Guide for teachers

Why this material?

Create, imitate, copy, plagiarize has been conceived as an specially useful tool to the educational community at the moment of approaching the elaboration of any investigation or creation work.

Is a contrasted fact that for students that meet with a great difficulty with having to do an original investigation, it is very easy returning to the literal copying of fragments of the consulted sources.

The easyness of reproduction of the printed media has been also increased by the recent irruption of electronic documents that allow to copy, paste and print too easily.

Learning to make original investigation, to respectfully manage the sources and documents, to read and synthesize texts from different origins; then, to learn to be creative and rigorous is the reason that is at the origin of this document.

What does it contain?

Create, imitate, copy, plagiarize is, basically, a tool of learning. With its help, the students could make by themselves and with the teacher’s help, a process of investigation in wich they should use documents from different origins and media.

Step by step, the student will go into the investigation, learning to manage the consult information, to quotate the used sources, to make an analysis of the documents, to work out a preliminary script or a final report and, last, to publish his/her original work in esdelibro.es

Step 1: The contract

Objectives

To make the students to take consciousness of their way to act when making an investigation work, of their abilities and of their limitations.
To know the stages that have to be followed to do an investigation work.
To take consciousness of the importance of respecting the author’s rights all along the former process.

Activities

Do you investigate, or get out of the fix?
Step by step.
Is fair, is not fair.
The investigator’s contract.
The thermometer.

Think in ©

Each author is responsible of his/her own work.

Step 2: The subject

Objectives

To choose a good subject of research.
To make questions about the subjects.

Activities

Follow the trail!
The formula.
What do you use to do?

Think in ©

Value your ideas and try to take them as a starting point.

Step 3: The plan

Objectives

To clarify the characteristics and circumstances of the chosen work.
To reflect, from the former point, on the type of information that is needed.
To organize an individual or group work.

Activities

Think it well!
Make a plan.

Think in ©

When you make a plan, you should foresee how to collect the data from the documents respecting their author’s rights.

Step 4: The ideas

Objectives

To detect and organize the previous ideas and the doubts that are going to orientate the investigation.
To know how to find and adjust the key words according to the subject of investigation.
To learn to use the mental diagram technique to visually represent all the former.
To differentiate between general and specific concepts: to know how to go from general to particular and vice-versa.

Activities

Where are the keys of information?
Make a diagram.
Russian dolls.
Planets and moons.

Think in ©

Value your own ideas as something original.

Step 5: The sources

Objectives

To value the more adequated sources to find the required information in an investigation.
To know the libraries (of books and other media: newspaper libraries, video libraries) and their tools: classification systems, search in the catalogs, use of the signature to find the documents, interpretation of the bibliographic records.
To enhance the use of the Internet searching machines.
To collect data from the found documents.

Activities

The sources.
Go visiting a library.
Search and find.
What do you use to do?

Think in ©

Copy, photocopy, cut and paste respecting the author’s rights.

Step 6: The documents

Objectives

To discover the usefulness of the different documents and of their richest points of information.
To learn to explore, value and select the documents.
To foresee collecting the needed data to quotate the authors of the selected documents.

Activities

What do you use to do?
Explore the documents.
Select the documents.
Organize your bibliographic data.

Think in ©

Take note of the data of the documents that you consult in order to quotate them in your work.

Step 7: The information

Objectives

To use the reading strategies adequated to the proposed goals, and that allow to make a comprehensive reading.
To extract the information and data that answer to the objectives of the investigation though different techniques.
To take note of every used source of information in order to quotate them, so respecting the author’s rights to the intellectual property.
To compare different texts and to make syntesis in wich the meaning information will be included.
To distinguish between facts and opinions in a document.

Activities

Are you a critic reader?
To find answers to my questions.
To take note to quotate.
To compare between two texts.
To distinguish facts from opinions.

Think in ©

Quotate the authors when you reproduce fragments from their works.

Step 8: The script

Objectives

To contrast and organize de different informations and opinions collected to obtain a whole vision on the chosen subject.
To make the script of the work.

Activities

Complete your diagram.
Make the script.

Think in ©

Make the findings of your investigation yours, and give them a personal focus.

Step 9: Be original

Objectives

To learn to quotate the sources of information with the aim to respect in every moment the intellectual property of the autors.
To know the correct way to paraphrase a text without losing its original meaning.
To learn to make a bibliography.

Activities

To quotate.
To paraphrase.
The bibliography.

Think in ©

Think that copying, imitating or plagiarizing are different things.

Step 10: The report

Objectives

To teach to the students the different kinds of reports and their usefulness.
To connect the collected informations with other previous knowledges and wuith the personal experience to write an original text.
To write an investigation report in an orderly and coherent fashion, following the necessary steps for its elaboration (redaction of the draft and the final version).
To construct and express properly the ideas expressed in the writing.
To know the characteristics and strategies to make an oral exposition and a poster or wall painting.

Activities

Think how is your report going to be.
Make a rough draft.
Write your report.
Check that…
The oral exposition.
The poster or wall painting.

Think in ©

As a creator, you also have your rights.

Step 11: In the Internet

Objectives

To review every step of the work, checking that it is done respecting the right to intelectual property.
To publish the investigation in www.esdelibro.es.

Activities

Es de libro your investigation? (Does your work worth a book?)

Think in ©

Make others know your work and share your knowledge.