English-Language Arts assignments are not just for the purpose of a student showing their knowledge; they also encourage critical thinking, effective communication, and provide the opportunity to be creative. As a participant in Well-Read Fred Learning classes, we expect all student work to be original, sharpening the skills mentioned above. We learn best from our mistakes in life and we certainly believe students learn best when they attempt writing assignments on their own...even if riddled with mistakes.
Plagiarism Policy
The bottom line of plagiarism is that it's passing someone else's work, thoughts, ideas, or words off as one's own. Not only does plagiarism violate copyright laws, it robs a student of the process of learning. WRF recognizes (and teaches how to avoid) accidental plagiarism that can occur, but if a student is found to be repeatedly turning in plagiarized work after a warning, WRF will take the following steps:
Contact both parent and charter teacher to inform them of the repeated attempts by the student to turn in someone else's work; allow the charter school's plagiarism policy to take effect
Provide a zero for the assignment with no possibility of resubmission
If the plagiarism continues to occur despite a warning given, the student is at risk of being removed from the class
AI policy
AI is the new frontier of the internet but like plagiarism, it is borrowing the work of another. While AI isn't blatant plagiarism, because of how it works AI can easily incorporate accidental plagiarism into a piece that it has written. AI can be a tool used for research, but it must be properly cited and check for potential plagiarism. For these reasons and the ones listed above, we do not accept assignments completed by AI. Again, this circumvents the learning process and defies our expectation of original work. Should a student be found turning in work that is AI generated and replacing their own original thoughts, WRF will take the following steps:
Provide instruction and a warning to the student on AI-generated content
Should it continue, a parent will be contacted
Repeated offenses will require the charter school teacher to be notified
Well-Read Fred uses both plagiarism and AI-content checkers on key assignments.