Welcome to the homepage for the English Department!
Meet the members of the English Department:
- Ms. Erin Giralico 7th; 8th
- Ms. Sarah Spindler 9R
- Ms. Amy Celento 8th; 9H; Literacy Lab
- Ms. Christy O'Meara 10H; 10R
- Ms. Katie Ruth 10R; 11R
- Mr. Chuck Zeitvogel 11H; 11R; Cinematic Literature; Contemporary Literature
- Ms. Victoria Holmes 11R; Hero's Journey
- Mr. James Shook 12AP; Creative Writing; Journalism; Humanities; Contemporary Literature; Cinematic Literature
English Department Policy on the use of Turnitin:
Aquinas Institute English Department policy for submitting major papers, written projects, and written exams for Regents, Honors, and AP
In an effort to encourage improved writing and researching skills, student originality, as well as pride in one's work, Aquinas Institute has integrated the Internet resource turnitin.com.
WHAT IS TURNITIN.COM?
Turnitin.com is an online resource that detects plagiarism within student writing.
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
Plagiarism is a piece of writing that has been copied in any way from another source and
is presented as being one's own work. Plagiarism can be avoided by paraphrasing, directly quoting a work, and/or citing the work from which the information was taken. All of these skills are an integral part of the English curriculum at Aquinas.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Students submit a paper, project, or exam to the website (This can be done from the location in which the paper was typed or by using any electronic storage media) The paper is then compared to the site's databases and scanned for plagiarism. Next, turnitin.com sends an Originality Report to the teacher. This is NOT the student's grade. This report simply allows teachers to quickly identify any areas that may be plagiarized. Teachers still use his or her discretion in grading the work.
WHAT WILL STUDENTS NEED IN ORDER TO PARTICIPTE?
1. An e-mail address that is easy for them to remember.
2. A password that is at least 6 characters long, including both letters and numbers.
3. Electronic storage media (ex. cd, or 3 ½ floppy disk)
4. Access to the Internet (at home, public library, or Aquinas)
HOW DO STUDENTS REGISTER?
During the first week of school, your child's English teacher will help students register to turnitin.com in the school library using their e-mail address, password, and class code (provided by the teacher). Students will be shown step-by-step how to submit a paper through this service. They will then submit practice papers to ensure that everyone understands the process.
HOW CAN PARENTS HELP?
1.Please familiarize yourself with the website (www.turnitin.com) and feel free to contact us with questions.
2. Encourage your child to submit papers in advance in order to avoid any problems with the Internet, disks, or printers.
3. Keep a back-up copy of your child's e-mail address and password.
EXPECTATIONS
1. All students must submit all major papers, written projects, and written exams through the web service turnitin.com before or on the given due date, regardless of whether or not the student is in school on the date the paper is due.
2. All students who are in school on the due date must submit all papers in hardcopy form to the teacher at the beginning of class on the due date.
3. All students who are legally absent from school on the due date must submit papers in hardcopy form to the main office no later than 3:00pm on the due date. The paper must be submitted to office personnel and not just left in the office. No papers may be left in teachers' mailboxes or given to a teacher to be turned in.
STUDENT SIGNATURE:
PARENT SIGNATURE:
The following caveat applies only to Freshmen:
Semester 1
While students are familiarizing themselves with submitting work to turnitin.com, a grace period will be allowed in turning in papers, projects, and exams. While the expectation is that work will be handed in to the teacher and turnitin.com on the assigned due date, late papers will be accepted with the penalty of 10 points deducted for each day the paper is late.
Semester 2
By this time students will have had adequate exposure to the site and will therefore be held to the Aquinas policy of late work resulting in a zero. NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN FOR WORK THAT DOES NOT COMPLY WITH ALL OF THE BELOW CONDITIONS.
Click to link to turnitin