My Capstone Project

   I am an English Major, eventually I want to go into teaching. My Capstone project deals with the way plagiarism is taught in schools. Since second grade english, every teacher that I have had has spent more than the necessary amount of time explaining plagersim and how we can avoid it; after 3 years of the same lesson, even the student who sleeps through class knows what it is, and after 10 years of the same lesson, that same student could probably recite verbatim what the teacher is going to say. I have proposed that every 5th grade teacher spend a predetermined amount of time (3-4 weeks) per school year teaching his/her students the Do's and Don't's of plagiarism. My topic has been approved by the Capstone committee.
     My final product, what I would actually present to the judges, is a Teacher's Guide to Plagiarism. This Teacher's Guide will lead the teacher, class by class, in what activities they will do with the students during the predetermined time. Lesson plans will be provided in the guide, as well as projects and other productive ideas.
     What I hope is that eventually middle and high school teachers will not have to spend so much time talking about plagiarism because their students have already been instructed upon the subject, this will allow more time in the class room for greater instruction.