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> Own work or not?
Own work or not?
maayyaa
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Own work or not?
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Heya my fellow techers,
help me out on this one please. A while ago I created a worksheet that deals with reading comprehension. I took the text from an online article and acknowledged the author and the magazine the article came from. I also created a few pages of my own reading comprehension tasks so I believe the activity is my own work, but yesterday after writing a comment on somebody else �s WS that person came back at me saying that since I took the article from a magazine my work is not my own.
What do you think? Is it my work or not? And how to create reading comprehension without a text from a source?
Thanks!
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6 Mar 2009
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frenchfrog
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I am not a journalist or a writer. We are teachers and teachers work on primary sources.
It is true that mentioning the link may not be enough (indeed, writing the link does not mean you have the permission from the BBC, The Times, Time Magazine, etc.) but what else can we do??? You have created different activities around a primary source, there is nothing wrong with that or we are ALL in big trouble!! |
6 Mar 2009
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mena22
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Hi Mayyaaa! The text is not yours, no problem, because you �ve stated the source. The activities were created by you. That is your work! That is your own contribution! To me, there is no doubr about it!! Even the authors of textbooks take texts from the net, newspapers, magazines.... and that is no crime if you say where you took them from.
Have a nice day.
mena |
6 Mar 2009
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frenchfrog
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Yes, Mena but the difference is authors of textbooks did get the permission "officially" (there is usually a long list at the end of the books to give all the references in more detail). We didn �t / don �t!! If we start asking ourselves too many questions (although I think it is really good to ask ourselves these questions), we will not do anything!!! We are not supposed to watch movies and listen to songs in the classroom either... |
6 Mar 2009
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maayyaa
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Thanks for your quick answers!! I totally agree with what you�ve said and believe that using primary sources helps students to deal with the living and up to date language. And since we´re not making any profit (except for the educational one) I think we can still use the texts and as frenchfrog said - if we start thinking about it too much, we won´t be able to do anything.
Have a good day!
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6 Mar 2009
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frenchfrog
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I forgot another major difference: authors of textbooks earn money, we don �t! |
6 Mar 2009
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eng789
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And I thought only Israeli teachers get paid poorly. |
6 Mar 2009
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Naranjas
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I absolutely agree with you that it �s your work. You �re not payed extra for using additional material, are you? So you don �t make any profit from that. We can �t write authentical texts ourselves except for the natives who teach English. What are we supposed to do?- teach children Runglish, Indlish and so on?...
Don �t worry, some people can make a very stupid thing sound wise and true! |
6 Mar 2009
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Mar (itxasobcn)
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Naranjas
I love your comment!
Hugs to everybody!!!!!! |
6 Mar 2009
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romanaesl
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Pozdravljena,
I agree with all of you.
These worksheets are your work only used in classrooms - LIMITED use. I don �t see any problem!!!!
Best regards,
Romana |
6 Mar 2009
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libertybelle
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Maayaa - The worksheet is your own, but the article you took from the net is not. Copyright laws state, that the rightful owner is the author and no one else can take credit for it. But if you use it to base activities on, and credit the author, then no one will think you are taking credit for the text, only the activities, and that is fine.
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6 Mar 2009
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