the
the essay well. essay perfectly essay somewhat well essay

Resources / Artifacts:

● Board game about citations- https://youtu.be/JEa4DPY2nFI

● Youtube video about Citations- https://youtu.be/CDGdqoCyAtw
● Purdue Owl- https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
● Plagiarism website- http://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-citation

Differentiation:

1. Differentiation for ability levels

When working with students that are at a higher learning level than normal, I will be able to move at a
quicker pace through the general information to get to the meat of the issue. Likewise, when working with
lower learning level students, more time may be given to the more general information before moving on
the the more complex issues.

2. Differentiation for demographics

Demographics are not an issue with this lesson, as citations are the same no matter what race, gender or
creed you are.

3. Differentiation for languages

When teaching to students who did not learn english as their first language, it is important to make sure
you slow the confusing parts down, as if it is confusing for english speakers, it will be that much more
confusing for those who do not know the language.

4. Differentiation for access & resources

If you are trying to do this lesson, but your school does not have access to individual computers for
students, or internet access, you will have to omit the youtube video, but make sure that you print off the
Purdue Owl and Plagiarism website pages and hand them out to the students so that they still receive the
information.

Anticipated Difficulties:
Students may want to work in groups larger than two to three, but when groups that are larger than three
are formed, there is always at least one student who does not receive the information as well as the other
students, so it is important for the groups to stay small.

Students may think that they do not need this information, so they become disengaged. It is important to
make sure the students know the seriousness of this lesson, so that they stay engaged in the information
being presented.